Wrong-site surgery, which includes such errors as amputating the wrong leg, performing the wrong operation or removing a kidney from the wrong patient, was up to 93 in 2010, compared with 49 in 2004. Reporting to the Commission is voluntary however, and the Commission thinks that the estimate of 40 wrong-site surgeries a week is based on limited data and may in fact underestimate the extent of these medical errors. Reported cases were the tip of the iceberg, one director of surgery stated.

Studies of wrong-site errors have consistently revealed a failure by physicians to undertake, prior to surgery, standardized procedures and teamwork.

The issue of medical errors is receiving more attention in light of broader medical errors that, according to a recent Health Affairs study, affect one-third of hospital patients.

To read more about medical errors and your rights, please visit our Hospital Errors page. If you or a loved one has been injured as a result of a medical error, please click here to contact a medical malpractice attorney | lawyer at Lieff Cabraser or call us toll-free at 1-800-541-7358 and ask to speak to attorney Heather Foster.

The New York Times recently published an in-depth investigation on the excessive radiation of patients at medical facilities across America, including:

• In New Jersey, 36 cancer patients at a veterans hospital in East Orange were over radiated — and 20 more received substandard treatment — by a medical team that lacked experience in using a machine that generated high-powered beams of radiation.
• In Louisiana, a prostate cancer patient received twice the prescribed amount of radiation because he was treated with a new machine that the hospital made a miscalculation even with training instructors still on site.
• In Texas, a patient suffered severe radiation injuries after a medical physicist who said he was overworked failed to detect a mistake.
• In California, more than 300 patients in four hospitals — and possibly many more — were over radiated by powerful CT scans used to detect strokes. The overdoses were first discovered at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, a major Los Angeles hospital, where 260 patients received up to eight times as much radiation as intended.

These deadly errors often could have been avoided if the medical providers had followed basic safety protocols as well as ensured that their protocols provided sufficient patient safety.

Lieff Cabraser has successfully represented patients improperly exposed to radiation by medical providers.  If you or a loved one suffered a severe injury due to excessive radiation as a patient, we can assist you in holding the hospital or medical facility accountable.  Please click here to contact a Lieff Cabraser personal injury attorney.

With the malpractice cap set at $250,000, few attorneys will consider championing such cases, as the economics of the court system render such quests, however noble, as basically senseless and unavailing.

Read the full article on the SF Gate website.