What to Do After a Medical Negligence Amputation Harms You
Amputation is the removal of a limb such as an arm or leg, or part of an extremity such as a finger, hand, toe, foot or other body part. Amputation usually occurs due to trauma, disease or illness. The loss of a limb is traumatizing and life changing for any person. Amputation causes a person to forever modify their day to day lives based on their new disability. Loss of limb or part of a limb can cause great psychological and emotional side effects, including anxiety, fear, pain and grief. While the trauma of an amputation due to trauma, disease or illness can be very difficult to deal with, it is even more traumatizing for an individual who suffered from a limb amputation due to a healthcare provider’s error. This is never acceptable and an individual should never have their lives permanently altered due to someone else’s mistake. This is especially true when medical negligence amputation in Oregon causes a lifetime of serious injury.
What Are Possible Complications of Amputation?
Amputations are always traumatic events. When a medical negligence amputation results in injuries to an innocent person, there are other risks and complications that could compound the error. This includes the following:
- Difficulty with wound healing
- Infection
- Blood clots
- Phantom limb sensation (pain)
- Joint contractures
How Does an Amputation Affect a Person’s Day to Day Life?
As stated above, amputation is very life altering and is something that is going to impact just about every aspect of an individual’s life. Examples in regard to how amputations affect a person’s day to day life include the following:
- Alteration in ambulation, leading to need to ambulation assistance (i.e. crutches, wheelchair, etc)
- Need for prosthetic device
- Possible need for career change due to their new disability
- Phantom limb pain as the result of amputation
- Emotional suffering due to the trauma of losing a limb
- Need for assistive devices (i.e. need for assistive devices in a person’s car in order to allow them to drive independently)
- Alteration in their family or dating lives as a result of their loss of limb
- Need for wound care and careful care of the skin to avoid skin breakdown at the site of the amputation
How Do Amputations Occur as the Result of Medical Malpractice?
Amputation of a limb is very life altering and is a difficult thing for any person to deal with. While some amputations are necessary in order to save a person’s life, other amputations that occur are unnecessary and are due to medical malpractice. These amputations occur due to medical providers making errors, resulting in amputations that are unnecessary.
Some examples of common reasons as to why unnecessary medical negligence amputations occur include the following:
- Compartment syndrome that is left untreated
- Failing to treat an infection, leading to loss of a limb
- Failing to provide proper wound care, leading to infection, tissue damage, and eventual amputation
- Amputation as the result of surgical errors
- Physician operates on the wrong body part, leading to the healthy limb being amputated instead of the diseased or damaged limb
- Failing to use a tourniquet properly
- Infections acquired in the hospital (HAI)
- Damage to tissues or blood vessels during a procedure
- Delay in treating an accident victim with serious limb injuries or extreme bleeding, leading to loss of a limb
Ask Our Lawyer for Help with Medical Negligence Amputations in Oregon
If you or a loved one have been seriously injured or killed as a result of medical malpractice contact the Oregon Medical Malpractice Lawyers at Kuhlman Law at our number below or fill out the intake form. We offer a free initial case evaluation and handle cases on a contingency fee which means that you pay no money unless we recover.
Our law firm handles cases throughout the state including Bend and Portland Oregon, Redmond, Central Oregon, Sisters, Madras, Multnomah County, Deschutes County, Salem, Eugene, Corvallis, Lane County, Medford, Gresham, La Grande, Albany, Medford, Beaverton, Umatilla, Pendleton, Cottage Grove, Florence, Oregon City, Springfield, Keizer, Grants Pass, McMinnville, Tualatin, West Linn, Forest Grove, Wilsonville, Newberg, Roseburg, Lake Oswego, Klamath Falls, Happy Valley, Tigard, Ashland, Milwakie, Coos Bay, The Dalles, St. Helens, Sherwood, Central Point, Canby, Troutdale, Hermiston, Silverton, Hood River, Newport, Prineville, Astoria, Tillamook, Lincoln City, Hillsboro, and Vancouver, Washington.
We also have an office in Minneapolis, Minnesota and take medical malpractice cases throughout the Twin Cities, including St. Paul, Hennepin County, Ramsey County, Dakota County, Washington County, Anoka County, Scott County, Blaine, Stillwater, and Saint Paul Minnesota.
