Hello r/legaladvice, I appreciate your time with my questions.

Here's some background so you can understand where I'm coming from. My father had a myriad of health problems, one of which was a large umbilical hernia. Upon surgery to fix this, it was discovered that a portion was beyond saving and had to be resected. While not the best outcome, it was something that had to be done. He also had end-stage renal disease and was on dialysis, the version he could do at home by means of a passive fluid exchange through the peritoneal cavity (between the skin/muscle layer and the sack that contains your abdominal organs). Because that type of dialysis requires the expansion of the peritoneal cavity, it was not able to be done during his healing process from the hernia surgery. Every intention was to get him back on peritoneal dialysis after he was healed, as the hemo-dialysis was really hard on him.

Here is where I'm thinking some malpractice occurred: After being healed from the hernia surgery, Dad went in to have a small procedure done to clear out some adhesions that had formed between his skin/muscle layer and his peritoneal wall that would impede the expansion for his dialysis, as well as to reposition his catheter, which had slipped out of place during his surgery previously. During the surgery, the surgeon nicked his bowel, causing a perforation, which led to another bowel resection of several inches.

It was decided after this that he was no longer a candidate for peritoneal dialysis, and I believe that was a factor in his death earlier this year among other issues. I believe his quality of life would have been much better without the second bowel resection caused by the surgeon, which may have helped him fight his other illnesses. The whole situation caused a lot of pain and suffering to him and to my family.

My question: This surgery happened about 2 years ago, what are the limitations for this type of case? Is it actually malpractice? Or is it more of a pain and suffering type of situation? Would it be worth pursuing?

I firmly believe that this surgeon should not be practicing, it really set back my Dad's progress. He was 61 when he died, and while he had many other health problems, I feel like he would still be here fighting without this whole mess.

Thank you for your time and any advice you can give me.