All medical malpractice claims involve proving a doctor violated an established standard of care, and that act of negligence directly resulted in harm to a patient.
Considering the extensive amount of procedures and treatments out there, however, malpractice is more likely to occur in the following instances:
Misdiagnosis
Recent studies reveal that misdiagnosis and failure to diagnose lead all possible medical errors, especially when they concern infection, tumors, heart attacks, pulmonary embolism, and heart disease.
There’s a strong reason for this statistic: Patients don’t display all standard symptoms, and a doctor, in response, rules that the condition is something else. However, the ramifications are costly: Patients begin an unnecessary course of treatment, delaying medically-necessary procedures and accruing expenses simultaneously.
In this same vein, failure to treat a condition could turn into a malpractice case. In these instances, a hospital may discharge a patient too soon, while the doctor does not follow up with an appropriate re-evaluation or referral to a specialist.
Pregnancy & Child Birth
The complexity of child birth creates a myriad of situations in which medical malpractice may occur:
- In pregnancy and birth: bleeding and hemorrhages, placental abnormalities, gestational diabetes, long labor, preeclampsia, caesarian sections, premature delivery, anesthesia, nerve injuries, and shoulder dystocia.
- From drugs given to a mother before or during birth.
Medication Errors
Prescriptions rely on numbers and handwriting – two factors easily misinterpreted. An illegible prescription and hospital staff misreading a dosage are frequent causes of medication errors. In response, a patient receives too little or too much of a drug – or may be given something completely different. As well, medical professionals may not consider how this particular medication and dosage interact with all prescriptions a patient currently uses.
This error may occur in multiple levels through treatment: from a doctor giving a prescription to a nurse administering medication to a pharmacy filling an order.
Surgery
From anesthesia through the surgical procedure itself, an error can occur at multiple points during an operation:
- Nerve damage
- Failing to control bleeding
- Leaving equipment inside a patient
- Performing the wrong operation
- Operating on the wrong body part
Out of all possible operations, gastrointestinal and spine procedures have the greatest instances of malpractice.
Defective Products
It’s not just professionals that make errors – equipment can be a source of suffering, complications, or wrongful death. Often, in these cases, the hospital operates with equipment that does not meet up-to-date safety standards, putting both workers and patients at risk.
If you or a loved one suspect medical malpractice occurred, have Trantolo & Trantolo’s lawyers evaluate your claim. Contact any of our Connecticut offices to speak with an experienced attorney.
