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Like all people, doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers occasionally make mistakes. Sadly, these malpractices often lead to their patients experiencing pain, injury or even death. According to studies, injuries caused by medical malpractices are the third leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer.
For a medical mistake to be considered malpractice, the patient must have been injured and prove that the injury is a direct result of malpractice. Here are eight common reasons to contact a medical malpractice lawyer.
Misdiagnosis
A misdiagnosis occurs when a doctor provides the wrong test results or diagnosis, leading to the patient receiving the wrong treatment. By the time the mistake is realized, it may be too late to undo treatments or accompanying side effects. If you’ve been misdiagnosed and have suffered negative results, there might be legal options available to you.
Surgical Errors
Surgical errors, such as leaving tools inside the patient, wrong-site surgery, anesthesia error, and operating on the wrong patient often result from fatigue or miscommunication. If surgical errors are not caught, they may result in the injured party filing a medical malpractice lawsuit.
Childbirth Complications
According to the CDC, 17.4 women out of every 100,000 die during childbirth every year. While the percentages of these deaths vary based on the mother’s age, ethnicity and race, some of them are due to negligence. If your loved one was injured or died as a result of poor care during childbirth, you could be entitled to compensation.
Medication Errors and Failure to Monitor the Patient
While a significant part of a healthcare provider’s role is to monitor their patients, some fail to do so. If the doctor’s prescription is correct, it’s possible that the pharmacist fills it wrongly. Recent research by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies has shown that up to 1.5 million Americans die or become sick after being prescribed and given the wrong medicine.
Emergency Room Mistakes
Considering that doctors are dealing with a wide range of illnesses, injuries, and conditions, emergency rooms can be chaotic. In their rush to contain situations, doctors and staff may misdiagnose, fail to treat a serious injury, or even prescribe the wrong medication. This could have serious long-term effects and qualify you for a malpractice suit.
Negligent Trauma Care
The most common problem physicians face is performing surgeries when they are tired or mentally distracted. While this may sound basic, distractions such as sleep deprivation and pressing personal problems might be good reasons to have another surgeon perform the surgery. If you’re the victim of negligent trauma care, there might be legal options you can pursue.
Health-Acquired Infections
Also known as HAIs, these infections can rapidly spread and even lead to death. These infections include catheter-associated urinary tract infections, central line-associated bloodstream infections, and surgical site infections. Victims of health-acquired infections could have grounds to file a lawsuit.
Delayed Diagnosis
A delayed diagnosis occurs when a doctor delays performing tests even though there is reason to do so. For example, when a patient arrives at the hospital complaining of stomach ache and the doctor delays testing only to find out later that the patient has a dangerous cyst. Prompt diagnosis and treatment are essential to prevent situations like this, and if you don’t receive timely care you could file a lawsuit for compensation
Work With a Reputable Medical Malpractice Lawyer
Since medical malpractice is a highly complicated area of the law, victims should speak with a medical malpractice lawyer who has experience handling these types of cases. If you or a loved one is a victim of medical malpractice, contact Napoli Shkolnik for a free case evaluation with a skilled lawyer.