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Gallbladder Surgeries Gone Wrong

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Gallbladder Surgeries Gone Wrong


With over one million gallbladder removal surgeries every year, cholecystectomy is a common procedure in America. It is generally considered safe — you might have even heard it called routine.

There are two general types of gallbladder surgery: Open operations and laparoscopic scope procedures. Both carry an element of risk, which your healthcare provider should tell you about. However, there are situations that go beyond normal risk, resulting from the negligence of your surgeon or hospital.

Do not take your doctor’s word on this subject. Healthcare providers may try to cover up their negligence to protect themselves. They may not even know it happened — these institutions are huge and complex.

As medical malpractice lawyers, we have decades of experience pursuing cases against surgeons who botched routine gallbladder surgeries, causing injury and chronic illness in the process. Call Fisk & Monteleone Ltd. today at 815-962–0044 to schedule a consultation with our medical malpractice attorneys specializing in gall bladder surgery malpractice.

Surgeon’s Responsibility

Gallbladder-Surgeries-Gone-WrongSurgeons have a responsibility to know the unique duct and blood-vessel structure of their patients. Hospitals have a responsibility to facilitate surgeons — or at least not impede their work with negligent practice.

One of the most important things gallbladder surgeons do is establish a Critical View of Safety. The CVS method identifies critical parts of the anatomy during cholecystectomy.

Basically, this is a three-criteria rule to ensure surgeons know what is happening during the procedure. Failure to perform this is unacceptable and could lead to your injury.

Risk Reduction

There are plenty of guidelines available to reduce the known risk of gallbladder scope surgery. If the surgeon is impatient or does not take precautions, a routine procedure can result in a life-changing — or life-threatening, in some cases — series of complications. Here are some factors that could cause injury or make unavoidable injuries much worse:

  • Pursuing scope surgery in dangerous situations
  • Lack of re-confirmation procedures
  • Bad X-rays or bad use of medical images, in general
  • Failure of surgeons to ask for help in difficult situations
  • Lack of understanding of potential anatomical differences from patient to patient

Gall Bladder Medical Malpractice

Correcting a botched gallbladder surgery is much more complicated than doing one correctly in the first place. You might have to go into Chicago — or across the country, in some cases — to get immediate access to competent surgical specialists and adequate operating facilities.

After your corrective surgery, which typically requires extensive re-routing of the intestines, you might face a lifetime of adhesions, occlusions, infection, colitis, itchy skin, and jaundice. You might even need a liver transplant. All of this because someone did not check all of the necessary boxes before performing a few incisions.

Fisk & Monteleone Ltd. investigates, advocates, and negotiates to help our clients get access to this advanced level of care. Call us at 815-962–0044 to talk about your rights and schedule a consultation.