Common Errors To Know In Medical Malpractice

We all learn very early in childhood that when feeling sick, one goes to the doctor for help.  The doctor figures out the problem and the patient gets better.  This is the most basic understanding of medical care.  Now of course, sometimes the patient’s illness is harder to diagnose and the treatment needed to cure the ailment can be lengthy.  Even surgery may be needed.   But with that said, one expects that a doctor will correctly diagnose and treat the illness.

Unfortunately, an experienced Kingston medical malpractice attorney sees many cases in which patients were negligently diagnosed and or treated.  It happens in many situations: during surgery; after surgery; misdiagnoses; failures to diagnose; errors during childbirth; during pre-natal care; and even anesthesia and medication errors.

Surgical errors happen in many ways.  The very procedure itself could have been performed below the standard that which the medical profession prescribes.  The surgery can be performed on the wrong side of the patient.  The surgery can be performed on the wrong patient.

Many surgical procedures require the administration of anesthesia.  Slight miscalculations in such administration can cause the patient to slip into a coma; cause brain damage; and can even cause death.  If too little anesthesia is administered, the patient may experience the pain that anesthesia was meant to prevent.

If you have not had surgery, or if you have not discussed surgery with someone that has been operated on, perhaps reading about birthing errors and mistakes made during pre-natal care will shed more light on the issue of medical malpractice.  Since over four million children are born in the United States of America every year, chances are that readers will have their own children or at least know others who have given birth.

Medical malpractice related to child birth can happen long before the date of delivery.  Doctors have been known to misdiagnose and or fail to diagnose the expectant mother’s medical condition that which could lead to birthing complications.  Failing to diagnose gestational diabetes is a good example.   But the unborn child may too have a disease or defect that should have been found, but wasn’t.

Mistakes happen during birthing as well.   A baby’s low heart rate can be missed, forceps could be used negligently, and even cesarean sections aren’t used when they should be used.  Medication can be administered at a point during the birth when medication should not be administered.

Medical malpractice related to negligent administration of medicine happens in many situations.  The wrong medicine can be prescribed.  The wrong dosage can be described.  Even if the medicine and dosage prescribed was accurate, the medicine can be administered wrong.

In the end, the patient is injured when such injury could have been prevented.  In fact, the medical malpractice arose because the treating doctor did not act as would have another similarly situated doctor under the same circumstances.

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.