Mistakes During Tonsillectomies Are Serious!

Medical Malpractice Mistakes

The tonsils are masses of oval tissue located in a person’s throat; one on each side.  They are known to become sore, inflamed, and infected.  If this persists and reoccurs, doctors often advise patients to have them removed.  The surgical procedure to remove tonsils is called a tonsillectomy.   Children under the age of fifteen are most likely to have this procedure performed.

The experienced Kingston medical malpractice attorney knows that the medical profession has issued guidelines that which dictates when tonsillectomies should be considered.  The procedure could be warranted if a child has:

  1. Seven sore throats in year, or
  2. Five sore throats for two consecutive years, or
  3. Three sore throats in three consecutive years,
  4. Accompanied by a 101 degree fever, streptococcus infection, pus or blood on the tonsils, and swollen lymph nodes.

There may be other requirements as well, but this standard must be easy to meet because over a half million children under the age of fifteen have tonsillectomies performed each year.  This makes it one of the most common surgeries that children undergo.  Now that you are armed with this knowledge, note that the procedure is mostly about preventative care even though children who do not have the surgery may not be in any greater health danger.

In fact, the procedure can actually cause more harm than good to a child if the surgery is performed negligently.  What can go wrong?

As with any medical procedure, doctors must get the informed consent from the patient that which grants permission for the doctor to conduct the operation.  Some tonsillectomy procedures have been done with the patient giving adequate informed consent.

Tonsillectomies have also led to medication problems.  It is important for doctors to understand a child’s medical history, to know what medications the child is using and if there are allergies, and to prescribe the proper dosage of medication.

Since the tonsils are located by veins, there is a possibility for complications related to bleeding.  Such has been documented in tonsillectomies.

In some tonsillectomies, all of the tonsils are mistakenly not removed and the tonsil tissue can grow back.

The surgeon will use tools and machinery to perform the surgery, these things can cause an airway fire, which leads to the patient being burned.  Other types of burns can occur as well.

Any of these complications may or may not be caused by the surgeon’s negligence.  This means that the additional harm happened but should not have happened.  If another surgeon in the area would not have made the mistake that caused the child such harm, the offending doctor can be held accountable to pay money to the victim.

But what do you think?  I would love to hear from you!  Leave a comment or I also welcome your phone call on my toll-free cell at 1-866-889-6882 or you can drop me an e-mail at jfisher@fishermalpracticelaw.com.  You are always welcome to request my FREE book, The Seven Deadly Mistakes of Malpractice Victims, at the home page of my website at www.protectingpatientrights.com.