We put our lives in the hands of medical professionals, but carelessness and acts of medical malpractice can still occur. We trust healthcare facilities and practitioners to help us feel better, but an avoidable medical error is a violation of that trust. Medical malpractice is a huge dent in a medical professional’s career for providing commendable care.
When this duty is compromised, it can lead to severe injuries or even death. Sometimes, it’s a case of being understaffed and overworked, while on other occasions, the medical expert simply isn’t paying attention. Hence, a deadly or life-altering mistake occurs. Furthermore, medical errors are shockingly common, and sadly, they frequently repeat themselves.
Even in the most respected hospitals, mistakes can happen. However, that doesn’t mean you should avoid getting treatment just because you’re scared of the odds. Instead, equip yourself with the knowledge needed to identify medical negligence. Read on to learn about six common medical errors that are considered “medical malpractice.”
1. Birth Injuries
A birth injury may occur when the mother or baby is wounded or killed because of a medical professional’s negligence, such as:
- Failing to execute an emergency C-section
- Incompetently responding to fetal pain
- Wrong use of medical equipment to aid during delivery
- Neglecting the presence of the umbilical cord around the child’s body
Moreover, birth injuries may cause a child to suffer permanent injuries, including:
- Brachial palsy
- Soft-tissue damage
- Cerebral palsy
- Cuts, lacerations, bruises
- Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy
- Broken bones
Since birth injuries aren’t like other injuries, they may not be apparent until weeks, months, or even years after birth. When a child suffers from a birth injury, parents are obliged to take action. One way is to confront the medical professionals involved at the time of delivery and demand an explanation. If that doesn’t work out, the second option is to find a birth injury lawyer who can help parents pursue legal action for what the doctors did to their child.
2. Prescription Error
One of the most common causes of medical malpractice occurs when a patient receives the wrong medication. This can be an error by the doctor, either failing to diagnose the condition, writing the wrong prescription, or recommending the wrong dosage.
The act can also be conducted by the pharmacy responsible for interpreting, reading, and filling your prescription with the wrong medication and giving incorrect dosage instructions. A simple avoidable medical error like an out-of-place decimal can lead to a patient receiving medication ten times weaker or more potent than necessary.
3. Failure to Diagnose & Misdiagnosis
According to a reliable estimate from CBS News, twelve million people who obtain outpatient care are sufferers of some sort of a misdiagnosis each year. Failure to diagnose illnesses or misdiagnosis is a common blunder due to the resemblance of symptoms in different diseases challenging to diagnose accurately.
Proper diagnosis allows a medical professional to create a reliable and effective treatment plan. If a patient receives an incorrect diagnosis or none at all, he or she will not receive adequate treatment, which may result in injury or death.
4. Bad Medical Equipment
More often than not, a medical mistake isn’t necessarily a mistake at all but rather the result of an unreliable medical machine. Even if your medical professional does everything right, she/he can’t protect you from a defective or malfunctioning tool. In such cases, the caregiver or doctor isn’t to blame; either the hospital or the manufacturer of the defective or faulty instruments/stratagem bears responsibility.
Devices such as hernia mesh, IVC blood clot filters, Bair Hugger surgical warming blankets, Stryker hip implants, and various other medical products/tools are known to fail and cause severe damage.
5. Infection
Medical professionals are supposed to perform under protocols that minimize the risk of infection. From frequent sanitation to sterile tools in surgery, but some diseases are buoyant. MRSA takes relentless caution in a hospital, as its resistance to antibiotics makes it both challenging and dangerous to treat. Due to covid-19, hospital settings must maintain meticulousness to ensure proper isolation to help prevent the infection from spreading through shared air systems or surfaces.
The hospital’s management team must ensure their workers are cleaning surfaces and taking the proper precautions during the pandemic.
6. Anesthesia Errors
Anesthesia slip-ups may involve problems that result in a patient’s death while she or he is undergoing treatment by an anesthesiologist.
Health care providers must monitor patients who are administered anesthesia to avoid serious errors, such as:
- Failing to screen the patient’s vital signs while she or he is under anesthesia
- Not viewing the patient’s complete medical history
- Failing to offer the patient pre-operative instructions, such as what they should drink before the operation
- Problems within the patient’s breathing tube
- Using outdated or faulty medical equipment to administer the patient with anesthesia
Protect yourself and the ones you love from medical errors
While these are some of the most common medical errors, any number of mistakes in medical care can have life-threatening consequences for the patient.
Now, the potential for medical blunder shouldn’t stop you or your loved ones from getting the care you deserve. The good news is that most medical errors are preventable. So, don’t be afraid to ask questions. Note everything down – your allergies, medications, previous health issues and doctors, and any other detail worth mentioning. Taking some of the matters into your own hands will surely make a huge difference.
