FeaturedHealthcare6 Forms of Medical Negligence

Medical negligence can have life-altering consequences for everyone involved, from the patient who was the victim of medical negligence, to the doctors and nurses involved in the care of the patient before, during and after the incident occurred.

What is Medical Negligence?

Medical negligence takes on many forms and attorneys work with patients who have suffered injuries from medical malpractice all the time to ensure they receive the compensation they are entitled to so they can rebuild their lives.

So what kinds of medical negligence can occur?

Surgical Errors

Surgical errors are scarily quite common, but not so common that you should be really concerned about going into your next surgery. Common errors may include unnecessary scarring of a patient, right up to accidentally leaving surgical instruments in a patient.

If you or a loved one are the victims of surgical errors, then it is important to hire a Malpractice Lawyer as soon as possible so that you can begin fighting for compensation for your injuries.

Biology is not always our friend and sometimes errors may actually just be a result of bad luck.

Misdiagnosis

Misdiagnosis can be heartbreaking for everyone involved. This can range from major misdiagnoses, such as not diagnosing stomach cancer, instead believing it to be a persistent stomach upset, to the relatively minor problems of not spotting issues that could be picked up and fixed fairly easily.

If you’re at all concerned about your own diagnosis, get a second opinion to confirm it.

Delayed Diagnosis

Delaying a diagnosis can have a huge knock-on effect for many people. Stories of patients who have autoimmune conditions being misdiagnosed as having idiopathic arthritis and needing joints replaced are just one of the many forms of misdiagnosis that goes on every day in our hospitals.

If your treatment doesn’t seem to be working, discuss it with your doctor and don’t be afraid to get a second opinion.

Anaesthesia Errors

The horror of waking up during surgery is, thankfully, very very rare these days. But errors such as not measuring out the correct dosage, or allowing patients to be sedated rather than put under a general anaesthetic can all cause problems down the line.

Unnecessary Surgery

Unnecessary surgery is rare, as surgery is very expensive to perform and surgeons are unlikely to perform surgery if it’s not needed. Unnecessary surgery does, however, happen and most of the time it’s as a result of a patient pushing and a doctor not being honest about the risks and the expected return.

Always listen to your doctor and follow their advice if surgery can be avoided, avoid it!

Errors During Childbirth

Childbirth, it is said, is one of the most natural things in the world and millions of women do it every day. There are, however, many things that can go wrong and giving birth today is no less risky to a woman than it has been for millennia.

Those risks are usually negated by safe working practices and well-trained staff interventions, but all too often we hear stories of women who have died or suffered due to negligence when it comes to childbirth or, even worse, have suffered or died because they didn’t feel they could ask questions or didn’t know where to turn for advice.