So kind of like the title says, my 42 year old wife had to have a total hip replacement and the surgeon left a waypoint screw in her by mistake and didn’t even know until the two week check up. After six weeks of healing they had to open the original incision back up and fish out the screw. The second surgery wasn’t a simple deal either because of where the screw was located in relationship to where the incision was. The second surgery took about half as long as the total hip replacement.

My wife is now back to getting around with a walker, hurts real bad, and her PT doesn’t know what to do with her now.

This was a significant error by an entire team of people at the surgery center. We got them to remove it no charge. My question is this, is this malpractice? If it is what does a person do? Do we contact an attorney now or wait to see how she heals up?

We have never needed a lawyer before this, if I need one are there signs of bad lawyers that I should look to stay away from?


This has been really hard on my wife physically and mentally, she is relatively young and just wanted her life back and it’s become a bit of a nightmare.

Any advise is welcome. Thanks in advance.

Pm me. I can give you some tips.
Spunk

I tried and it won’t let me chat, not sure what’s going on. Can I email you?

IANAL, but my advice is sue.

The entire operating team failed.

The doc.
The nurse handing him tools.
The nurse keeping track of sponges, etc.
The prosthetic manufacturer's representative (if present, they often are).

Sue them all.

quote:

Originally posted by lunchbox:
I tried and it won’t let me chat, not sure what’s going on. Can I email you?

Spunk meant for you to email him to his address in his profile.

Best of luck to you both.

quote:

Originally posted by lunchbox: My question is this, is this malpractice? If it is what does a person do? Do we contact an attorney now or wait to see how she heals up?

I am not an attorney, but from the info I accumulated in past years working with doctors and surgeons, leaving a foreign object in the body without prompt removal IS medical malpractice. The most common items left in a body are sponges, gauze, needles, and yes clamps, scalpels. And yes, retain an attorney specializing in medical malpractice.

If you are going to do it you don't wait, you do it now, and in most states there are some limits on time to file based on discovery of the error.

Shop the attorneys, don't just go with the first one you see, get references and check reviews.

Lunchbox, as a guy that is scheduled for a total knee next month and do not want to suffer needlessly may I ask what practice I should avoid if the surgery occurred on the east side of the state?

Not a doctor or an attorney, but to me it seems like it’s kinda big deal. She had to go through the mental aspect of 2 surgeries, I imagine that cutting the same area 2 times made some irreparable damage. Double recovery.
I would say that she needs to be compensated.

Attorney ,be prepaired for a shit storm.takes lots of time in my late wife's case [nearly five years] many depositions and lots of accusing you of being a money whore .
Your lawyer will get you on the right track,be prepared for a fight on medical records and back then they were a dollar a page for what turned in to be a book size,she was in icu and constant care for a month on life support also I had to go out of state for a retired doctor to testify on the ortopisty ,that was 25,ooo.
I hope she recovers well.

Yes.

quote:

Originally posted by Stlhead:
Lunchbox, as a guy that is scheduled for a total knee next month and do not want to suffer needlessly may I ask what practice I should avoid if the surgery occurred on the east side of the state?

Email me.

The first or second thing I'd do is to schedule a visit with a top surgeon in the field that isn't related to the one that did her surgery. Get a second opinion on her present condition to see if she has any issues for her recovery or anything to do differently. They may mention things that are out of the ordinary because of this problem for many reasons including the ones others have mentioned here.
The other thing, in whatever order you decide, is to contact an attorney in the specialty you need.

I wouldn't have much confidence in the team that did this.

Lawyer up. Find a good one. The guy with the billboard or the sign on the bus probably isn’t it. A consult will be free. You can talk to more than one. Ask questions. Compare answers. They’ll explain the timeline for a lawsuit and how to deal with possibly delayed issues etc.

I would suggest you find a law firm that has the deep pockets to battle the insurance Company that the DR will have.
They should have expert witnesses and investigators at the ready, and be able to financially keep the battle going.
A law firm that actually wants to go to trial is what you want, not somebody just looking for a quick settlement.

Yes, a medical error, leaving an object in a patient after surgery, is malpractice. You need legal advice from an attorney in your state who specializes in medical negligence cases. Not an attorney who handles these cases along with auto accidents and slip & fall cases.

You may have to interview several attorneys before you find one you are confident will do a good job for you. Personally, I wouldn’t hire one with less than ten years experience in med mal cases.

Retained foreign body cases seldom go to trial. Most of them are settled at a pretrial mediation.

I hope your wife makes a speedy recovery. Good luck.

quote:

Originally posted by spunk639:
Pm me. I can give you some tips.
Spunk

One of the many things that makes this forum great

I have nothing to offer via lawyers but hope the best for your wife. That is young to be dealing with something like that and to have to go through it twice unnecessarily, I can't imagine her pain/state of mind.

quote:

Originally posted by 2Adefender:

Retained foreign body cases seldom go to trial. Most of them are settled at a pretrial mediation.

That seems to be the likely outcome. The insurance carrier isn't going to put money into defending something that is outside the standard of care unless the amount they are sued for is way out of line. Having a second surgery, stress and pain are not trivial, but this isn't going to make you a millionaire.

Having just gone through hip replacement surgery, I sympathize with your wife having to go through this twice.