Common Errors To Memorize As A Patient

Medical Malpractice Mistakes

Doctors make mistakes, heck we all do. Most people understand this and nobody should expect perfection. Even the law does not expect people to be perfect. Making a mistake does not mean that the offending person can be automatically sued. So, more than a mistake must take place.

The experienced Kingston medical malpractice attorney knows this all too well. The mistake that is made by a medical professional must rise to the level of negligence; a failure to adhere to the duties owed to the patient.

Surprisingly, it is quite often that doctors and other medical professionals do not provide proper patient care. It happens so often (to one and a half million victims every year in the United States of America for medication errors alone), that trends have arisen, patterns developed and common forms of malpractice have streamed into a well known list.

Medication errors top that list. This is in part because many people are involved in the process of getting medication to the patient; doctors prescribe the medication, pharmacists fill the order, nurses may administer the medication. And of course, more and more medications are prescribed to patients every year; the pharmaceutical industry is growing.

Related to general medication errors, is anesthesia mistakes. Anesthesia is used in many settings and can be general anesthesia or local anesthesia. General anesthesia is very dangerous to patients if not administered properly and in accordance with indications gleaned from a patient’s history. Patients must also be monitored closely while under general anesthesia; failing to do so could miss signs of patient distress.

Surgical errors are common too. Operating on the wrong patient, to operating on the wrong part of a patient’s body and everything in between has happened in an operating room. Organs are punctured on accident, veins severed, excessive bleeding caused. Even surgical instruments such as gauze, scalpels, sponges, and pads are mistakenly left inside patient bodies.

Medical malpractice also occurs in the delivery room. It is here that negligent medical professionals can forever change the course of two patient lives at once; the baby and mother. Failing to recognize fetal distress, proceeding with vaginal birth when a C-section should have been used, and improper use of forceps are all common birthing room errors.

Prenatal care can also be littered with incidents of malpractice. Missing signs of baby birth defects, failing to diagnose a contagious disease, missing ectopic pregnancies, and failures to diagnose other conditions afflicting the mother that can complicate the pregnancy are all examples of prenatal malpractice.

In fact, delayed diagnoses and misdiagnoses occur in all medical settings, from missing diabetes, to cancer, to heart disease.

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.