Despite a strong decades-long movement to stop them, preventable medical errors remain an enormous concern throughout American medicine. In fact, some estimate that around 100,000 patients die every year because of them. The financial costs of such errors are immense and the emotional costs are immeasurable.
Essentially, a medical error occurs when a plan is followed incorrectly or when an incorrect plan is used. Not only do errors harm patients, but they their occurrence, and even the possibility of their occurrence, cause agony to healthcare providers in the field and on the floor.
If you feel that you or a loved one may have been a victim of a preventable medical error, you have legal options. Even if you just suspect an error, a medical malpractice lawyer may be able to help you find out just went wrong and get you the compensation you deserve.
Here is a partial list of types of errors:
- Communication breakdowns
- In-house infections
- Falls
- Surgery mistakes
- Anesthesia errors
- Medication errors
- Equipment malfunctions
Active or Latent?
An active error occurs when medical staff make a specific and isolated mistake. An extreme example would be a surgeon removing the wrong leg. A latent error occurs when there is some sort of systemic problem in the patient-care cycle. An example would be a Hoyer lift with a weak motor.
Unfortunately, medical errors often go undetected. Some hospitals do a comprehensive review every time a patient dies in their care, and this can help find errors not immediately recognized. Autopsies are the traditional way of finding medical errors in fatal circumstances, but of course the emphasis should be on preventing errors and accidents before they happen. When this has not happened, a medical malpractice lawyer can advise you as the injured party of your options.
Know Your Rights as a Patient
To start with, before any kind of medical procedure medical staff is required to fully brief the patients on the entire process and risk. If you as the patient feel that this has not happened, you may be entitled to compensation.
Next, the HIPAA act legally entitles you to all of your own medical records. In the old days, medical facilities would hide records from the patients themselves, but this is no longer legal.
Finally, medical boards and other entities now exist to protect patients’ rights. You can turn to these both for advice and for information if you feel that you may want to proceed in a medical malpractice case.
Diagnostic errors are very common because medicine is so complex. The symptoms of cancer, for example, will be mistaken for the symptoms of some lesser disorder, and the cancer itself will go undiagnosed until it is too late to do anything about it. When something like this happens, some states allow a “loss of chance” lawsuit against the facility of the providers who did not recognize the real problem when they had the opportunity to do so.
Other situations, such a sponge being left in a body during surgery, are more straightforward. These “never-should-have-happened” scenarios are easier for the patient to make a medical malpractice case with because there is no way that they can be denied. Other common examples include an adjacent organ being nicked or bruised during surgery as well as a nurse or doctor administering an incorrect medication or the correct medication at the wrong dosage.
Medical practice can happen at any step of the care process, from the time that the patient books the appointment to the time they are being escorted out of the facility following a procedure. Therefore, it is important to look at everything when considering a medical malpractice lawsuit. While doctors, nurses and others are often immune from lawsuits against them personally, the facility that employees them can be sued.
Errors during the birth process remain common. Sometimes, the physician will not recognize the symptoms of potentially terminal distress during labor. Sometimes C-sections are not performed as soon as they should be and injuries to the baby from oxygen deprivation can result. When this happens, malpractice claims are very much an option.
Rules of a Lawsuit
To start with, there is a usually a deadline that has to be met after the care or procedure in question occurred. This is similar to the statute of limitations in criminal law. Therefore, time is of the essence when considering a medical malpractice suit. If you wait too long, you may not be able to file no matter how strong your case is.
Next, be ready for the medical entity you are suing to push back hard. A common strategy is to simply claim that any injuries were medically unavoidable because of the nature of the condition being treated in the first place.
Finally, its common for medical entities to try and blame the patient. They will claim that the patient missed appointments, did not take medications as directed and so forth. This is why it is critical to document everything that you did as a patient all through the course of care.
In conclusion, if you suspect that you or a loved one is victim of a medical error, you may well be correct even if the error is not immediately apparent. Turn to an experienced attorney to get you the compensation that you deserve. A qualified attorney will be able to tell you about your legal options for anesthesia errors or other types of medical errors.
