As the name suggests, “a misdiagnosis occurs when a medical provider incorrectly diagnoses a patient's symptoms.”. This does not mean that a doctor is held responsible if he diagnoses an illness such as a sinus infection and instead it is an extreme cold. On the contrary, misdiagnosis often comes into play with more serious illnesses, such as heart attacks and cancer. Because a misdiagnosis here has such serious consequences, it is more often a source of medical malpractice lawsuits.
It may seem impossible for a doctor to operate on the wrong patient or body part, but this happens more often than you think. Surgical errors are often serious, such as operating on the left shoulder if it was the right shoulder that needed the repair; performing the wrong surgery on the wrong person; or leaving surgical equipment in the body after surgery. According to the Los Angeles Times, “medical errors are the No. At least 250,000 deaths each year can be attributed to medical care gone wrong.
Medical Malpractice Blog Five Common Causes of Medical Malpractice Claims. Misdiagnosis occurs when a doctor does not recognize the condition or problems their patient is facing. This can cause a number of problems in the future, such as incorrect prescriptions and the patient's condition progressing to a stage that cannot be easily treated. However, for a misdiagnosis to qualify as medical malpractice, your doctor must have performed differently than other doctors.
They must have overlooked something that most doctors wouldn't notice. The same is true with the delay in diagnosis. If the doctor takes too long to determine the underlying problem, it may be too late to fix it. In cases of late diagnosis, the doctor may first make an incorrect diagnosis or have difficulty making a diagnosis.
If the doctor is unable to make the proper diagnosis within a period of time, the conditions may worsen. To prove the delay in diagnosis, you must be able to show that the doctor's evaluation of you or your loved one was less competent than it should have been. Unlike misdiagnosis, lack of treatment occurs when the patient receives a correct diagnosis, but that diagnosis is never followed through. This includes discharging a patient too soon, not providing the right follow-up care, or not providing the level of care required for their specific condition.
Prescription drug errors often go hand in hand with a misdiagnosis, but that's not always the case. Sometimes, an incorrect prescription is asked or an incorrect prescription is filled, causing the patient to take the wrong medication. . A study states that medical errors can cause up to 251,000 deaths a year in the United States, placing medical errors as the third leading cause of death.
If you or a loved one have been injured as a result of medical negligence, contact the attorneys at Wilson Kehoe Winingham. In addition, medical negligence during childbirth can result in certain conditions, such as nerve damage, spinal cord injuries, cerebral palsy, and cephalohematoma.
Medication errors
can cause adverse side effects, especially if they interact with another medication the patient is taking. Once a patient complaint has been diagnosed, doctors and other healthcare providers have a duty to provide treatment in accordance with the standards of the medical profession.It's bad enough to have to suffer the pain of medical negligence: you shouldn't be left alone to deal with the repercussions. But with a new treadmill at home that allowed me to exercise, I started watching a Netflix medical series called Chicago MED while walking. Medical negligence occurs when a health professional (a doctor, pharmacist, nurse, hospital, or other) causes harm to a patient through action or inaction. Although anesthesiologists administer two types of anesthesia before a surgical procedure, the doctor only administered one.
When trying to prove that medical negligence occurred, the plaintiff must demonstrate that a medical professional did not respect the standard of care for the situation. .
