When we go in for surgery, we have no control over what happens to our body after anesthesia is administered. Basically, we entrust our lives to anesthesiologists, surgeons, doctors, and nurses, and expect them to handle our unconscious bodies properly. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case, as there is an increasing number of post-surgery complaints from patients suing hospitals and medical professionals for surgical positioning injuries.
“A surgical positioning injury? I have never heard about such a thing!” you may be thinking. Let our Philadelphia surgical positioning injury attorney from The Weitz Firm, LLC, explain. Before making incisions or cuts into the skin, members of the surgical team and other hospital staff are required to have the patient’s body in a position that provides the team of surgeons with a full range of the operative field.
As you can imagine, the specific position in which your body will remain on the surgery table depends on the type of surgery performed. In most cases, surgeons and other members of hospital staff are able to put their patients in a position that prevents injury, nerve or muscular damage or any other harm from laying down in the same position for many hours in a row. However, there are many cases in which improper positioning of the patient’s body or failure to properly protect the body during the surgery can result in an injury or damage.
Our experienced surgical positioning injury attorney Philadelphia explains that it is the surgeon’s duty to ensure that the patient’s body is positioned correctly to avoid injury or damage, even though nursing staff and assistants in the surgery room are often the ones who position the patient’s body before the procedure.
When it comes to placing the patient’s body in the correct position before, during, and after a surgery, all of the following conditions must be met:
More often than not, to ensure that all of the above-mentioned conditions are met, members of the hospital staff responsible for positioning patients on the surgery table will have to consider a variety of factors, including but not limited to the patient’s age, weight, height, duration of the surgery, physical limitations of the patient, if any, and prior medical conditions, injuries, or illnesses.
If you woke up after the surgery with a feeling that something is wrong (other than what you could reasonably expect or were warned about by the doctors), it may be because you suffered a surgical positioning injury. If that’s the case, you may be entitled to pursue a medical malpractice claim against the negligent surgeon and other members of hospital staff. Act now before it is too late, as your injury or damage could be getting worse by the day.
Contact The Weitz Firm, LLC, for a free case evaluation. Speak about your particular case by calling us.
We are highly selective in the cases we undertake to ensure that can give each client his full attention. You can schedule an appointment for a personal injury consultation at our Philadelphia office by calling us, or by filling out our online intake form.
