I had an accidental injury at work table saw, my left hand got caught on the saw amputating my thumb completely, as well as more than half of my index finger, and about a quarter of my middle finger, my workplace called the ambulance and the ambulance took me to the hospital, one of my digits was taken to the hospital by the ambulance.
This hospital had me for a whole day without performing surgery, they finally said that there was no surgeon available until the next morning. It was about midday the next morning when I was given surgery. The surgery they performed was about 15 min according to the surgeon. I stayed in the hospital for one more day and then I was released and I was told that I needed to go back in about 2 weeks.
My hand was left with some of my wound exposed to the open which would have caused a major infection and the hospital left me with fluids leaking inappropriately. when an RN working with the workers comp was made aware of the situation, she was shocked with the hospitals and the surgeons performance. She immediately referred me to a hand specialist and my family immediately drove me over there and as soon as the surgeon saw the surgery that they had performed on me he was shocked as well.
He immediately performed surgery and he said because of the lost time from the accident until surgery, I would probably have loss of physical ability. He also told me that they basicly cleaned my hand and that the way that they left me I would of had a major infection being that he was going to make me wait with an open wound for about 2 weeks.
The surgeon also told me that if they would have done the surgery right away as they were supposed to, it would have saved me about 3 surgeries or more that I will now need. Additionally, I have now permanently lost physical ability in my hand.
My question is, is this a case of medical malpractice? Can I file a lawsuit against the first hospital?
Answer: (1)
The fact that you already have a statement from another doctor stating that, had the surgery been done correctly you may not have suffered the loss of physical ability shows that there is some level of medical negligence involved in your case.
You also have an element of permanent disability which may be sufficient to warrant filing a medical malpractice lawsuit. You should talk to a medical malpractice lawyer to find out exactly what you may be entitled to, and get legal advice regarding your options for pursuing a medical negligence claim.
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Posted by Staff Writer on 21 Jan 2010