Medical malpractice can take various forms, and no two instances are ever the same. Given the complexities of medicine, it’s no surprise that a doctor’s tiniest error can have life-altering (or even life-ending) consequences for his or her patients.
Medical malpractice can occur in any medical circumstance, including a dental visit, an emergency department visit, a routine health checkup, or a high-risk surgical treatment. If you are looking for compensation for the wrong medical treatment, you should hire the best medical malpractice lawyers in Akron Ohio. The following are some of the most common types of medical malpractice.
Misdiagnosis
After admission to a hospital, medical clinic, emergency department, dental office, or other professional medical facility, the first step is diagnosis. Correctly diagnosing symptoms is crucial to providing medical care to any patient; nevertheless, in circumstances where symptoms are not easily evident or telling, an error in diagnosis can occur.
The following are examples of common misdiagnoses:
- Inability to Detect Cancer
- Misdiagnosis of Impending Heart Attack Symptoms
- Stroke Misdiagnosis
- Failure to Recognize Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) and Pulmonary Embolism
- Diabetes Misdiagnosis
- Meningitis is often misdiagnosed.
- Misdiagnosis of Appendicitis
If a patient is not adequately treated because of a diagnosis error, the doctor may be held accountable for any subsequent injuries or losses.
Diagnosis Delay
If another doctor would have fairly diagnosed the same problem in a timely manner, a delayed diagnosis can be considered medical negligence. If the illness or injury is allowed to progress rather than being treated, a delay in diagnosis might cause unnecessary harm to the patient.
A prompt diagnosis is frequently delayed due to a doctor’s heavy workload, which limits his or her ability to appropriately give medical therapy. In certain situations, the hospital or clinic could be held accountable for any losses incurred as a result of the delay in diagnosis and treatment.
The following are some of the more serious examples of delayed diagnosis:
- Coronary Artery Disease Diagnosed Too Late
- Delay in Heart Attack Diagnosis
- Stroke Diagnosis and Treatment Delays
- Cancer Diagnosis Delay
- Failure to Diagnose Appendicitis in a Timely Manner
- Internal Trauma Injury Diagnosis Delay
Obviously, any delay in diagnosing and treating a sickness or injury reduces the patient’s chances of recovery.
Surgical Mistake
Medical malpractice during surgery can lead to more surgeries, infection and sepsis, internal organ damage, immune system failure, and even death. Surgical treatments necessitate a high level of skill, and even little errors can have a significant impact on the patient.
Wrong-site surgery, inadvertent lacerations of an internal organ, uncontrolled blood loss, organ perforation, and a foreign item left in the patient’s body are all examples of surgical blunders.
Laceration or perforation that is unintentional
Cutting, lacerating, or perforating an artery, organ, or vessel is one of the most serious dangers in any surgical treatment. During a surgery, a surgeon can make a number of potentially fatal mistakes.
It is possible to perforate a bowel or artery and have bile spill into the abdominal cavity if the perforation goes unnoticed. This can result in a serious infection and sepsis, which can lead to septic shock and death.
Other kinds of surgical errors might result in uncontrollable bleeding or organ damage. Internal bleeding or organ failure can be fatal in the worst-case scenario.
Surgery on the Wrong Site
Wrong-site surgery is a form of surgical error that occurs when a surgeon operates on the wrong organ or external appendage due to a miscommunication or an error in hospital records.
Patients who require amputation of an arm or leg may have the wrong one severed, resulting in the loss of both appendages instead of just one in some of the worst cases of wrong site procedures.
Leaving a Foreign Object in a Patient
A patient’s symptoms of infection and sepsis may appear days or weeks after a surgical treatment in some situations. A foreign object mistakenly left in their body by the surgeon could be one of the explanations.
Most typically, gauze or another soft medical wrapping or absorbent material is left in the body by accident, resulting in infection, sepsis, and shock.
This form of careless medical treatment may go undiscovered for weeks, months, or even years before its consequences become apparent, necessitating more surgery. In the worst-case scenario, a patient may develop a major infection and succumb to septic shock.
Surgical Procedures That Aren’t Necessary
Unnecessary surgery is frequently the result of a misdiagnosis of a patient’s symptoms or a medical decision made without enough evaluation of other options or dangers.
Alternatively, when compared to other options, surgery is occasionally preferred over more conventional therapies due to its expediency and convenience. The following are some of the most prevalent needless surgical procedures:
- Implanted Pacemaker
- Bypass Surgery for the Coronary Artery
- Cesarean section is a surgical procedure used to deliver babies.
- Hysterectomy
While these surgeries are sometimes required and can save lives; the patient’s condition does not always necessitate such drastic and invasive procedures.
According to a study conducted by the Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia, around 20% of all pacemaker surgeries are unnecessary, and patients’ pulse irregularities may be addressed with far less invasive methods.
While proposing an unnecessary operation is not medical misconduct in and of itself, every surgical procedure carries significant risks. If an injury might have been averted by not having the surgical treatment; the doctor’s choice to order it could be considered carelessness; and he or she could be held accountable for any damages caused by the procedure.
Anesthesia Mistakes
Anesthesia is an inherently dangerous component of any major medical procedure; and it must be administered and monitored by a specialist, an anesthesiologist.
Prior to any medical treatment that requires anaesthesia, the anesthesiologist will analyse the patient’s medical history, prior medications, allergies, and the operation’s time needs to identify the optimum drug combination to utilise.
Anesthesia errors can occur during the pre-operative medical examination or during the procedure itself.
Anesthesia Preparation That Isn’t Up To Snuff
If the anesthesiologist fails to thoroughly evaluate all of the patient’s medical records; the patient may be given medicines to which he or she is allergic, resulting in damage or death.
Alternatively, an anaesthetic contraindication may exist, meaning that a certain anaesthetic drug may pose an elevated risk of complication as a result of previous medications administered to the patient and should not be utilised. This sort of anaesthetic malpractice may result in the patient’s death if it is employed.
Failure to keep track of anaesthetic results
Even if the pre-op work is done appropriately, the anesthesiologist may be negligent if he or she fails to monitor the patient and react to changes in vital signs in a timely manner.
It’s also likely that the anesthesiologist will run into logistical issues, such as a shortage of oxygen. If such conditions are not anticipated during the procedure, the patient may die as a result of medical malpractice.
Trauma during childbirth and malpractice during labour
Childbirth is a tough occurrence for the freshly born infant; and it can be made even more difficult if the doctor and nurses do not handle it properly. Failure to perform a c-section, mishandling of a difficult birth, problems with induced labour, misunderstanding of a newborn medical issue; or failure to monitor foetal vital signs are all examples of medical negligence during childbirth.
