Perforated Colon

[Marquis]

I suffered a perforated colon after a routine colonoscopy by a doctor at his outpatient surgery center.  The result was major emergency surgery that evening at a local hospital.  I signed all kinds of papers before the procedure.  Does anyone ever win anything from a lawsuit?? At the very least I think I should be compensated for out of pocket expenses after insurance.  I don't want to put myself through any more stress if it's not worth it.

[Apollo]

Sure people win lawsuits. That's what keeps lawyers busy. A winning medical malpractice case requires two things. Firstly, there must be evidence that the doctor was negligent, that what his did was "below the standard of care", that something happened that would not have happened but for some carelessness or mistake by the doctor; and that the mistake caused you significant harm.  Problem with your case is that perforation of the colon is a known risk to the procedure and I bet that right on the forms you signed it said as much. Now your doctor may have used bad technique, he might have been up all night and wasn't working as carefully as he should have, whatever, but, that would be extremely difficult to prove. He would say that he did everything right and sometimes there are complications like this even when done by the best doctor. The second part of any such suit is "damages". You certainly have been damaged but I presume that except for the otherwise unnecessary surgery and a scar on your belly, you are fine now with no permanent harm.  That does not equate to tens of thousands of dollars in damages and therefore, the case would not be economically viable to interest an attorney.  If you do have some residual health problems that will persist, it might be worth getting your medical records and consulting a malpractice attorney. And the process would be stressful. You can always just ask the doctor to reimburse you for the out of pocket costs but he would probably refuse, not wanting to admit any wrongdoing. Best of luck