Surgery Malpractice: Paraplegic Due to Surgical Error

If a doctor makes an error any error in surgery, the consequences can be devastating. An error that does damage to the spinal cord or spinal nerves, however, can be even more catastrophic - especially when such an error renders you a paraplegic. Becoming a paraplegic means you lose the use of your limbs, and can suffer additional problems associated with the paralysis you suffer. If your doctor made an error that resulted in you becoming a paraplegic, you may have a very strong case for recovering damage for surgery malpractice.

Surgery Malpractice

Surgery malpractice is a form of medical malpractice, or personal injury lawsuit. In order to collect damages for a surgery error, there are several required elements of the tort case that you must prove:

• You must prove that your doctor's level of care was below what a reasonable doctor would have provided. The doctor's actions or omissions are looked at to determine if they were reasonable and if no reasonably competent physician would have performed in such a manner, the doctor may be deemed legally negligent.
• You must prove that the doctor's negligent actions were a direct cause of your injury- in this case, a direct cause of your paraplegia. If a doctor can argue that you would have become paraplegic even if no errors or omissions were made, you can't recover. Usually, it is pretty straightforward that a surgery is not supposed to result in you becoming paralyzed, so it is often pretty clear in these cases that something went very wrong.

Damages for medical malpractice that renders you paralyzed can be quite high and should compensate you for your medical bills, income lost if you miss work or become unable to work, pain and suffering and the emotional distress you likely face as a result of the serious and permanent injuries.

Getting Help

A surgery error that causes paraplegia is a grave error, and you need to get help from a lawyer to make sure you get the damages you deserve. A lawyer can handle your medical malpractice case, from filing to settling or arguing your case.