Texas residents need to be vigilant when family members are undergoing surgery. Family members should watch, and question the surgeons if necessary, to make sure they understand what body part is being operated upon. Wrong-site surgeries happen too often and can be reduced by following reasonable and prudent surgical protocols. Surgical protocols which have been largely adopted across the country, and which should be recognized and practiced by doctors and hospitals, require the surgical site to be marked; and, the surgical team should take a timeout and all agree on the body part to be operated on before proceeding with the surgery.
The largest hospital in Rhode Island was ordered to install video cameras in all of its operating rooms after its fifth (5) wrong-site surgery in less than three years. The wrong-site surgeries ranged from operating on the wrong finger to operating on the wrong part of the heads of three patients.
If a surgical error caused significant injuries it is often beneficial to future patients to pursue a medical malpractice claim. Future patients at the Rhode Island hospital will be safer, now that video cameras have been installed; however, it did take many medical malpractice cases before these new safekeeping measures were implemented.
