If the surgery was for a work-related injury, Instacart or anyone acting for the company does not get to bully you out of a workers' comp claim because the surgeon screwed up.

And if the surgeon operated on the wrong body part, this usually stops being just a comp problem.

In New Jersey, those are often two separate tracks: the workers' comp claim for the job injury and medical care tied to it, and a malpractice claim against the surgeon or medical provider who botched the procedure. People get pushed into thinking they have to pick one. That is garbage.

The first fight is whether your injury belongs in workers' comp at all

This gets messy fast for Instacart shoppers because the company loves the independent contractor label.

But New Jersey is not shy about looking past labels. Newark-based gig workers hear one thing from the app and another from the real law. If you were doing the job, on an active batch, picking up at ShopRite on Springfield Avenue, heading into the Ironbound, carrying cases of water up apartment stairs in the Central Ward, and you got hurt in work connected activity, the comp question is not decided just because Instacart calls you a contractor in the app.

That matters because once medical treatment is tied to a work injury, the employer or carrier may be responsible for authorized treatment. If that treatment led to wrong-site surgery, the original claim does not vanish.

Your boss, supervisor, or some "safety" person saying "don't file comp, just use your own insurance" is usually about money, not your recovery. They know a comp claim creates records. It creates obligations. It creates a paper trail they can't wish away later.

Wrong-site surgery is not normal bad luck

A surgeon operating on the wrong knee, wrong hand, wrong shoulder, wrong side of the body, or even the wrong level of the spine is one of those facts that makes people stare because it sounds impossible.

It still happens.

And in Newark, whether the procedure was done at University Hospital, an ambulatory surgery center, or another North Jersey facility, the legal issue is basically the same: if the surgery was on the wrong body part, that may be malpractice on top of the workers' comp case.

Workers' comp covers job injuries without requiring you to prove fault.

A malpractice claim is different. That is about proving the medical provider screwed up.

Those claims can exist at the same time.

Here is the part most people miss

If the surgery was authorized through workers' comp, the insurance company may still try to act like the bad surgical outcome is just part of the comp case and nothing more.

That is convenient for them.

It may also be dead wrong.

New Jersey's workers' comp system usually protects the employer from ordinary injury lawsuits. It does not automatically protect outside doctors and hospitals from malpractice claims just because the treatment grew out of a work injury. So if the original injury happened while shopping or delivering for Instacart, and then a surgeon in a separate medical setting operated on the wrong body part, the doctor may still face a malpractice case.

That is why the pressure not to file comp is so dangerous. Delay the comp claim, and the company gets room to argue the surgery was not connected. Use your own health insurance, and now everybody starts pointing fingers.

What the pressure usually sounds like

In Newark, it often comes dressed up as concern.

• "Let's keep this off comp."
• "You're a contractor anyway."
• "Just get treated and we'll work it out."
• "If you file, there may not be more batches for you."

That last part starts drifting into retaliation territory.

New Jersey employers are not supposed to punish workers for pursuing comp benefits. With app-based work, the retaliation can be uglier because it does not always look like a formal firing. It can be reduced access, deactivation, fewer batch opportunities, or sudden account "issues." Same pressure, newer packaging.

Why timing matters in Essex County cases

The second your records show the wrong body part was operated on, preserve everything.

The operative report matters.

The consent forms matter.

The scheduling records matter.

Any text, email, or in-app message telling you not to report the injury through comp matters too. Screenshot it before it disappears. If a phone call happened, write down who called, when, and exactly what was said. The adjuster does not give a damn about your memory six months from now.

And do not assume your personal insurance carrier will quietly absorb this. If the surgery relates to a work injury, they may come back later asking why comp was not involved. Then you are stuck between a gig company denying employment, a comp carrier denying responsibility, and a medical provider blaming everyone else.

The practical answer in Newark

If your scheduled procedure was for a work-related injury and the surgeon operated on the wrong body part, you may be looking at both a workers' comp claim and a separate malpractice claim in New Jersey.

Instacart pressure not to file does not erase the claim.

The wrong-site surgery does not magically become "just part of recovery."

And if your access to work in Newark starts drying up right after you report it, that timing is not some innocent coincidence.