Early Hospital Discharge Can Be A Death Sentence

New York medical malpractice comes in many different forms, including something as simple as discharging a patient. That is, treating a patient and then discharging a patient too soon. This may not sound like medical malpractice at all, and many patients who are discharged early and end up coming back to the hospital may not even notice that it is medical malpractice. But hospital re-admissions are one of the leading causes of unnecessary healthcare expenses. And while must patients may not notice the re-admission being medical malpractice, the number of patients who end up dying will.

Dying.

That is because some hospital early discharges can neglect treatment for some major medical conditions. Take chest pain. There could be hundreds of causes of chest pain from indigestion to a heart attack. But when a hospital staff fails to adequately treat the chest pain or to rule out some dangerous causes, ti can result in the death of a patient.

Take a patient who has chest pain. A healthcare provider thinks it would be heartburn or indigestion and a strong pain medication and antacid is administered. The patient no longer has any chest pain, because of the strong pain medication, and the staff send the patient home. When the patient gets home, he or she goes to take a nap.

However, the patient actually was having a heart attack. The strong pain medication decreased the feelings of pain and discomfort. The patient takes a nap and never wakes up because the heart attack gets even worse and causes his or her death. That is medical malpractice.

Other times a patient has a medical procedure and is discharged too early before symptoms of a mistake may show. For instance, if a patient has a colonoscopy or stomach surgery like an appendectomy, signs of secondary infection may not show up for several hours. It is during these hours which a patient could be set home, not know the signs and symptoms, and an infection can result in serious personal injuries or death.

Again, this is medical malpractice all due to an early discharge. Healthcare providers can be liable for damages when this occurs.