When you undergo surgery, you put your trust in the hands of the surgeon and other medical professionals who will be completing the procedure. While every surgery carries some inherent risk, patients are often injured due to a physician’s error. If you or a loved one has suffered from a bowel perforation after surgery, it is important to reach out to a seasoned Baltimore medical malpractice attorney who can evaluate the facts of your case. We can seek answers as to what happened to you and help you determine your next steps.
A bowel or gastrointestinal perforation, also known as a ruptured bowel, is when the bowel is punctured in some way. The GI tract includes the bowel, intestines, and colon. A bowel perforation creates a leak in the gastrointestinal tract that spreads food, fecal matter, and other bacteria into the area, which can lead to serious infections such as peritonitis, a blood poisoning infection known as sepsis, internal bleeding, or even death. Physicians should carefully inspect the bowel before finishing surgery. In fact, it is critical to the patient’s well being that his or her doctor identify and treat any injury to the bowel in a timely manner before it gets any worse.
Medical procedures that may lead to bowel perforation include:
- Colonoscopy;
- Liposuction;
- Hysterectomy;
- Bladder repair surgery;
- Vaginal mesh; and
- Any surgery in the abdomen.
Perforation of the abdominal bowel is not automatically a sign of medical malpractice. These injuries can also be a result of other conditions that are unrelated to a physician or medical professional’s conduct. Instead, medical malpractice occurs when a medical professional causes an injury or death by failing to adhere to the standard of care that a reasonably prudent medical professional in the same specialty would have used in the same or a similar situation. In essence, the law asks whether or not the health care provider in question acted in a manner that would be accepted as the standard by their peers in the medical field.
If your attorney can establish medical malpractice, you may be able to recover economic and non-economic damages for your harm. Some examples of economic damages include compensation for medical bills, treatment, and lost income. Non-economic damages include losses that are harder to quantify, such as pain and suffering, disability, disfigurement, and more. In some cases, a victim of medical malpractice may require long-term care, in which case a plaintiff may also be able to recover the cost of future medical care.
If you or someone you love suffered a bowel perforation as a result of medical malpractice, you have rights. This is a painful condition that you should never have had to endure. At Arfaa Law Group, our skilled Baltimore medical malpractice attorneys understand the seriousness of such situations and will fight to pursue the compensation you deserve in your case. We are here to answer your questions and address your concerns. We proudly serve clients from all across Maryland. To discuss your case in more detail, call us at 410-889-1850 or contact us online.
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