Medical Malpractice Settlement against St. Louis Surgeon & Hospital
By David Zevan
Nov. 1, 2013 12:49p
In a recent verdict, a Missouri surgeon and hospital were made to pay a compensation of $1,500,000 for causing death due to medical malpractice. The lawsuit was filed in 2011, when a St. Louis resident had died due to the negligence of a surgeon. The man had died during a surgery involving the removal of gall bladder.
The surgery is known as Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy, or Lap-choli in more simple terms. The procedure is fairly simple, but requires precision and skill. In this case, the surgeon lacked these qualities and caused wrongful death of the patient.
The litigation continued for 2 years, and the verdict was announced in August this year. The case was settled for $1,500,000 with help of medical malpractice attorneys. The surgeon and the hospital that had employed him were made to pay the compensation.
The gall bladder removal malpractice, or lap-choli malpractice cases occur because the surgeon chooses not be careful enough in the positive identification of the anatomy before he decides what to clip or chop off. That is apparently what happened in the case of this unfortunate St. Louis resident, who was being operated upon for gall bladder removal. The surgeon was not attentive and careful enough to identify the anatomy and ended up clipping wrong arteries and ducts. The events that ensued led to the death of the patient, but not before he painfully struggled with poor health for 4 months.
Medical malpractices attorneys assert that surgeons do not have the right to make guesses and take chances, unless there is an emergency and a calculated risk has to be taken. In cases such as lap-choli, there is no way that a surgeon can afford to indulge in guesswork or take risks.
If at any point during the surgery the doctor feels unsure or under confident, he must reassess and then take a call. Techniques such as chol-angiogram can help positive identification of the parts that need to be clipped. In such cases, surgeons should not think twice before seeking a second opinion.
St. Louis Medical Malpractice Lawyers
Such gall bladder surgery negligence cases are not uncommon, and are often a result of over confidence and laxity on the part of surgeons, and the case of this St. Louis resident is a classic example of this.
To speak with a St. Louis Medical Malpractice Lawyer, call the Zevan and Davidson Law Firm at (314) 588-7200.