Surgery is supposed to heal — not cause new harm. Yet thousands of patients every year are injured by preventable surgical errors: wrong-site procedures, retained instruments, nerve damage, and critical mistakes that should never have happened. When a surgeon's negligence changes your life, you deserve an attorney who understands the medicine as deeply as the law.
Herb Borroto, M.D., J.D. is a physician-turned-attorney who reads operative reports with a trained medical eye — identifying exactly where surgical technique deviated from the standard of care. That is the advantage that sets our firm apart in surgical malpractice cases.
By Alex Alvarez, Board Certified Civil Trial Lawyer • Reviewed by Herb Borroto, M.D., J.D., Medical-Legal Expert • Last reviewed:
Surgical errors take many forms, but they share one trait in common: they are preventable. When a surgeon or surgical team fails to follow the standard of care, the consequences for the patient can be catastrophic. Below are some of the most common types of surgical errors that give rise to malpractice claims.
Operating on the wrong body part, the wrong side, or even the wrong patient. These "never events" are entirely preventable and represent a fundamental breakdown in surgical safety protocols, including the failure to follow pre-operative verification checklists and time-out procedures mandated by every hospital.
Sponges, clamps, needles, and other instruments left inside the body after surgery. Retained foreign bodies can cause infections, internal bleeding, organ perforation, and severe pain — often requiring additional surgery to remove. Instrument counts exist specifically to prevent this, and failure to perform them correctly is clear negligence.
Severed, stretched, or compressed nerves during surgery can result in chronic pain, numbness, loss of motor function, or permanent paralysis. While some nerve proximity is unavoidable, a competent surgeon understands the relevant anatomy and takes every precaution to identify and protect nerve structures. Failure to do so can constitute a deviation from the standard of care.
Accidental puncture or laceration of organs — such as the bowel, bladder, or blood vessels — during laparoscopic, abdominal, or other surgeries. Unrecognized organ damage can lead to sepsis, internal hemorrhaging, and life-threatening emergencies. When a surgeon fails to identify and repair the damage before closing, the consequences are often devastating.
Improper dosing, failure to review patient history for contraindications, inadequate monitoring during the procedure, or delayed response to anesthesia complications. Anesthesia errors can result in brain damage from oxygen deprivation, allergic reactions, awareness during surgery, cardiovascular collapse, and death. These are among the most dangerous and most preventable surgical mistakes.
Uncontrolled hemorrhage during or after surgery caused by a surgeon's failure to properly identify and ligate blood vessels, inadequate surgical technique, or failure to address known bleeding risks. When blood loss goes unmanaged, it can lead to hypovolemic shock, organ failure, emergency transfusions, and death. Competent surgeons anticipate and prepare for bleeding risks before the first incision is ever made.
Using outdated methods, failing to follow established surgical protocols, or performing a procedure the surgeon is not adequately trained to perform. Improper technique encompasses a wide range of errors — from incorrect incision placement to improper closure, from failure to maintain a sterile field to inadequate tissue handling. These deviations from accepted practice often result in complications that a competent surgeon would have avoided.
While some surgical site infections occur despite proper care, others result directly from negligence: failure to maintain sterile technique during the procedure, inadequate wound care instructions, failure to administer prophylactic antibiotics when indicated, or ignoring early signs of infection during post-operative follow-up. Untreated surgical infections can lead to sepsis, tissue necrosis, amputation, and death.
A surgical procedure is not a single event — it is a continuum of care that spans pre-operative planning, the operation itself, and post-operative monitoring. Negligence can occur at any phase, and understanding where the failure happened is critical to building a strong malpractice case. As a trained physician, Herb Borroto, M.D., J.D. evaluates all three phases when reviewing surgical records.
Before any incision is made, a surgeon has a duty to thoroughly plan the procedure. Pre-operative failures include inadequate review of the patient's medical history, failure to order necessary imaging or laboratory tests, not identifying contraindications to surgery, and poor surgical planning that fails to account for anatomical variations or patient-specific risks.
A surgeon who rushes to the operating room without fully understanding the patient's anatomy, comorbidities, and risk factors is setting the stage for preventable harm. Informed consent failures also fall in this category — when a patient is not told about the material risks of a procedure or the available alternatives, they are deprived of the right to make an informed decision about their own body.
The operating room is where surgical skill, judgment, and vigilance matter most. Intra-operative errors include damage to surrounding nerves, organs, or blood vessels, failure to control bleeding, improper use of surgical instruments or energy devices, breakdown in communication among the surgical team, and failure to follow established surgical protocols for the procedure being performed.
These errors often stem from distraction, fatigue, inadequate training, or a surgeon operating outside their area of competence. In some cases, the error is compounded when the surgical team fails to recognize and correct the mistake before closing. Every operative report tells a story — and as a physician, Herb Borroto, M.D., J.D. knows how to read between the lines.
A surgeon's responsibility does not end when the procedure is over. Post-operative negligence includes failure to monitor vital signs adequately in the recovery period, delayed recognition and treatment of complications such as bleeding, infection, or blood clots, inadequate pain management, premature discharge, and failure to provide appropriate follow-up instructions.
Some of the most devastating surgical outcomes are not caused by mistakes in the operating room itself, but by the failure to catch and treat complications in the hours and days that follow. When warning signs like rising fever, dropping blood pressure, or increasing pain are ignored or dismissed, a treatable complication can rapidly become a life-threatening emergency. Timely intervention saves lives — and failure to intervene is negligence.
Surgical malpractice cases are won or lost on the medical evidence. The operative report, anesthesia record, nursing notes, and pathology findings all contain critical details that determine whether the standard of care was met. Most attorneys cannot read these records themselves — they rely entirely on hired expert witnesses to interpret the medicine for them.
Herb Borroto, M.D., J.D. is different. With a medical degree and hands-on clinical training, he reads operative reports the way a surgeon would — understanding the anatomy, the instruments, the technique, and the decision-making at each step. He can identify exactly where a surgeon deviated from the accepted standard of care without depending solely on an outside expert's interpretation.
This dual expertise means he catches details that other attorneys miss. He knows which questions to ask during depositions because he understands the medical realities behind the answers. He can challenge defense experts on their own terms because he speaks their language. And he can explain complex surgical concepts to a jury in a way that is clear, compelling, and grounded in genuine medical knowledge.
When your case involves a surgical error, the difference between an attorney who understands medicine and one who does not can be the difference between winning and losing. With Herb Borroto, M.D., J.D. on your side, you get an advocate who brings both the medical insight and the legal tenacity needed to hold negligent surgeons accountable.
Herb reviews surgical records, operative notes, anesthesia logs, and pathology reports with a trained physician's understanding — identifying deviations from standard of care that non-medical attorneys simply cannot see on their own.
During depositions, Herb asks the questions that matter — because he already understands the medical answers. This allows him to expose inconsistencies in defense expert testimony and pin down the critical admissions that strengthen your case.
Complex surgical procedures and anatomical terminology can confuse a jury. Herb bridges the gap between medical complexity and legal persuasion, explaining exactly what went wrong in terms that jurors understand and remember.
In surgical error cases, the pivotal question is: at what specific moment did the surgeon's technique deviate from what a reasonably competent surgeon would have done? Herb's medical training enables him to pinpoint that exact moment with clinical precision.
Surgical errors can upend every aspect of your life — physically, emotionally, and financially. When a surgeon's negligence causes you harm, Florida law entitles you to seek compensation for the full scope of your damages. While every case is unique, the following categories represent the types of losses that may be recoverable in a surgical malpractice claim.
Costs for corrective surgeries, hospital readmissions, rehabilitation, physical therapy, prescription medications, assistive devices, and all future medical care necessitated by the surgical error. This includes the cost of treating complications that never should have occurred in the first place.
Income lost during your extended recovery, as well as diminished future earning capacity if the surgical error resulted in a permanent impairment that limits your ability to work. This includes lost benefits, missed promotions, and the long-term economic impact of being unable to return to your previous occupation.
The physical pain, emotional distress, anxiety, depression, loss of enjoyment of life, and mental anguish caused by the surgical error and its aftermath. Surgical complications often mean additional painful procedures, prolonged recovery periods, and the psychological toll of knowing that your suffering was entirely preventable.
Permanent functional limitations resulting from the surgical error — whether it is the loss of mobility from nerve damage, reduced organ function from a perforation, or any lasting physical impairment that affects your ability to live the life you had before the surgery. Disability compensation accounts for the permanent impact on your independence and daily activities.
Visible scarring, physical deformity, or permanent alteration in appearance caused by a botched surgical procedure. Disfigurement affects not only your physical appearance but also your self-confidence, personal relationships, and overall quality of life. The emotional and psychological toll of living with a disfigurement that was caused by negligence is a compensable harm under Florida law.
Every surgical malpractice case is unique. Contact us for a free, confidential review of your case by a physician-attorney who understands the medicine.
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If you or a loved one has been harmed by a surgical error, you likely have many questions. Below are answers to some of the most common questions we receive about surgical malpractice claims in Florida.
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If you or a loved one suffered harm from a preventable surgical mistake, you deserve an attorney who understands both the medicine and the law. Herb Borroto, M.D., J.D. will personally review your surgical records with the eye of a trained physician and the strategy of a trial lawyer.
Your consultation is completely free, completely confidential, and comes with zero obligation. We handle all surgical malpractice cases on a contingency fee basis — no fees unless we recover money for you.
