Bowel injury is a recurring complication at the centre of surgical malpractice litigation, arising during abdominal and pelvic procedures including laparoscopic surgery, gynaecological surgery, and hernia repair. The injury may be caused during the procedure itself, and the more consequential question is often whether it was recognized and addressed promptly.
An unrecognized bowel perforation can lead to peritonitis, sepsis, multiple further operations, and death, which is why the post-operative course features so heavily in these cases. Allegations commonly concern both the intra-operative event and the failure to recognize and act on signs of a developing complication in the days after surgery. The standard of care is established through expert evidence from the relevant surgical specialty, and causation often turns on the consequences of delay in recognizing and treating the injury rather than on the occurrence of the injury alone, since some bowel injuries can occur without negligence.
Posts tagged Bowel Injury analyze Ontario decisions involving intra-operative bowel injury and the recognition and management of its complications.
In Forget v Gibb, 2026 ONSC 626, the Ontario court dismissed a surgical negligence claim and delivered a sharp critique of the plaintiff’s expert.
The Supreme Court of British Columbia dismisses a prophylactic laparoscopic hysterectomy bowel injury claim where the plaintiff led no expert evidence. Informed consent, the modified objective test, and the indispensability of expert evidence.
Ontario Superior Court finds gynecologic surgeon liable for unrecognized intraoperative bowel injury. The duty to inspect framework in laparoscopic surgery.
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