Surgical Accidents

Medical Malpractice Law In Pennsylvania

When a medical malpractice case is grounded or based upon the idea that carelessness has resulted in injury to a patient there are many possible categories of concern.

First and foremost one must consider whether the operation was in fact indicated for the medical condition for which it was being offered. This may seem an impertinent question but there are numerous occasions where for a variety of reasons the surgery planned on a given patient was the wrong operation or where no operation was indicated at all. Sometimes an operation, usually for cancer, is based solely on the findings by a pathologist made after looking at a slide containing a patient's tissue. The pathologist is subject to error and can misinterpret characteristics seen in tissue on a microscopic slide. Such misinterpretations can have disastrous consequences.

A patient may, for example, have an operation for a cancer when they do not in fact suffer from cancer.

Any time a surgeon's decision to operate in a particular location is based upon in whole or in part the interpretation of another physician, errors can result in needless surgery, and therefore medical malpractice, being performed.

Another example of such a case is a situation where the decision to operate in a particular way or at a particular location is based on the findings of an imaging study like an x-ray or a CAT scan. If the CAT scan is misinterpreted it may form the basis for an operation which should not be performed or if performed should be performed in a different way or in a different location.

Of course, equally troubling is the situation where a pathologist, laboratory scientist, radiologist or other imager fails to find tissue or signs of a condition requiring surgery of a particular kind and in a particular location and because of misinterpretations the procedure is never done. (Cross reference: Cervical Cancer Misdiagnosis).

Next Topic: Technical Errors.