Do you trust your Ohio doctor? We all want to, but it turns out that there are some areas of medicine where incompetent doctors are performing surgery. Surgery that people think is routine until it is too late to do something about it. Call it nip and tuck for the common person (versus the wealthy), but the truth is that there are many doctors performing cosmetic surgery that have not much more than a basic medical license.
One example chronicles a Kentucky woman who was scheduled for a hysterectomy when her OB/GYN suggested they do a little tummy tuck at the same time. The woman thought it was a good idea and agreed, with very little investigation. After all, the doctor was her OB/GYN and had delivered her last baby. It turns out he should have stuck to delivering babies, because he cut a seven-inch hole in the woman’s abdomen, which subsequently burst and required emergency surgery and a medically induced coma just to survive. After eight more years and four more surgeries, she ultimately settled her lawsuit with the doctor.
The Chief of Surgery at the University of Pennsylvania recently said that pretty much anyone can call themselves a plastic surgeon with very little training. And with tough economic times affecting the medical profession as well, more doctors appear to be moonlighting as plastic surgeons. Even board-approved plastic surgeons make mistakes, but the chances are greatly reduced. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons says that, under the right conditions (read that board-approved) a death occurs in only one out of every 50,000 patients.
While most states continue to allow ordinary doctors to perform cosmetic surgery, the risk that your surgery may be performed by an incompetent doctor increases exponentially when he or she is not board-approved. But whether or not a doctor has attained the desired credentials, any doctor that causes a wrongful death or seriously injures a patient through medical malpractice is liable for the damage caused. In Ohio, an attorney devoted to helping victims of botched surgeries and other medical malpractice may help hold those accountable for their errors to the fullest extent of the law.
Source: Fox News, “Nip/Tuck Nightmare: The Dangerous New World of Cosmetic Surgery,” Roxanne Patel Shepelavy, Sept. 29, 2011