Medical Negligence: What You Need To Know

The sad truth is that professionals make mistakes. When those mistakes are made by medical professionals, the results can be disastrous, life-altering, and deadly. Knowing an error occurred does not establish liability, however. You must show that your injuries were a direct result of the doctor’s neglect. Your attorney must also be able to show that the doctor or his staff did not meet the “standard of care” in that doctor’s specialty.

Big Problems

What that means is that a claim for medical malpractice must be founded on something much more serious than dissatisfaction with the results of a procedure. A medical malpractice attorney in Columbus, OH, explains the different types of physician negligence and how it occurs. According to the attorney, here are a few things you should know about medical negligence.

Surgical Errors

There have been satirical stories about doctors leaving items inside of patients after an operation. Sadly, it happens, and the medical profession admits this should never happen. In such cases, the negligence of the doctor or staff is obvious, and no expert testimony is required. There are cases that require expertise, however; such as when a doctor operates on the wrong part of the body or the wrong patient. These types of medical negligence are rare, but they still occur.

Medication Errors

Doling out medicine following the doctor’s orders is often the job of an overworked nurse. If the doctor scribbles the information, and it is read wrong or illegible, there can often be a problem providing the correct amount or the proper medication. This type of error happens daily in hospitals across the United States. Doctors can also prescribe the wrong medication, the wrong dosage, or give medication to the wrong patient; and nurses are so busy they don’t catch the mistakes or can be part of the problem by giving the incorrect medication or dosage to the patient.

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Anesthesia Errors

Considered as part of nearly every surgical process, anesthesia and surgery work together, but mistakes can result in tragic complications or devastating deaths. If the anesthesiologist administers the wrong dose of medication or medication the patient is allergic to, the results could be brain death, heart failure, or a patient waking in the middle of the operation. These difficulties sound as if they are right out of a horror story, but truth is often stranger than fiction, and in this case, each of these problems has occurred numerous times in hospitals across the United States.

Diagnosis Errors

An old adage says you see what you are looking for and that can certainly be the case of some doctors as they misdiagnose a condition or fail to see what would be plain to a more competent doctor. Sometimes the patient seeks a second opinion, and the problem is caught, but other times, the patient suffers significant pain and sometimes death. To prove this type of inaccurate diagnosis or incompetent treatment, an expert witness would be required to explain the actions of a doctor under the expected ‘standard of care’ and how the defendant doctor did not show that expected level of care the law required.

Birth Errors

Perhaps the saddest and most devastating errors can occur during the birthing process. When the standard of professional care isn’t met during childbirth, the newborn may suffer lifelong injuries, including spinal problems, nerve damage, paralysis, broken bones, and brain damage. Whether the problem is a result of a failure to recognize a medical condition before birth, during the birthing process, or shortly after childbirth, if a recognized “standard of care” isn’t met, the doctor is said to have committed a birthing or childbirth malpractice error.

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Medical malpractice occurs every day across the United States. Doctors are not above the law and shouldn’t be allowed to hurt people. If you feel you are a medical malpractice victim, contact a lawyer right away.

 

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