Hysterectomy: Very Common Surgeries--Inexcusable Mistakes
600,000 women have hysterectomies every year in the United States, and approximately 20 million American women have had a hysterectomy. By the age of 60, more than one-third of all women have had a hysterectomy.
By now, gynecologists have equipment, techniques and safety rules that should make injuries to women's ureters or bladder or bowels impossible except in very rare cases. And when injuries do occur, gynecologists are trained to catch and fix them quickly---usually in the same operation. But when surgeons don't follow the basic safety rules of hysterectomy surgeries--when they don't look where they are going, and when they don't look for injuries before concluding a hysterectomy, the consequences can be grave.
Women Hurt by Malpractice During Hysterectomy
Our medical malpractice team has handled many of the same types of hysterectomy case over and over. Cases like:
- Malpractice by cutting or clipping shut the ureter (the tube that carries urine from a woman's kidneys to her bladder)
- Hysterectomy malpractice in cutting or burning the woman's bladder
- Malpractice in cutting or burning a woman's bowels during hysterectomy surgery
- Malpractice in failing to inspect the operative field for injury before "closing" the operation
- Malpractice in failing to timely diagnose an injury to a woman's bowels, bladder or ureter
These are terrible injuries. Some of the women we have represented were permanently injured and disabled. Some have had to wear colostomy bags, or diapers. All of them had disfiguring scars, pain and embarrassment. Some have died.