As everyone knows, today’s medicine is complicated. In addition, to being complicated, the medical care delivery system is operated by human beings with all their frailties. Mistakes are bound to occur and do with depressing frequency. While there are almost an infinite number of ways medical care can be screwed up, there are some common categories we see over and over again.
- MIDIAGNOSIS AND DELAYED DIAGNOSIS
Misdiagnosis and delayed diagnosis are closely related. In both cases the medical professionals fail to accurately interpret the information they have available to them and fail to properly diagnose the patient. This is the most common form of medical malpractice. It can have many causes. The provider can fail to take a complete history, can fail to perform a complete examination, can fail to order necessary testing, can misinterpret the test results, and so on and so on. Until the patient’s problem is identified, it cannot be successfully treated.
- FAILURE TO APPROPRIATELY TREAT
The next step after correctly diagnosing the patient’s illness or problem is to begin the appropriate treatment. Treatments evolve over time and it is important for a doctor to stay informed about the newest and best treatments. Even appropriate treatments may not work or may have adverse effects. Providers must monitor the patient’s response to the treatment ordered and be prepared to make changes, if necessary.
- MEDICATION ERRORS
If the appropriate treatment involves a medication, it needs to be prescribed correctly and administered correctly. One form of medication error is a pharmacy error which occurs when the pharmacy delivers a medication different from the one the doctor orders. There are a lot of drugs that have similar sounding names and especially with automated drug delivery systems in use at hospitals, there can be a mistake at this point. When the correct drug is delivered, it must be given to the correct patient at the correct dosage, at the correct frequency, and by the correct route. Don’t give intravenous drugs intramuscularly, for example.
- SURGICAL ERRORS
This is a very common form of medical malpractice and can take many forms. The first rule of surgery is to perform the correct procedure on the correct patient at the correct place on the body. Among the many possible surgical errors after that are excessive blood loss, nicking a blood vessel or nearby organ, failing to recognize a bleed, taking out too much or not enough bone or tissue, and failing to assure everything is proper before closing the incision.
- ANESTHESIA ERRORS
Surgeries that involve the use of general anesthesia are a fertile field for mistakes. General anesthesia renders the patient unconscious, usually paralyzes the patient as well and prevents the patient from breathing on their own. The anesthesiologist must keep the patient’s bodily processes at proper levels, must make sure not to deliver too much or too little anesthesia, and must bring the patient back after the procedure is concluded. All of this requires careful attention by the anesthesiologist. Things can get out of hand quickly and, if that happens, the anesthesiologist may not be able to get them back under control.
- POST-OPERATIVE ERRORS
A successful surgery can be undone by errors after the patient leaves the operating room. The first stop is the PACU (post-anesthesia care unit). There the patient should be returned to normal bodily functions following whatever anesthetic agent was used. Patients can get in trouble here as they are still suffering the effects of anesthesia and may not yet be able to breathe on their own. Careful monitoring is required. Sometimes patients are sent out of the PACU before they are ready to resume all their functions on their own. For inpatient surgery, the patient may be sent to the ICU for a number of hours or overnight to be carefully monitored for bleeding problems or other problems that may not show up for hours. I have had some terrible cases involving paraplegia, quadriplegia and brain damage that arose out of inadequate monitoring of the patient following an otherwise successful surgery.
- BIRTH INJURIES
In spite of all of the advances that have been made in obstetrical medicine and the ability to carefully monitor the health of the baby during labor and delivery, babies continue to be damaged during the birthing process. Although sometimes the baby can make a good recovery, these injuries can be tragic and have consequences for the rest of the baby’s life. They almost always involve a failure to properly monitor the mother and the baby or to fail to recognize problems as they develop. The OB nurses are almost always defendants in cases arising out of a birth injury but doctors can be at fault as well.
If you think you or a loved one have been the victim of one of these forms of malpractice, give us a call and let us look at the case for you.
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