Every year, many of Oregon’s residents go to the hospital for relatively routine operations. Since these surgeries are common and performed often, it reasons to believe they would be conducted safely and effectively, thereby leading to a healed or vastly improved medical condition. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. In fact, hospital negligence can turn these routine procedures into life-altering or even life-ending events. One of these mishaps happened recently, and Oregon residents should take note.
In that case, a 13-year old girl went to the hospital for a tonsillectomy to help relieve her sleep apnea. After the operation, the girl woke and asked for a popsicle. Not long afterwards, she was choking on her own blood and went into cardiac arrest. The girl is now on life support and is brain dead. The victim’s parents claim the hospital made a mistake either during or after the operation, but the incident is still under review.
These tragic accidents can leave a victim and a family reeling. Not only will they have to deal with the severe emotional pain related to the mishap, but they may also have extensive physical and financial damages. Though compensation might not be able to bring a victim back to full health, it may give the victim the fighting chance the victim needs to reach as full a recovery as possible.
Perhaps the best way to recover compensation is to file a medical malpractice lawsuit against the medical professionals who wronged the victim as well as the hospital at which they work. Should a victim win on her claim, the victim may obtain compensation for medical expenses, including long-term care needed to care for a permanent disability, pain and suffering and lost wages.
Source: NBC Bay Area, “Oakland 8th Grader ‘Brain Dead’ After Tonsillectomy,” Lisa Fernandez, Caitlin Matalone and Christie Smith, Dec. 16, 2013