A surgical error refers to a preventable mistake that occurs during surgery that could have been avoided through proper protocols, training, and execution of a procedure. However, just because there may have been a mistake during surgery, not all surgical errors result in a medical malpractice legal claim.
Instead, for a surgical error to be considered malpractice, the medical professional performing the surgery must have failed to follow the appropriate standard of care, and the failure must have caused the patient harm.
If the patient was not harmed, even if the procedure went wrong, or the medical professional and their team maintained the appropriate standard of care, even if the patient was injured, the patient will likely not be able to recover compensation for malpractice.