Needles Are Dangerous And Need To Be Properly Cared For

Possibly the best way to stay well and healthy is to practice good cleaning and hygiene.  We are all taught from a young age to wash our hands, keep cloths clean, and to be overall hygienic.  It doesn’t take a medical professional’s guidance to understand such.  But of course, medical professionals are trained rigorously on the need to keep hands and forearms clean and to wear protective gloves when treating patients.

With that said, experienced medical malpractice attorneys in the Hudson Valley regions of New York know that all medical professionals do not exercise diligence in regard to proper cleaning and sterilization processes.  Specifically, doctors, nurses, surgeons, anesthesiologists, and dentists sometimes fail to properly sterilize needles before injecting a patient.

Nursing homes, outpatient clinics, medical clinics, and the like that even you may have visited may be injecting patients with unsterilized or improperly sterilized needles.  In fact, in the recent ten plus years, there may have been over 150,000 improper injections in the United States of America.

The danger of such is severe.  Diseases can spread rapidly and patients can die if a dirty needle is inserted into their bodies.  Infections can easily occur.  If the patient is already ill, their recovery times can vastly be extended.

While states and the federal governments can and do regulate medical facilities, it is impossible for the government to inspect every needle before it is inserted into a patient.  The medical profession itself must police its own behaviors in regard to proper sterilization of needles.

For the overwhelming amount of doctors, proper sterilization methods are used.  And in fact, the medical profession has standards and guidelines addressing such.  Following these guidelines are part of standard practice and are included within a medical professional’s duty of care to patients.

So what happens when a doctor or other medical professional does not properly sterilize a needle and then uses it on a patient?  Readers should know right away that such is a form of negligence; it is medical malpractice.

If the patient is injured by the dirty needle, having been transmitted a disease and or developed an infection, then the negligent medical professional can be held accountable in a court of law.  Moreover, any person that should have been supervising the negligent medical professional can be held accountable as well.  In fact, the medical facility that which employed the negligent medical professional can be held accountable for the patient’s injuries if that facility knew that dirty needles were used, or if the facility did not implement policies and procedures for ensuring that needles were properly sterilized.

Readers should be mindful of these issues if they have developed illnesses and or infections after receiving an injection.

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.