Nobody goes to the emergency room, a hospital, or a doctor's office anticipating getting hurt. The purpose of obtaining medical attention is to resolve your health issues, not to introduce new ones. And despite a healthcare system that effectively serves millions of patients each year, there are also instances where patients have suffered catastrophic injuries due to medical professionals' incompetence.
Examples of Medical Malpractice Injury Claims
Postoperative Carelessness
Even if the procedure is done correctly, what occurs subsequently may give rise to medical malpractice claims. There might be a basis for negligence if the post-surgical treatment was subpar and crucial measures were skipped, which resulted in a severe infection. Due to the possibility of other causes contributing to infections and other post-surgical complications, this case is typically challenging to establish.
Failure to diagnose cancer in time
Most of the time, lumps and bumps are just that, but if a doctor brushes off common symptoms as benign and they turn out to be cancer, there may be grounds for a medical malpractice claim. Another method of missing a cancer diagnosis is by misreading blood tests.
In some situations, the patient might not learn the truth until the disease is advanced and therapy is no longer an option. The patient's chances of survival have dramatically decreased, which might take months or even years.
Improper anesthesia during treatment
Using the incorrect type or dosage of anesthetic during surgery might have serious consequences. Over 2,200 fatalities in the US were attributed to anesthesia between 1999 and 2005, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Medical personnel might have committed malpractice if they administered the incorrect anesthetic to a patient with an underlying disease or pharmaceutical allergy that went unnoticed.
Complications During Childbirth
We are all aware that delivery is not always easy. If an emergency C-section was required but not recognized, and the woman or infant suffered harm, there may be grounds for a case of negligence.
Erroneous Blood Clot Diagnosis
Misdiagnosing a blood clot can have fatal repercussions, and problems like DVT can lead to deadly strokes or pulmonary embolisms. It may not always be possible to demonstrate medical malpractice when an illness is misdiagnosed, particularly when the symptoms overlap with those of more minor chronic complications. Any clinician may have made the same error under the same circumstances.
Errors in medication prescriptions
Everyone has heard news reports about people passing away after taking the wrong prescription medicine or the correct medicine in the wrong dosage. A patient might die if they are allergic to even one of the chemicals of a specific drug.
Fortunately, pharmacists are the final line of protection when filling prescriptions and can spot any mistakes. However, if there is a mistake and something goes wrong, the doctor who ordered the drug will still be responsible.
Heart disease and other undiagnosed conditions
Comparable to failing to diagnose cancer, failing to recognize an existing problem like heart disease when another doctor in a similar situation would have done so might lead to legal action. The medical team's carelessness will be an issue if a patient receives a clean bill of health, goes about their everyday activities, and has a heart attack not long after.