When Does Amputation Count as Medical Malpractice?

Published on June 5, 2024

We trust our doctors and medical providers with our health, our lives, and our futures. Fortunately, most doctors practice diligent care and restore injured or ill patients to health. Unfortunately, in some cases, a doctor’s mistake or negligence leads to a serious injury. When a doctor breaches their duty of care toward a patient and the result is an injury, it’s medical malpractice. In some of the most egregious medical malpractice cases, a patient suffers a preventable amputation. Amputations are life-altering injuries with impacts on all aspects of the victim’s life. When is an amputation medical malpractice in Arizona? Consulting an experienced Arizona medical malpractice attorney can help determine if the amputation resulted from negligence.

How Do Amputations Occur As a Result of Medical Malpractice?

According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, an unnecessary amputation is one of 16 “Never Events” in medicine. A never event is catastrophic injury from medical malpractice—events that medical professionals hope never occur—yet the Amputee Coalition estimates as many as 60% of amputations are unnecessary.

Most unnecessary amputations constituting medical malpractice occur in the following ways:

• A preventable infection causes an amputation to become necessary to prevent deadly sepsis
• A botched surgery requires the amputation of a limb
• A post-operative blood clot results in an amputation due to artery occlusion (blocked blood flow)
• Wrong limb amputation in a surgical malpractice case

Amputating the wrong limb, such as surgically removing a patient’s right leg from the knee down when the patient was scheduled for left leg amputation due to a malignant bone tumor, is a surgical “never event” that causes irreparable harm. When a doctor amputates the wrong limb, they typically must still perform the originally scheduled surgical removal of the diseased limb. These are some of the most catastrophic medical malpractice cases.

Understanding Duty of Care in Medical Malpractice Cases

When a patient suffers from an unnecessary amputation, the consequences are nearly unthinkable. Doctors and other medical providers have a special duty of care toward their patients. Proving liability in medical malpractice cases requires producing evidence of the following:

• That a doctor/patient relationship existed at the time the medical malpractice took place
• The doctor owed a duty of care toward the patient to treat them at the standard of care approved by the medical community for their condition
• The doctor breached their duty of care by acting negligently
• Their breach of duty caused injury to the victim
• The injury victim suffered economic and non-economic damages from the injury

The word “damages” in medical malpractice and other personal injury cases refers to the consequences of an injury to the victim. Damages in medical malpractice cases involving wrongfully amputated limbs are substantial.

Damages in Amputation Malpractice Cases

When an amputation occurs due to medical malpractice, the victim suffers severe, life-altering damages. The compensation awarded in this egregious form of medical malpractice could include amounts for medical expenses, future medical expenses, lost wages, lowered future earning capacity due to disability, pain and suffering, emotional trauma, and diminished quality of life. In amputation medical malpractice cases, punitive damages may also be awarded to the injury victim. Punitive damages serve not as compensation to the victim but as a punishment to the negligent doctor.

When medical malpractice cases go to court, the jury is often asked to consider whether another, reasonable doctor would have acted the same under the same circumstances. If the answer is “no,” then the doctor who committed the malpractice is liable for the victim’s damages.