Portland Surgical Mishaps Lawyer

We Handle Surgical
Error Cases in Portland and Throughout Oregon

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Surgery can be a stressful experience with many health risks and long recovery times. However, in some cases, surgery is necessary to repair medical issues and to reduce future symptoms and risks. In these cases, you want to select the most trusted hospital and surgeon to perform your procedure.

Even if you take all of the precautions needed to select a talented surgeon, there is unfortunately still the chance that a surgical error can occur. In some cases, surgeons can correct errors quickly and with few complications for you. In other cases, however, surgical errors can significantly worsen your condition after surgery, prolong your recovery time, cause complications or infections, require hospitalization or additional surgeries to correct, or can even be life-threatening.

At the Johnston Law Firm in Portland, we know how serious surgical mishaps can be. We can identify when victims of these dangerous surgical errors have the right to hold doctors liable for their injuries and suffering. If you have been the victim of a surgical error, please do not hesitate to call our office to discuss your rights as soon as possible.

Common Types
of Surgical Errors

Many different mishaps can happen during a surgical procedure. Unfortunately, the patient is normally unconscious and unable to notice errors or protest. Often, victims of surgical errors may not realize what happened for some time or, if the mishap was particularly serious, they may never wake up at all. For this reason, any type of surgical mishap can be frightening. The following are some examples of common surgical errors:

• Nicking an artery or blood vessel;
• Damaging a nerve;
• Making an incision in the wrong part of the body;

• Operating on the wrong side of the body;
• Performing the wrong procedure on the wrong patient;
• Using equipment that is not properly sterilized;
• Not checking the patient’s medical chart or history for possible risks;
• Not performing proper postoperative care;
• Leaving foreign objects such as a sponge or scalpel inside a patient’s body.

All of these errors have the potential to cause complications for patients requiring hospitalization and extensive medical care that would not otherwise have been necessary. In addition, if a patient must remain in the hospital, they will not be able to return to work or their other usual activities, which can result in lost income and loss of enjoyment of life.

Don’t miss out on these common personal injury mistakes.

Get the legal counsel you need to guide you through the process of filing an injury claim.

Elements of A
Personal Injury Lawsuit

Even if you were partly responsible for your accident and injuries, you may still be entitled to compensation through Oregon’s comparative negligence laws, which allow for the apportionment of damages based on the percentage for which a party is responsible for your injuries.

Under Chapter 31 of Oregon Revised Statutes, tort actions are those which seek financial compensation for injuries suffered as the result of someone’s reckless or negligent actions. As a tort action, elements of a personal injury lawsuit include the following:

• Claim for damages
  The legal paperwork filed by your attorney with the court on your behalf, naming the parties responsible for your injuries and the types of damages you are seeking.
• Mediation
  Negotiations before an impartial party with you, your attorney, and the at fault party during which an attempt will be made to settle or resolve your case.
• Settlement
  A financial amount agreed upon by all parties out of court to compensate you for your injuries and resolve your claim.
• Damages
  Under Oregon law, you may be entitled to economic damages, such as medical expenses and lost wages, as well as non-economic damages including mental anguish and pain and suffering.
• Judgment
  A verdict handed down by a judge awarding damages for your personal injury claim.