On behalf of Smiley & Smiley, LLP posted in Medical Malpractice on Friday, November 29, 2013.

When you hear the word “robot,” what is the first thing that comes into your mind? Chances are that you are associating this word with futuristic technology or perhaps science fiction. Robots have long been linked with a vision of the future and what may be possible in years to come. It is little wonder then that when robotic surgeries recently became fact rather than fiction that many patients jumped at the chance to benefit from seemingly futuristic technology.

When a Colorado general surgeon announced last year that he had successfully begun to remove gall bladders through a single-incision robotic surgical procedure, many other surgeons became eager to try this technology. The hospital where the surgeon works published articles and press releases insisting that the surgical procedure is “easier on the patient” than traditional surgery and that the successful surgeon predicts that the robotic procedure “will eventually replace everything else.” It is easy to understand why patients embraced the robotic procedure with press like that.

Unacceptably and unfortunately, the surgeon and his hospital were keeping risks associated with robotic surgery beyond the reach of public knowledge. Due to a number of different surgical errors, patients who had received the robotic surgery suffered nerve damage, punctured arteries and even had surgical objects left inside their bodies post-surgery. Robotic surgeries being performed nationwide have resulted in similar errors and complications, despite favorable press.

Please, do not believe everything you read. Robotic surgery may seem like the wave of the future and perhaps it will be. But at the moment, robotic surgeries are being linked to an increasing number of catastrophic errors and complications. If you have been harmed during robotic surgery, please contact an experienced attorney who can advise you of your legal options. If you have been given the option to undergo robotic surgery, please consider the genuine risks associated with these procedures before you consent to one.

Source: ClaimsJournal.com, "Robot Surgery Damaging Patients Rises With Misleading Marketing," Robert Langreth, Oct. 8, 2013

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