Surprising Way that a Surgeon Injured a New York Patient
When surgeons make mistakes, surgical errors can range from uncomfortable to life-threatening for the patient. Victims of negligence should not suffer with these complications alone and unaided. A Rossville woman who suffered a stomach infection after a surgery gone wrong recently received $212,500 in compensation as reported by Staten Island Live.
Compensation after a Surgical Error Led to Infection
The original surgery took place almost 12 years ago, according to SILive, when a woman, now 61, underwent surgery on her liver in December 2000. Two weeks later, she was in the hospital for a second surgery because of an intra-abdominal abscess. During surgery, doctors found a piece of gauze under connective tissue.
The woman asserts that she did not know about the gauze until she acquired and read the medical records years after the surgery in February 2009. Both surgeries were performed by the same surgeon at University Hospital on Ocean Breeze campus.
The case was settled out of court between the woman who underwent the surgeries, the surgeon who performed them, and University Hospital.
Statute of Limitations for Medical Malpractice in New York
The statute of limitations for a medical malpractice case in New York is 30 months from the date of the incident. However, those involving foreign objects left in the patient may be brought within a year of discovering the object – or when it should have been discovered. NY Code §214-a
The reports in this case did not mention why the victim did not discover that a piece of gauze was the reason for the abscess that led to the second surgery. If you are unsure of whether your case falls within the statute of limitations, your malpractice attorney may offer further guidance.
Contact a medical malpractice attorney at Gacovino, Lake & Associates for a free consultation about a case involving surgical errors or other possible negligence like wrongful death in New York. Call us at: 1-800-246-4878.
