The Journal of the American Medical Association states that besides cancer and heart disease, medical negligence is one of the leading causes of death in the United States. It has been estimated that around 98,000 people pass out each year after sustaining injuries from different form of medical malpractices.
Alarming, right?
Now, are you aware at all that when you can consider yourself a potential victim of medical malpractice and can sue your doctor? Medical malpractice takes place when a health care expert deviates from the established “standard of care” while treating a patient, causing injury or damage to the individual. This act of negligence can take place as the result of errors in diagnosis, treatment, health management or aftercare.
In this article, you will get an overview of different types of medical errors made by health care practitioners. It will help you to determine that under what circumstances you can consider yourself a victim of medical malpractice.
Misdiagnosis or Delayed Diagnosis
Delay in diagnosis or improper treatment accounts as one of the major causes of medical malpractice complaints. When a medical professional fails to diagnose a specific health condition or disease, the patient suffers considerably and it sometimes even causes death. Now, in order to prove a medical malpractice claim based on delayed diagnosis or incorrect treatment, you will have to show the incompetence of your doctor in handling your case. If a competent and skillful doctor in same specialty would not have made the diagnostic mistake under similar circumstances, then your treating doctor is liable for malpractice.
Childbirth Injuries
A large percentage of fetal injuries are caused by negligence in diagnosis. It includes brain injuries like seizure disorders and cerebral palsy. Bone fracture or klumpke’s palsy that causes damage to nerves that control the hands and arm are other common childbirth injuries. However, these injuries are not only caused due to the negligence of doctor during childbirth but also due to the negligence during prenatal care.
Take note of the common examples of prenatal care negligent that physicians often make:
· Fail to diagnose any specific medical condition of the mother, like preeclampsia, hypoglycemia, Rh incompatibility and other diseases.
· Fail to identify any birth complications due to the large size of the baby or tangled umbilical cord.
· Failure to identify the signs of fetal distress.
· Failure to treat any disease that could prove contagious to the fetus.
Anesthesia Errors
Anesthesia mistakes are very dangerous and even a minor error by the anesthesiologist can lead to brain damage, permanent injury or even death. Keep in mind that an anesthesiologist is liable to medical malpractice even before doing anesthesia, like failure in doing proper investigation of the medical history of the concerned patient to anticipate possible complications.
Surgery Errors
A number of medical malpractice claims also arise from errors that happen in the operating room. The surgeon can do mistake while performing the surgery itself like operating the wrong body part or leaving surgical instruments inside the body of the patient.
Medication Errors
A recent study has revealed that around 1.5 million people in the US suffer due to medication error. This may take place in a number of ways – from the initial prescription to prescribing of drugs. Most common medication errors involve prescribing wrong or incorrect dosage of medicine to the patient.
These are few common types of medical malpractices made by doctors and you can always claim compensation from your health care provider in such circumstances. However, to obtain the best possible settlement it is always recommended to get in touch with competent medical malpractice lawyer, since the process of achieving successful claim is quite stressful and time consuming. Attorneys specialized in this field will deal with the insurance companies effectively to increase the settlement value of your claim. So, contact experienced law firms for effective representation of your case.
