Medical malpractice cases are filed if a medical professional’s failure to provide standard healthcare harms a patient. Medical malpractice cases are only a few and far between. Within the small number of medical malpractice complaints, some types are more common than others. This blog is intended to make the readers familiar with the commonest types of malpractices committed by the medical professionals.
Misdiagnosis
Misdiagnosis, also referred to as delayed diagnosis, accounts for a bulk of medical malpractice cases. When a doctor fails to diagnose a disease properly, the patient misses early treatment that could have saved serious troubles and even death.
Proving a case of delayed diagnosis largely depends on solid comparison between how the treating doctor handled the case and what other competent doctors could have done under the same circumstances. If another doctor having the same level of expertise could have diagnosed the disease earlier, the patient or the family is entitled to file a lawsuit against the treating professional.
Surgery Errors
Some medical malpractice complaints are in regards to surgical mistakes. A surgeon may cause harm to the patient due to negligence in duties. These harms include damaging internal organs, leaving the surgical instruments in the body or amputation of wrong body part. Even the nurses can be negligent in offering pop-up care and so are liable for medical malpractice cases if any such incidence takes place.
Anaesthesia Errors
Truly speaking, anaesthesia errors cause more harm than surgical mistakes. Even the smallest error by an anaesthesia expert may cause permanent injuries, severe brain damages and even death. In fact, the anaesthesiologist can commit mistakes before administering the drugs for anaesthesia by:
- failing to scrutinize the patient’s medical records for potential complications
- failing to notify the patient or his/her family about the possible risks if preoperative instructions are not properly followed.
Anaesthesia errors may occur during surgery as well. These include the followings:
- Administering too much drugs to the patient
- Failing to monitor the critical symptoms of the patient
- Inserting a tube into the patient improperly
- Using defective or outdated instruments
Childbirth Injuries
A physician’s negligence in performing duties may result into fatal injuries to a pregnant woman before, during or after the childbirth. Medical malpractice errors may also lead to injuries of the newborn babies.
Negligence in Prenatal Care: If wrong treatment is administered to the pregnant woman, it could result into harm to the mother and/or fetus. Some examples are as follows:
- Wrong diagnosis regarding an expecting mother’s condition, including anaemia, gestational diabetes, Rh-incompatibility, hypoglycaemia etc
- Failing to understand birth defects
- Failing to diagnose a contagious disease that can affect the fetus (for example, neonatal lupus or genital herpes)
Negligence during Childbirth: A medical professional’s negligence during the childbirth may harm baby and/or mother. Common childbirth medical errors are as follows:
- Failure to guess birth complications
- Failure to recognize the signs of fetal problems
- Inappropriate use of a vacuum extractor or forceps
Conclusion
Medical malpractice cases involve complexities. The fact that it is not same across the states adds to complications. Therefore, it is a sensible decision to hire a Portland medical malpractice lawyer for valuable suggestion and legal representation.
