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Gallbladder Removal – Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy

If you or a member of your family has suffered a personal injury as a result of medical negligence during or after a laparoscopic gallbladder removal operation, our specialist personal injury lawyers may be able to help you recover damages. Contact us today on 0800 032 8511 for compensation claim advice, or by completing a claim enquiry form online.

Gallbladder Surgery
Clinical Negligence
Injuries During gallbladder Surgery
Who Can Claim Injury Compensation?
Compensation
Specialist Clinical Negligence Lawyers

Gallbladder Surgery

There are two common methods of removing a person’s gallbladder, either an open surgery or keyhole (laparoscopic) surgery. Keyhole surgery accounts for approximately 90% of all cholecystectomies carried out in the UK each year and is the most common major abdominal surgery. Doing the operation this way reduces the risk of complications, but because the surgeon has a less clear view, it brings with it the risk of damage to the wrong internal structure.

Laparoscopic cholecystectomies are usually carried out when stones form in the gallbladder, blocking the bile duct and causing severe pain and nausea.  The gallbladder is generally removed by clipping the cystic artery and cystic duct, then peeling the gallbladder from the liver bed.

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Clinical Negligence

Most gallbladder operations are carried out safely and successfully, however unfortunately there are a small number of cases where complications occur as the result of clinical negligence.

Clinical negligence is the term used to describe treatment by a medical professional that has fallen below the accepted standards of care. If this has caused an adverse effect, then the individual affected should be able to claim compensation.

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Injuries During gallbladder Surgery

The most common surgical error in laparoscopic cholecystectomy operations is injury to the common bile duct. This means an immediate repair operation and extra follow-up. There is a high risk of internal infection to the liver, which in the long term can cause liver damage and require a transplant. This type of injury can occur in around 0.3% of cases and will be included in the recognised risks a patient is warned about. This does not mean that it is an acceptable occurrence in all cases however and often, reported cases are found to be caused by negligence.

Other, potentially fatal clinical negligence injuries that occasionally occur, are damage to major blood vessels, including the common iliac artery and aorta.

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Who Can Claim Injury Compensation?

Given that there is a certain level of risk with any surgical procedure, some injuries are more likely to give rise to a successful claim than others. For example, a bile leak in cases where no damage has been caused to the bile duct is unlikely to lead to a successful case for compensation.

If the injury caused was to the common bile duct or a major blood vessel however, a claim for damages is more likely to be successful, because the consequences, actual and potential are serious.

In every case, medical evidence will be required and it is necessary to show that the person you are making a claim against owed you a duty of care, that they breached that duty of care (what is known in law as negligence), and that the injury you sustained was a reasonably foreseeable consequence of that negligence. In clinical negligence cases this means that you have to prove that the treatment fell short of accepted standards of care.

At The Legal Line, we have access to experienced medical specialists who can act as expert witnesses in any court case. Your Legal Line lawyer will be able to collate all of the necessary information and evidence to pursue your case to the best possible outcome.

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Compensation

There are two elements to a compensation award. The first is for the pain and suffering you may have gone through. This is called general damages and can include an award for your inability to do things after the medical accident that you used to be able to do before, eg, gardening, walking the dog, home improvements etc. The award will reflect how long the pain and inconvenience has lasted or may go on for.

The second element of a compensation award is for your actual losses and expenses caused by the mistake, known as special damages. It is important to keep receipts for any expenditure you have related to your injuries, so that these can be reclaimed. The aim is to put you back in a position financially as if the medical accident had never occurred and the award could include an amount for past and future care costs.

An award in a clinical negligence case is based on the harm done by negligence that you would not have had if the treatment had been a success; the amount is based on previous awards in similar cases. Very often, clinical negligence cases are settled out of court.

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Specialist Clinical Negligence Lawyers

The Legal Line lawyers have extensive experience in recovering compensation for the victims of clinical negligence. They can provide expert claim advice on all areas of making a claim and offer the assistance and guidance that you need.

See our article on the successful claim won by our lawyers on behalf of a client injured during a gallbladder removal operation.

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