Although medical professional receives years of training and education before being allowed to practice on patients, these skilled providers still make mistakes that put innocent individuals like you at risk of harm. And the ramifications of medical malpractice injuries can be tremendous, too, leaving you with limited physical mobility, permanent disfigurement, excessive pain, emotional and psychological trauma, and extensive financial losses.
While you might be able to recover some of these damages by pursuing a medical malpractice lawsuit, it helps to have an understanding of how these egregious errors occur in the first place. By gaining this understanding, you can better make sense of your circumstances and develop a clearer path toward the recovery that you want.
The top causes of medical malpractice
There can be a lot of contributing factors to medical malpractice. However, here are some of the most common that you’ll want to be on the lookout for as you navigate your case:
- Misdiagnosis or missed diagnosis: Medical professional should give you the time and attention necessary to accurately diagnose your condition. Proper tests should be ordered, and the results must be appropriately interpreted. If they’re not, then your medical condition could worsen, leaving you in a dire predicament. Your condition may even worsen to the point that it becomes untreatable.
- Hospital-related infections: Infection is a risk when you undergo a medical procedure, but strict controls should be implemented by your providers to reduce your risk of severe infection. Yet, all too often patients die when hospital-related infections go unchecked. To prevent such as outcome, medical professionals should exercise proper hygiene practices, including washing their hands, wearing gloves, and using clean medical equipment.
- Poor communication: Effective communication is key in a hospital setting where you may have multiple individuals caring for you. Any lapse here could put you in danger, as you may be subjected to issues like being double dosed with medication or not receiving testing and care that could positively impact your condition.
- Medication errors: Medication errors are excessively common in the healthcare setting. A doctor may give you medication without fully understanding your medical history and any potential adverse reactions you might have to a medication, or a doctor or nurse might give you the wrong dosage of a potent medication. These mistakes can have tragic consequences, sometimes even resulting in death.
- Surgical errors: Although surgeons are highly skilled, they’re susceptible to mistakes, too. They might operate on the wrong part of your body, leave sponges inside of you, or accidentally nick an organ, any of which can cause significant harm and potentially lead to life-threatening infection.
- Birth injuries: The birth of a child should be exciting, but all joy can be quickly dashed when a child is injured during the birthing process. While some of these injuries are truly accidents that aren’t preventable, others are attributable to doctor error. The child may be unnecessarily deprived of oxygen, causing brain damage, or improper techniques might be used to remove the baby, thereby resulting in broken bones.
Are you ready to build your medical malpractice case?
As you can see, there are a lot of ways that medical malpractice can occur. If you or a loved one has been subjected to any of these issues, then now is the time to start thinking about taking legal action. Doing so is probably the only way that you’re going to find accountability for the wrong that was done to you and recover the compensation necessary to spur your recovery forward.
We understand that navigating the legal process can be scary. But this isn’t something that you have to face alone. By finding support, you can gain the confidence and comfort that you need to properly build your case and fight for the outcome you deserve.