Veterans and military families expect safe surgeries at VA medical centers. But errors at these facilities can cause severe harm.
The Archuleta Law Firm's founder is both a lawyer and doctor. He knows when surgical outcomes cross the line into malpractice. Our team has won over $145 million for clients nationwide, including birth injury cases.
If you experienced a surgical error at a NY VA facility, you have rights under the Federal Tort Claims Act. Special rules apply to federal medical cases. These rules differ from state lawsuits.
Our lawyers know both federal tort law and NY medical standards. We can guide you through this complex process.
What Causes Surgical Errors at New York Military & VA Hospitals?
Surgical errors at federal facilities usually trace back to a breakdown in an established safety protocol rather than to an unavoidable complication:
- Wrong-site or wrong-procedure surgery: Skipping or rushing the surgical time-out — the pre-incision verification of patient, site and procedure — allows operations to begin on the wrong side, the wrong level of the spine, or the wrong patient.
- Retained surgical items: Sponges, needles and instrument fragments left in the body almost always follow an incorrect or omitted counting protocol, and typically require a second operation to remove.
- Anesthesia errors: Inadequate pre-operative airway assessment, dosing mistakes, and failure to monitor oxygenation and ventilation during the procedure can cause hypoxic injury in minutes.
- Injury to adjacent structures: Nerves, bowel, ureters, blood vessels and bile ducts are injured when anatomy is not properly identified before cutting, clipping or cauterizing.
- Failure to recognize post-operative complications: Internal bleeding, anastomotic leaks, compartment syndrome and surgical-site infections are survivable when caught early; the harm comes from delayed response to abnormal vital signs, labs and imaging.
- Inadequate handoffs and supervision: Teaching facilities rotate residents and fellows through operative and post-operative care, and incomplete handoffs or absent attending supervision let warning signs go unaddressed.