When proper medical care is not provided to a patient, it can result in medical malpractice, which is typically committed by a doctor, nurse, or other medical professional. It is a rare occurrence for doctors or nurses to make mistakes, but when they do, the same types of mistakes are often made.
In order to prove that medical malpractice has occurred, the victim has to show that the health care provider breached the standard of care of what a careful health care provider would do in the same or similar circumstance led to the injury that occurred. The victim will also need to prove that there was a doctor-patient relationship present when the malpractice occurred.
Delayed or Misdiagnosis
A common type of medical malpractice is that of a delayed diagnosis or a misdiagnosis of a patient’s condition. These issues account for a large amount of medical malpractice cases because they result in patients missing treatments that might have been able to prevent serious illness or even death.
In order to prove medical malpractice in a delayed diagnosis or misdiagnosis case, the patient must be able to prove what the treating doctor did differently than another doctor acting within the standard of care would have done and that there would have been a difference in the outcome.
Surgery Errors
We have all heard the horror stories on the news and on television shows where patients go in for surgery and instead of having their health problem corrected, they suffer permanent injuries from the surgery or complications from the surgery. Some complications are the risk of the procedure and are not the result of negligence. Others are the result of the doctor or nurses not following the proper procedures during the surgery.
Surgical errors that are rare but do occur include operating on the wrong part of the body, puncturing internal organs during the procedure, or nurses or hospital staff not overseeing the post operative care leading to postoperative complications becoming permanent injuries. These include failure to monitor oxygen saturations, failure monitor for signs of infection and many others.
Medication Errors
Medication errors are all too common a problem in the United States, with more than one million people harmed per year by medication errors. Medication errors occur in multiple forms, but the most common errors include a doctor writing the wrong dosage on the prescription or a medical professional who administers the medication providing too much and overdosing the patient.
Another type of medication error occurs when the doctor writes a prescription for a medication but the person filling the prescription misreads it and provides the wrong medication with a similar name.
In a more rare instance, the machine filling the prescription could malfunction, causing a higher dosage of medicine to be dispensed into the bottle without the knowledge of the doctor, nurse, or patient.
Injuries during Childbirth
Childbirth injuries are another form of medical malpractice that can lead to serious birth defects or even death. Some of the most common forms of childbirth injuries include the following:
- Cerebral palsy (usually the result of a hypoxic brain injury)
- Erb’s palsy
- Fractured bones
- Klumpke’s palsy
Medical malpractice can occur before childbirth, which is termed prenatal care. Doctors and nurses can make mistakes with the prenatal care of the patient by failing to diagnose any issues or illnesses with the pregnancy. These include preeclampsia, hypoglycemia, Rh incompatibility, gestational diabetes, and anemia.
If you or a loved one has been injured due to medical malpractice committed by a doctor or nurse, contact the law office of Carey, Danis & Lowe at 877-678-3400 or fill out our contact form and we will get back to you within 24 hours to discuss your case.
