An injury that happens during a medical procedure, usually while surgery is actively being performed, is called an intraoperative injury.

That can include damage to an organ, nerve, blood vessel, or other body part caused by a surgical instrument, positioning, anesthesia-related problems, burns from equipment, or mistakes made inside the operating room. Some intraoperative injuries are known risks of a procedure and can happen even when the surgical team acts appropriately. Others may point to medical malpractice if the harm resulted from a preventable error, poor planning, lack of monitoring, or a failure to respond to trouble once it started.

The difference matters a lot in a legal claim. A bad outcome during surgery is not automatically negligence, just like a crash on a tight road with no shoulder is not automatically one driver's fault. In these cases, lawyers and medical experts look closely at the standard of care, the patient's records, the operative report, and whether the injury was a recognized complication or a preventable mistake. That often affects causation and damages.

In New York, most medical malpractice lawsuits are governed by CPLR 214-a, which generally gives a patient 2 years and 6 months from the malpractice or from the end of continuous treatment for the same condition. Timing can be critical because an intraoperative injury may not be fully discovered until after surgery, during recovery, or when a second procedure becomes necessary.