Medical malpractice occurs when a doctor or other medical professional fails to competently perform their medical duties or follow the appropriate standards of care. In doing so, the patient suffers serious injury or even death. Unfortunately, due to their nature, some medical malpractice claims occur more often than others.
You cannot simply say you have experienced medical malpractice, though. To have a valid claim, you will have to gather some essential medical documents and information and work closely with a respected, bold attorney who has the experience and knowledge to help you move forward with a case.
In short, you will need to prove that you were working directly with the medical professional who caused you harm, they were negligent, and the negligence directly caused your injury, which resulted in pain, loss of work, or extensive medical bills.
If you believe you have a valid claim, read on to discover the 10 most common medical malpractice claims, and how the experts at Grover Lewis Johnson can support you.
1. Birth injury
Birth injuries are a tragic result of a medical professional’s negligence during pregnancy or childbirth. Many causes of birth injury can happen because of factors outside of a doctor’s control. However, if this is the case, the doctor should be able to determine after birth what happened and provide details on when it happened and why.
Birth injuries can include cuts or broken bones, paralysis in the arms or hands due to nerve damage, or brain injuries. It becomes negligence when a doctor incorrectly uses tools, such as forceps, and harms the baby. It also can include not performing a C-section when it was necessary.
2. Delayed diagnosis
A delayed diagnosis claim means your doctor failed to diagnose you for a period of time. This form of malpractice results in patients missing out on valuable medications and treatments that could save them from serious harm or death.
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Delayed diagnosis also can include issues during pregnancy that were not discovered before birth, including illnesses the mother or baby had or not identifying birth defects.
3. Incorrect diagnosis
Incorrect diagnosis, or misdiagnosis, occurs when your doctor incorrectly diagnoses you with a disease or illness. This can result in being prescribed incorrect medications or treatments that result in serious injury or death to the patient. Meanwhile, you were missing out on valuable treatments for your actual condition.
4. Failure to treat
Unlike a delayed diagnosis or misdiagnosis, where the doctor eventually made a diagnosis or made a diagnosis that was incorrect, failure to treat means the doctor never treated your disease or illness. This means they either dismissed your symptoms or failed to ever order the necessary tests or treatments.
5. Incorrect treatment
An incorrect treatment claim means that although you may have been accurately diagnosed, you were given incorrect treatments. On the other hand, you may have been given the correct treatment, but it was administered incorrectly. Each of these instances can result in medical malpractice claims.
6. Anesthesia errors
Anesthesia errors are a common claim that can result in devastating consequences for the patient. This can mean that the incorrect type or dosage was administered. If a patient was not being properly monitored or their medication history was not taken into account, the patient can suffer from drug interactions, allergic reactions, organ failure, or brain damage.
If a patient didn’t receive enough anesthesia, they may wake up during surgery and feel pain but be unable to speak.
7. Medical product liability
Medical products must meet high standards, because a patient’s life may depend on them. If a medical product has manufacturing or design defects or was incorrectly marketed, it can lead to serious injury, illness, or death for patients. Those who manufactured or did not properly market the product would need to be held responsible.
8. Surgical errors
Surgeries already come with a certain level of risk, which should be communicated in detail to the patient. Beyond those risks, doctors can face a medical malpractice claim if they exhibit negligence during surgery. In addition to anesthesia errors, types of surgical error include:
- Operating on the wrong body part
- Puncturing a blood vessel or organ
- Injuring a nerve
- Leaving surgical equipment inside the body
9. Prescription drug errors
Prescription drug errors can occur if you are prescribed the wrong medication, if the medication is incorrectly administered, or if your doctor fails to notice a harmful drug interaction between the new drug and any existing drugs you take.
Also, if your doctor fails to take into account that a new drug may interact with an existing condition you have, this can result in medical malpractice claims.
10. Hospital malpractice
Many of the claims listed above can occur in a hospital setting by hospital staff, including doctors, nurses, anesthesiologists, technicians, or other medical professionals. In addition to those types of claims, hospital malpractice can include when a medication is administered to the wrong patient, improper pre- or post-operative care is provided, or a mistake is made in the emergency room.
Improper pre-operative care can include incorrectly assessing a patient’s health before surgery or not giving them pre-surgery instructions such as refraining from eating. Improper post-operative care can include using inaccurate techniques that lead to infection or not providing the patient with adequate at-home care instructions.
How the experts at Grover Lewis Johnson can help
In all instances of medical malpractice, your attorney, with the help of a medical expert, would need to fight to prove how a competent doctor under the same circumstances would have made the proper diagnosis. They would need to show that your doctor did not provide the same level of care that other medical professionals would do for a patient in the same circumstances.
Due to the nature of medical malpractice claims and the suffering and pain they cause, it’s important to have a compassionate, honest, and respectful attorney on your side, who will listen to you and fight for you.
We have a genuine interest in our clients’ unique situations. If your claim has merit, we will work to continually exceed your expectations throughout the entire process. Whether reaching a settlement is best or we decide to take your case to trial, we work tirelessly to help you get what you deserve.
Call us to schedule a free consultation so that we can review your case. You won’t pay any fees until we win.
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