Sustaining a sports injury is a traumatic event in itself. Apart from the initial and ongoing pain and discomfort, you also have the disruption to your training routine, and you could be forced to reassess your goals. If it’s severe enough, it may even overlap with other areas of your life, meaning that you could be unable to work or keep up with your social commitments. For this reason, nobody will blame you for opting for surgery to get the problem fixed and get your life back on track as soon as possible.
However, if the corrective procedure doesn’t go as planned due to medical negligence or misdiagnosis, then it can be an even greater blow to your health, fitness, and overall well-being. Of course, you’re going to be angry, but you might not be aware of what to do next, especially as you’re likely not to be thinking clearly at this point. To help with this, here are some steps you should consider to get yourself back on the right path.
#1 Immediate actions
If it’s clear that the operation hasn’t gone well, then you need to seek further medical attention to ensure that no further damage has been done. This could involve bleeding or infections that could become a very serious problem, so you should have these attended to immediately.
In some cases, the signs that the medical professionals involved didn’t diagnose you correctly might not be quite as obvious, so you should seek a second opinion. This may clarify whether or not you had the wrong expectations or if the medical professionals had the wrong diagnosis.
#2 Seek help
After such an event, it’s going to be clear that you should seek help from professionals because the situation is simply going to be too big to deal with on your own. This help will fall into three main areas.
Rehabilitation
With you now potentially in a worse situation than when you sustained the injury, you need to seek out the right physical therapist to help you. While the situation is being resolved (and further surgery might have to be scheduled), they can provide you with a list of dos and don’ts for your daily life and exercises that could help the affected area.
Legal action
If the outcome of the procedure is considered to be due to medical misdiagnoses, then you should seek out the help of medical misdiagnosis lawyers who can advise you on the best course of action. They’ll be able to tell you if there’s potential for a lawsuit and any potential settlement that you might receive as a result. If this turns out to be a viable way forward, you should look to secure all medical records related to your diagnosis and any subsequent procedures. This will include any doctors’ notes, X-rays, and scans that took place.
Emotional and psychological support
It’s not just your body that has been affected by misdiagnosis and any subsequent action, your mental state will have also taken quite a serious hit. Of course, talking to friends and family about this will help, but you’re likely to find that their lack of knowledge about how this has affected you frustrating. For this reason, you might wish to consider professional counseling or joining a support group (which could even be online) where people will understand the exact situation you’re in and can empathize with you, as well as provide support.
#3 Look forward
You didn’t want this to happen, but the fact is that it has, and you need to be able to deal with it, at least in the short term. The first step is to educate yourself and stay informed about the mistakes that were made, as this can help you to come to terms with what happened.
You should also look at the full implications of your current situation and consult your employer about how you can continue working for them. If you have your own business, you should contact clients and make them aware of the delay in having your predicament resolved and see how you can still fulfill your obligations to them.
To make all of this possible, you’ll need to look at ongoing treatments and pain management, which might include alternative therapies, like acupuncture, to complement any existing regime. While all this is occurring, with the help and support that you’ve sought out, you should try to remain positive. This type of mindset can help you to deal with the unpleasant situation that you find yourself in and could even help with the speed of your recovery.
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