Unfortunately, the answer to the above question is not necessarily. When it comes to discovering that your surgeon or someone else on your Missouri health care team made a mistake prior to, during or after your surgical procedure, you cannot rely on your surgeon telling you that it happened.
As reported by CBS News, the results of a 2016 survey of surgeons nationwide showed that less than two-thirds of them, 62.5% to be exact, gave their affected patients the following information:
- What type of medical error occurred
- How and why it occurred
- How badly they felt about the error’s occurrence
- How concerned they were about possible negative effects the error could cause their patient
- How they planned to treat and mitigate any negative effects their patient might suffer
National guidelines
National health care guidelines strongly encourage not only that all medical practitioners disclose medical mistakes to their affected patients, but also that they apologize to the patient for having committed the error. Nevertheless, the survey also found that only 55% of surgeons ever apologize, even if they admit to making an error.
Your best interests dictate that whenever you undergo a surgical procedure, you specifically ask your surgeon afterwards if any errors occurred. Few if any surgeons will lie when faced with a direct question. If (s)he admits something untoward happened prior to, during or after your surgery, then ask him or her to explain in detail exactly what happened and how the error could negatively impact you now or in the future.
This is general educational information and not intended to provide legal advice.