Medical Errors

As a patient, you trust your doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals with your health and wellbeing. Unfortunately, sometimes healthcare professionals’ actions may be negligent or careless, sometimes even rising to the level of medical malpractice.

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Less than 10% of all medical errors are reported.

According to a Johns Hopkins University study

Medical Malpractice

According to a John Hopkins study, medical malpractice is the third leading cause of death in the United States, killing more than 250,000 Americans each year. If you or a loved one were harmed by a medical professional’s negligent or careless actions, you may be able to file a medical malpractice lawsuit. Contact Medfault to set up a free legal consultation with an experienced medical malpractice lawyer.

Medical Errors

What is Medical Malpractice?

Medical malpractice refers to when a healthcare professional fails to provide treatment that meets the reasonable standard of care within the medical community, leading to injury to a patient. When a doctor, nurse, surgeon, or healthcare professional is medically negligent, they may be held responsible for any losses they may cause.

A clear example of medical negligence is a doctor removing the wrong organ from a patient during surgery. In a case of medical negligence or malpractice, the victim may be awarded compensation if they are able to demonstrate that the negligent party was directly responsible for their injury.

What Damages Are Available in a Medical Malpractice Case?

A patient injured by a medical professional’s negligence or the family of a victim of medical malpractice may be awarded damages for the losses suffered from their injuries. These damages are intended to financially compensate victims for their losses and may include:

Types of Medical Malpractice Compensation

  • Medical bills: Past and future medical bills relating to your injuries may be compensable, as well as the cost of hospital stays, surgeries, doctor’s visits, therapy, prescriptions, and medical devices.
  • Loss of income and/or earning capacity: If you have to take time away from work due to your injuries, you may be able to recover these lost wages from a medical malpractice lawsuit. If you lose the ability to earn the same amount of income that you did prior to your injuries, you may be able to recover compensation for your diminished earning capacity.
  • Pain and suffering: Damages for pain and suffering are intended to compensate victims for the physical and mental pain they endured due to their injuries.
  • Loss of consortium: If medical malpractice led to the tragic death of the victim, the surviving spouse may be able to recover compensation for the loss of companionship by filing a wrongful death lawsuit. Compensation may also help cover funeral expenses, loss of financial support, and more in order to help alleviate the financial stress families commonly experience after a sudden loss.

Types of Medical Malpractice

Get Help

Medical malpractice can take many forms. Sometimes it is easy to detect, such as when a doctor performs the wrong operation or procedure. Other times malpractice may be harder to recognize, such as when a medical professional fails to order diagnostic tests that may have resulted in an earlier cancer diagnosis. A medical malpractice expert at MedFault can help investigate possible malpractice on your behalf.

The most common types of medical malpractice include the following.

Misdiagnosis or Delayed Diagnosis

A misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis can be devastating for a patient’s prognosis. It can cause pain, lasting health conditions, and sometimes even death. A delayed or misdiagnosis may be due to a doctor’s failure to adequately assess symptoms or a patient’s prior health history. It may also be caused by a failure to order appropriate testing or other negligent or careless actions.

 

Surgical Errors

Tragically, a patient may suffer serious injuries or even death due to preventable medical errors at the hands of negligent or careless doctors, surgeons, nurses, medical technicians, or other healthcare workers. This may include failure to monitor the patient’s vitals, failure to diagnose a dangerous medical condition that occurs during surgery, operating on the wrong patient, operating on the wrong body part, leaving surgical instruments in the patient’s body, and more.

Anesthesia Errors

While anesthesia always carries the risk of complications arising, the improper usage of anesthesia may lead to serious harm. A negligent anesthesiologist can be held liable for medical malpractice. Examples of negligent actions by an anesthesiologist include administering too much or too little anesthesia, using the wrong type of anesthesia, and failure to properly administer anesthesia.

Medical Errors

Healthcare professionals such as doctors, pharmacies, hospitals, and nursing homes may commit errors when administering prescriptions to patients. Some examples may include writing the wrong prescription, incorrectly filling a prescription, prescribing an incorrect dosage, prescribing to the wrong patient, and failing to check the patient’s health history and other medications before prescribing.

Serious Medical Errors Include:

  • Compartment syndrome
  • Septic shock
  • Staph infection
  • Amputation
  • Delayed cancer diagnosis
  • Delayed heart disease diagnosis
  • Death

Featured Medical Errors

We rely on healthcare providers, hospitals, doctors, and other medical professionals to help improve our health. Sometimes, they can make critical errors that result in serious consequences.

Septic Shock

Medical Malpractice

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Compartment Syndrome

Medical Malpractice

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Staph Infection

Medical Malpractice

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