Close to 700,000 inguinal or femoral hernias are repaired every year in the United States. And, over 20 million cases are reported worldwide each year. It is reported that the mortality rate for hernia repair is just 0.1 percent after elective surgery, which shoots up to about 2.8 – 3.1 percent after an urgent surgery.
If you have sustained a spinal injury, you may get paralyzed from the waist down. This condition is known as paraplegia, wherein your motor and sensory functions in the lower half of your body are impaired due to the spinal injury. While accidents and congenital conditions can result in paraplegia, you can also become a paraplegic due to surgical errors and surgeon negligence.
According to the Patient Safety in American Hospitals, Health Grades 2004, in 2000-2002, 1.011 per 1,000 hospitalized at-risk patients in the United States developed iatrogenic pneumothorax. 18.57% of cases related to iatrogenic pneumothorax resulted in death during this period.
New York residents may have heard about a Florida toddler who suffered severe burns after swallowing a small remote control battery. Although her mother was at home at the time of the accident, she was unable to prevent the battery from going down her daughter’s throat before calling 911. The child’s parents filed a lawsuit against Wolfson Children’s Hospital claiming that it didn’t remove the battery soon enough.
Whether through personal experience or the news, chances are you’ve heard a story about someone dying from a hospital-acquired infection. From the West Coast to the East Coast, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that approximately 75,000 people die each year in the United States from an infection acquired during their stay at a hospital.
