Top 10 Medical Mistakes That May Lead To Malpractice
By David Clark
Jan. 6, 2016 7:09a
As professionals, doctors are bound by law to uphold the highest standards in their handling of various injuries and ailments. A large number of patients leave our hospitals satisfied with the kind of services offered, but statistics still show that up to 400,000 citizens become victims of medical malpractice here in the united states every year.
Here is a look at some major medical mistakes that could form the basis for malpractice claims.
1. Anesthetic issues
The wrong dose of anesthesia could lead to a range of complications, which is why doctors and nurses are advised to monitor their patients all through the process. In severe cases, patients have ended up having to undergo surgery to right things.
2. Administering the wrong medication or procedure
Sometimes, a mix-up between charts can lead do doctors treating a patient for the wrong disease. As a result, the patient does not benefit, and whatever drugs administered could end up harming the recipient.
3. Errors related to medication
There are times where particular information is written down wrongly. If mistakes are not detected in time, the patient ends up with harmful, expired or excess chemical content in the body. There is also the issue of fatal reactions between different medications.
4. Forgetting objects inside a patient’s body
In some procedures, surgeons end up leaving items used in surgery inside the bodies of their patients. The victim has to be operated again to get rid of these items, and by the time that happens, a lot of tissues may already be damaged.
5. The presence of air bubbles in the blood stream
Some intricate procedures require the use of tubes around key areas such as the chest cavity. If care is not taken, bubbles make their way into the bloodstream, causing fatal ramifications.
6. Patients wandering off
Those with conditions such as Dementia need to be monitored all the time. If this is not done, some tend to leave the safety of the medical facility, wandering out in the open and exposing themselves to all manner of hazards.
7. Inability to prevent infections from spreading
According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), over 700,000 new infections occur in hospitals every year because of the use of harmful and unsterilized equipment. This happens as a result of negligence by members of staff in medical facilities.
8. Performing procedures on the wrong body parts
In some situations, a confusion between charts leads to surgeons cutting up perfectly healthy parts of the body as opposed to those in need of operation. There are reported incidents in which doctors actually end up amputating the wrong limbs.
9. Delays in emergency care
Patients in need of urgent attention at times end up having to wait too long for the doctor to show up. The delays can aggravate existing conditions and lead to fatalities.
10. Misdiagnosis and delayed diagnosis
Early detection of diseases allows doctors to handle the cause before conditions spread and become fatal. If a doctor does not detect a disease in time or misreads it altogether, the ramifications can be far-reaching.
In case you suspect negligence on the part of a professional, reach out to a medical malpractice layer and have them take up your case.