The statistics for injuries and deaths due to some medical mistake are staggering and sobering. Almost 100,000 people die each year in hospitals in the US from preventable medical mistakes. Surgical errors can be the most serious form of medical mistake made, resulting in botched or faulty results or damage to any number of body parts.

Most surgical errors are known as "wrong site" operations, meaning that the operation took place on the wrong organ, limb, or other area of the body. Many surgical errors also occurred by having surgery on the wrong patient, and doing the wrong procedure on the correct body part.

Some surgical procedures may not be necessary at all, a study conducted in the late 1980s found that as many as 30% of controversial surgeries were not necessary. These surgeries included such procedures as Cesarean section, tonsillectomy, appendectomy, hysterectomy, and gastrectomy for obesity.

Other types of surgical errors occur during plastic, or cosmetic, surgeries such as breast implantation and reduction and some facial related surgeries. In these cases, the surgical mistakes may be not only physically threatening to the patient, but may produce far worse results than what the plastic surgery was meant to repair.

A 2003 Journal of American Medical Association study found that over 32,000 surgical-error related deaths occurred costing $9 billion and causing longer hospital-stay related insurance costs. Data from the study showed such surgical errors as postoperative infections that could have been stopped, foreign objects left in wounds and in the body, surgical wounds reopening, and post-operative bleeding and injury.

Another study noted that as much as 34% of all hospital stays were unnecessary. The longer a person was in a hospital, the longer they had to become the victims of surgical errors.

Cases for surgical errors are often very complicated and should only be handled by an experienced law team. Surgical errors can occur as far back as the pre-operative stage of the surgery, when a doctor examines the patient and determines that a surgery is the most appropriate course of action. During this period it is crucial for the doctor to thoroughly examine all aspects of the patient's problems and their medical history. Any minor-seeming detail about a patient's life can result in potentially disastrous surgical errors.

Other surgical errors occur without the patient even realizing it. An error can mean that the surgery does not provide the expected results, even if there is no injury to the patient.

In all surgeries there is some amount of risk. This risk should not be compounded, however, by negligent mistakes that could have been prevented. If you or someone you know suspects a surgical error to have occurred, your first step should be to contact our experienced surgical errors law firm for a free no-obligation consultation. Only with effective and aggressive legal representation can you be fully compensated for your surgical error ordeal.