For many patients, surgery can be a life saving event where no other option would otherwise help. Unfortunately, there are also thousands of cases where patients lose their life to a surgery that never should have been performed in the first place.
According to a report by the American Medical Association, about 12,000 people die due to unnecessary surgery each year in the United States. It is a result of medical professionals taking too lightly the serious risks associated with any surgical procedure. Often a doctor will order a surgery to be performed when a more conservative treatment would be just as effective and far less risky.
Most Common Unnecessary Surgeries
Regardless of the skill of the surgeon, any surgery is an extraordinarily traumatic event for the human body. Certainly, some patients do require surgery to save their life, but far too often surgery is chosen over a less invasive treatment. Some of the most common unnecessary surgeries are as follows:
- Hysterectomy
- Lower-Back Surgery
- Heartburn Surgery
- Coronary Bypass Operation
- Gastric Bypass Weight Loss Surgery
- Pacemaker Implant
Determining whether a surgical procedure is really the best option for a patient requires that a doctor consider other options and discuss these with the patient.
Failure to Evaluate Symptoms Properly
Even in modern hospitals with very sophisticated diagnostic equipment and training, often surgery will be ordered unnecessarily because of inaccurate diagnosis.
In a report by Dr. Greenspan from the Albert Einstein Medical Center in Pennsylvania, it was estimated that 20% of pacemaker implant surgeries were completely unjustified and put patients in harm’s way unnecessarily. He concluded that the primary reason was the doctors’ failure to evaluate patients’ symptoms correctly.
Doctors may often see very similar symptoms from one patient to another and begin to make assumptions before looking into the signs and symptoms further. For example, obese patients may go under the knife to have a gastric bypass performed, when medical standard suggest a lifestyle change such as exercise and diet to be a more appropriate treatment.
Undue Harm from Unnecessary Surgery
Patients who undergo an unnecessary surgery and suffer further damages because of it may have the right to hold their doctor liable for their suffering. Medical malpractice lawsuits stemming from unnecessary surgery offer patients an opportunity to hold doctors accountable and to demand compensation for their damages.
A medical malpractice lawyer can help patients going through such a life altering ordeal by bringing a civil lawsuit against the doctor or hospital for compensation.
