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Surgeons Unwilling to Pull Life Support when Surgical Error Involved

No one wants to be the victim of a surgical error, especially when that error could result in their death. But what if that error could end up leaving a person a vegetable? What would be the best course of action on the surgeon’s part? What consequences would they face if they were to pull the plug? Doing so could leave a lot of questions as to whether or not a person had a shot at any quality of life. So what do they do?

Research that was recently published in the Annals of Surgery states that surgeons may not wish to pull life support from a patient when there has been a complication due to a medical error during surgery.

To conduct the study, researchers surveyed 2,100 surgeons who specialize in high-risk procedures. The survey contained details of a hypothetical nature of a patient who suffered a hemiplegic stroke and experienced respiratory failure in order to determine what would influence the surgeon to pull life support. Approximately 56% of the surgeons surveyed responded.

The results showed that 63% of the surgeons would not honor the patient’s wishes or the wishes of the family to withdraw life support on the seventh day. The unwillingness increased when the scenario showed the patient’s outcome was due to an error on the surgeon’s part. The surgeons who stated they would not withdraw life support said their decision was due to an optimistic belief that the patient would have some kind of future quality of life. The surgeons concluded that it can be difficult to predict whether or not a patient can live comfortably unless certain factors are present that state otherwise, such as brain death.

If your loved one has been fatally injured due to a surgical error, the family of that victim may be able to hold the negligent parties responsible for their actions. An experienced Minneapolis medical malpractice lawyer at TSR Injury Law can help to review the details of the incident and determine if there are grounds to file a lawsuit. There are no upfront fees if you hire us and we only get paid when we obtain a recovery on your behalf.

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