Medical Malpractice Caused By Mistakes In Patient Care

Hospitals

Mistakes happen every day in every possible setting or situation.  Nobody is perfect, not even experienced medical professionals.  It is fair to say that most mistakes can be corrected.  When the risks are high, mistakes can still be corrected.  They can be frustrating even when harmless.  But when they are not harmless, the offending parties can be held accountable in a civil court.

Experienced medical malpractice attorneys in the Hudson Valley region of New York know the difference between a harmless medical error and those mistakes that rise to the level of negligence.  Be aware now that medical malpractice is about negligence; a civil wrong for which the law provides a remedy.

When a treating physician commits an act during the course of treating a patient and such harms the patient and another similarly situated doctor wound not have committed such an act, the offending physician has committed medical malpractice.

Negligence in the medical setting happens routinely.  Surgical patients have the wrong surgeries performed.  Patients receive wrong medications and wrong dosages; either by a doctor, nurse, or a pharmacist.  Hospital patients are sent packing without being fit for discharge.  Diagnoses are missed entirely or are improper.

When this happens, the treating medical professional has breached his or her duty of reasonable care.  Injuries that are entirely foreseeable and preventable nonetheless occur.  Saying this is easier than proving it.  All accusations must be substantiated.  And during a medical malpractice trial, experts will testify as to the duty that the treating defendant doctor was bound by.  The expert will also testify as to how that duty was breached.

Other experts will show the jury that the breach and the injury are causally connected.  And even more experts will testify as to the patient’s damages.  Pain and suffering will be quantified by economic experts and medical expenses, lost wages, and lost earning potential will be tallied.

Here are some examples of actual medical mistakes that amounted to medical malpractice.

  • Surgeon repaired the wrong artery on a bypass surgery patient
  • Surgeon amputated the wrong leg
  • Brain surgery performed on the wrong side of the patient’s head
  • Patient waiting for discharge was brought to a surgical room and prepped for surgery; the hospital staff brought the wrong person to surgery
  • Ear surgery performed on the wrong ear; such being done with intent
  • Improper administration of anesthesia during surgery causing the patient to remain conscious during the procedure
  • Medical sponges left inside a patient’s body causing infection, pain, suffering and requiring the patient to undergo an otherwise unneeded surgical procedure
  • Wrong kidney removed from a patient

This is just a sampling of medical malpractice events.  Many more things can and do go wrong that would not have gone wrong had the doctor not been negligent.

But what do you think?  I would love to hear from you!  Leave a comment or I also welcome your phone call on my toll-free cell at 1-866-889-6882 or you can drop me an e-mail at jfisher@fishermalpracticelaw.com.  You are always welcome to request my FREE book, The Seven Deadly Mistakes of Malpractice Victims, at the home page of my website at www.protectingpatientrights.com.