Woman claims doctor attempted to cover up medical negligence act

Transparency at every level of health care is paramount to keeping Pennsylvania patients safe when seeking treatment. Attempting to cover up acts of medical negligence can prevent patients from being able to receive the correct and necessary follow-up treatments. Despite the serious risk associated with concealing a mistake or accident, an out-of-state patient recently filed a medical malpractice suit after she says she was lied to about a serious mistake.

After being diagnosed with a painful lesion on one of her ribs, the 60-year-old woman was scheduled for surgery to have it removed. Prior to the surgery, metal coils were used to indicate the correct rib and location of the lesion in order to prevent the possibility of a wrong-site surgery. Although the initial surgery appeared to be completed without a problem, she was still suffering significant pain upon waking up.

Attending doctors decided to perform an X-ray in order to determine the cause of the pain. The scan revealed that the attending surgeon not only left the marking metal coils inside the patient, but that he also removed the wrong rib. A resident surgeon then told the patient that she would need secondary surgery, not because of removing the wrong rib or leaving foreign objects inside of her, but because not enough of the correct rib had been removed. Her suit claims that the resident doctor purposely misled her into believing that the correct rib had been operated on even though it had not been.

Medical negligence on the operating table can have severe consequences, including secondary surgeries, additional recovery time and extra medical bills. Emotional trauma is also common in instances of medical malpractice, which can be exacerbated by attempts to lie or cover up the mistake. Nothing can ever truly allow a person to return to their physical and mental state of mind before a serious medical error occurred. Still, successfully navigated medical malpractices claims are typically the most effective strategy for Pennsylvania victims to recover necessary related damages.

Source: medicaldaily.com, “Medical Malpractice Suit: Doctor Removes Wrong Rib During Surgery, Lies To Cover Up Mistake“, Dana Dovey, March 25, 2016