Over Treatment And Mammograms: New York Medical Malpractice To Be Aware Of

There are many different types of New York medical malpractice, including surgical errors, anesthesia mistakes, medication errors, and other incidents. But one type of New York medical malpractice is actually something you may not normally associate with medical malpractice. And that is treatment, or more specifically over treatment.

One common area of over treatment is breast cancer. A mammogram is an important tool to help healthcare providers diagnose potential breast cancer in a patient. As with all cancers, early diagnosis is the single most important element of treating it successfully.

However, news outlets are reporting that mammograms are actually resulting in over treatment of breast cancer. That is because a mammogram may reveal small lumps or irregularities, which clearly are not cancerous, but triggers an inherent fear in both a patient and a doctor to immediately treat it and remove it.

Now a patient has to undergo an unnecessary surgery. While most surgeries occur without issue, obviously there will be more instances of surgical errors, infections, mistakes, and other issues then if there were no unnecessary surgeries—that is obvious. Said differently, there will be more instances of surgical medical malpractice to remove benign tumors then if the patient did not undergo the surgery.

This is why over treatment and intense preventative medicine can actually be more dangerous. They can unnecessarily expose patients to dangerous medical treatment. It can even result in the death of a patient, particularly due to serious infections such as anti-biotic resistant types, or anesthesia overdoses.

Additionally, it can result in intense emotional injury to a patient if she believes there may be something cancerous that she must undergo surgical intervention for. This is very devastating for a patient and can result in very real harm.

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.