Should I sue because my intestines fell out after hysterectomy?

I had a hysterectomy in the spring, no complications. At my six week checkup, my GYN said that I was healed and could resume normal activities including sex. A week later, after my husband and I had sex, my intestines came out and I had to be rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery. I was hospitalized for 5 days and now have chronic pelvic pain. Dr's commented that this is an extremely rare event but nobody will say my hysterectomy surgeon made a mistake, even though the intestine that came out looked perfect, there was no blood when it happened and there was no scars on the intestine indicating that they had been sutured in. I saw one of the top attys in our city and they said there is no proof of dr error. I have researched this and the #1 reason for this happening is poor surgical technique but there are others(http://www.greenjournal.org/cgi/content/... cant work & still recovering...help

Answer:
I don't think that legal suit is the best option, actually. I suppose you've had MD's telling you that your condition is a vaginal evisceration with an intestinal herniation for a while now, but I think you should listen to comments. This condition is extremely rare and seems to be concentrated with patients who underwent laparoscopic hysterectomy. Was your procedure laparoscopic? That is, the problems seems to be a result of the procedure design itself, rather than the technique of a surgeon. It seems that your complication is so rare, however, that the numerous benefits from the laparoscopic hysterectomy far outweights the small number of complications.

Talk with the surgeon; ask for a full explanation of what occurred during the surgeon; ask him if he made a mistake. And perhaps seeing a pain management specialist would be appropriate, if your chronic pain does not subside. Suit, I believe, should be a last resort.
damn.that's terrible.

yes...sue the hell out of him.
yes but before doing so i would visit other doctors to see their opinion on it. they could explain the medical mistakes that could have happened and discuss the reasons why you would sue

example- was it a surgical mistake or was it the doctors fault saying i was recovered when i really wasnt

good luck and hope you feel better
First off, she had sex SEVEN weeks after surgery.

As for your situation, I'm sorry that it happened. However, I would doubt that you have a case. You signed an informed consent and should have gone over the risks and benefits before undergoing surgery. As your doctor said, it is a rare complication, but it's not unheard of. There doesn't need to be intestinal scarring or damage to the intestines to show they had been sutured in. What likely happened was that your incision did not heal well and dehisced. There are a lot of different causes to this, including nutrition status and how much someone weighs.

Again, sorry for what happened and I hope you recover soon.
Sometimes bad things just happen. I'm sorry to hear that it happened to you.

Before you had your surgery, you signed a consent form that said there are risks associated with surgery and that you understood that and wished to proceed with the procedure. Although what you had happen is rare, it is one of the known risks.

You'd have a very difficult time proving negligence in this case. In fact, if you are overweight, or a smoker, or have other diseases that could impair your ability to heal, that would be more likely to be where the "blame" lies. (If you must assign blame)

You should focus your energy on finding a way to feel better. You might consider consulting a different gynecologist, or a pain management specialist to work on your chronic pain.

Best of luck to you.
Pangolin is correct.

You already saw an attorney, who told you that you didn't have a good case. This means that if you sue, you will probably lose.

My (nonprofessional) advice: don't sue. You need to heal. Give it time. The pain may go away as you heal.
did your husband freak out or did he go and brag about it to his friends? i'm sure there's some guy out there who would start boasting to his buddies "yeah, i f***ed her so hard her guts fell out!"

The medicine and health information post by website user , ByeDR.com not guarantee correctness , is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice or treatment for any medical conditions.


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