Home > Research Legal Advice > Medical Malpractice > Does excessive pain, and failure to identify the cause for two or three ...
Asked 9 months ago - Annapolis, MD
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I recently had an early outpatient surgery - a hernia repair, and I was supposed to be home by 1PM.
Instead, I awoke with severe pain 10/10 level, not on the incision but in my bladder, penis and anus.
I was mostly ignored, but an anti-inflammatory reduce the pain to an 8-10/10 level and by 5PM, against my will, I was discharged and had started urinary incontinence.
Two hours later, I was taken by ambulance first to a local hospital, then transferred back to the original hospital and admitted for three days. It took over 48 hours to get a sonogram of my bladder, and a catheter that finally gave relief.
Two failed trials to urinate in the following month lead to a 4 day hospitalization for infection. A month to the date of the hernia surgery the catheter was finally removed.
That's pretty egregious. MedMal is usually 1) failure to diagnose or 2) violation of the standard of care. I suspect that you have #2, as I suspect that the conditions you cited were known possible side effects of hernia repair. You should see a MedMal lawyer, but the practicalities of MedMal are that most lawyers don't pursue them unless the damages are large, just because of the costs, so be prepared that you might not find a lawyer to take your case, not because you don't have one, but because they are concerned your damages may not be enough to justify the expense of pursuing the case. If so, you can always complain to the licensing board about the doctor, and write a letter to the doctor's employer (the hospital). Good luck.
Possibly maryland medical practice . However, our experieced maryland medical malpractice attorneys would need to retain an expert to cerify that the standard of care was violated. Damages in Maryland medical malpractice claims must be sufficient to warrant the expert expenses for even the top maryland medical malpractice attorneys to obtain a recovery. Unfortunately our experienced Maryland medical malpractice could not take the case for that reason.
A malpractice lawsuit requires the plaintiff to prove that a physician failed to comply with a standard of care. That's the threshold question. A simpler way of saying this is that you must prove that a doctor committed an error. In the situation you describe, I certainly see that you suffered a bad outcome from your hernia repair. But I am not seeing a description of how your surgeon did something wrong. If your claim is primarily based on the development of a post-operative infection, that would be a tough case. Post-op infections occur very often and even under the best of conditions.
I am not a Maryland attorney so I cannot advise you on your legal deadlines. Consult locally for the best guidance.
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