Philadelphia Medical Malpractice: Nerve Damage

There are lots of ways that a surgeon can make a mistake that ends with you suffering a serious injury. One of the common types of injuries that result from surgical errors, or from other problems during a surgical procedure, is nerve damage. Unfortunately, nerve damage can be a devastating and life-altering injury that can make it difficult for you to overcome and live your life to the fullest, making it crucially important to get the compensation you deserve from the people who caused it.

Types of Nerve Damage

The nerves in your body are like electrical wires: They have a central core, the axon, which conducts senses and stimuli from the brain to the body, and back. The axon is surrounded by several protecting layers, like the epineurium and the perineurium.

Nerve damage falls into three types:

1. Neurapraxia. The least severe, neurapraxia is a temporary blockage of stimuli in the nerve, without damage to the axon, the epineurium, or the perineurium.
2. Axonotmesis. In axonotmesis, the axon is severed, but the protecting tissues – the epineurium and the perineurium – are intact, allowing the axon to heal.
3. Neurotmesis. The most severe form of nerve damage, neurotmesis involves a severed axon, epineurium, and perineurium, making it impossible for a full recovery without surgery.

Nerve Damage from Surgical Errors

Many surgical procedures take surgeons perilously close to the nerves that run throughout your body. If the surgeon makes a mistake, even a tiny one, it can clip those nerves and cause potentially irreparable damage to one of the most important parts of your nervous system. Symptoms of these kinds of injuries include:

• Involuntary muscle movements,
• Contractures,
• Muscle atrophy and weakness,
• Numbness or diminished feeling,
• Pain or increased sensitivity to touch, and
• Coordination problems.

Nerve Damage from Anesthesia Errors

Anesthesia errors from a surgical procedure can also cause nerve damage, as well. Anesthesia is the medical process that makes surgical patients unconscious during a procedure, or that mutes the feeling in a particular area. To do this, anesthesia impacts the nerves that otherwise would have reacted to the surgical procedure.

If done improperly, anesthesia can cause serious adverse impacts on the nerves that it was supposed to numb, or on other nerves that it was not supposed to touch. Unfortunately, just like surgeons, anesthesiologists can cause severe injuries with only the smallest mistake. An error in dosage, a mistake while injecting an anesthetic, or failing to properly monitor a patient under anesthesia can all cause serious medical problems and lead to severe nerve damage.

Get the Compensation You Deserve After Suffering Nerve Damage

Nerve damage can drastically impact your quality of life, and is often suffered through no fault of your own. That is why it is so important to get compensated for your losses – there is simply no reason why you should have had to suffer through them.

The Philadelphia medical malpractice attorneys at Gilman & Bedigian know this, and work vigorously to get you the compensation you need and deserve. Contact us online.