HOSPITAL NEGLIGENCE LAWYER

HOSPITAL NEGLIGENCE LAWYER

Medical malpractice affects thousands of patients across the country every year. Here are a few examples of medical malpractice:

Anesthesia Errors

Negligence shown by medical professionals can result in anesthesia errors, which can be a massive source of pain and suffering for patients. There are three types of anesthesia: general, regional, and local. The administration of each one of them depends on the circumstances of the surgery. They have different possible complications as well. Anesthesia awareness is among the most commonly reported anesthesia errors. It is a condition in which the patient remains awake during the surgery. They can feel and see the surgery taking place, much to their horror.

If anesthesia isn’t administered correctly, which causes the patient to die or suffer injuries, the negligent medical professional can be sued for damages. Patients who’ve suffered from anesthesia errors are eligible to receive compensation for their emotional and physical injuries.

Cases of negligence on the part of a medical professional such as an anesthesiologist, include:

• Failure to provide adequate instructions to the patient regarding the surgery or procedure
• Emergency Room mistakes/errors
• The shutdown of the alarm present on the pulse oximeter
• Usage of faulty equipment
• Failure to utilize the machines properly
• Failure to intubate properly
• Late administration of anesthesia
• Failure to take action upon observing changes in the patient’s vital signs
• Failure to consistently monitor the patient’s vital signs
• Administration of drugs to allergic patients
• Administration of incorrect dosage of the anesthetic drug
• Administration of drugs that are known to interact negatively
• Administration of the wrong drug

While emergency rooms are often rushed and hectic, medical professionals cannot use this as an excuse to drop their standards of care while treating their patients. Negligence from nurses, doctors, and other medical professionals may cause severe and debilitating injuries. When errors occur in the emergency room, the victim can file a lawsuit to receive compensation for their injuries.

Instances of emergency room errors include the following:

• Failure to read test results, X-rays, and charts accurately
• Failure to diagnose heart-related problems, placed the patient at increased risk of heart trouble.
• Misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis, especially of conditions like pulmonary embolisms, strokes, appendicitis, aneurysms, and blood clots
• Failure to administer the right medications
• Failure to treat or recognize postoperative infections
• Failure to consistently monitor patients after their procedures

Hospital Malpractice

Some hospital negligence lawsuits even sue the hospital in which the patient’s injuries were sustained. Firstly, hospitals can be charged with not having adequately evaluated the qualifications, educational certifications, and experience of their employees. If hospitals hire an underqualified or incompetent medical professional for a job, they may be considered liable for the injuries sustained by patients who such incompetent employees treated. For example, if a particular hospital does not check an employee’s certification or degree before hiring him/her, and they go on to cause an injury to a patient, the liability may also fall upon the hospital.

Additionally, staff members and hospital employees may engage in unprofessional conduct that could be considered medical malpractice. A few instances of such a scenario are:

• Failure to make an accurate diagnosis
• Refusing to provide proper treatment to a patient or neglecting them willfully
• Ignoring the patient due to which their condition has now become unstable
• Failure to refer the patient to specialist medical professionals if the current physician’s ability to treat the patient was insufficient
• Failure to order important diagnostic tests could have helped find available treatment options.
• Administration of the wrong medication or wrong dosage
• Erroneous administration of anesthesia
• Misusage of medical equipment
• Performance of nonconsensual or pointless surgical procedures
• Failure to follow established hospital protocols, which resulted in injuries or infections.

Hospital Vicarious Liability

A hospital can be held vicariously liable for injuries that were caused due to the negligence on the part of their medical professionals, including nurses and technicians. That’s because employers are required to supervise and direct their workers. This liability also covers the negligence on the part of the employees and systemic problems in the hospital’s administration, which may include unreasonably long waiting times for ER services and infections contracted from unsanitary medical instruments.

A hospital generally cannot be considered liable for negligent actions displayed by independent contractors. A vast majority of doctors aren’t hospital employees. They’re often freelance contractors who also operate private practices on their own time. Hospitals are only held negligent for actions displayed by independent contractors when it can be conclusively proved that they lack the necessary experience or qualifications for the position. If the hospital’s ‘apparent agency’ or ‘permission’ was granted for their actions, the hospital can also be held liable. If the attorney is able to provide evidence that the patient fully believed the medical professional to be a hospital employee and that this belief had an integral role to play in the injury, the hospital can be sued as well.

A few hospitals attempt to overcome this problem by requiring their freelance medical professionals to notify the patients about them not being hospital employees. They may also be required to wear signs that indicate this status clearly in the facility. In case the patient was not provided with adequate information regarding their physician’s freelance contractor status, the hospital administration can be held liable for injuries suffered by the patient.

Medical Device Error

While disease prevention, diagnosis, and treatment often require medical devices, their misuse or failure can cause the patient to suffer serious injuries or even death.

There are three categories of medical device defects – inadequate warnings, manufacturing defects, and design defects. These defects may result in injuries or death, following which the device manufacturer can be held liable in a lawsuit.

Additionally, medical professionals may also misuse these devices. If a patient sustains injuries due to negligence, recklessness, inadequate knowledge, or improper training, the medical professionals who misused the medical device can be liable for the resulting injury.

Misdiagnosis or Delayed Diagnosis

Not diagnosing a disease or illness on time may have a devastating impact on a patient’s life and their family. Any injuries due to a delayed diagnosis or misdiagnosis may cause patients to suffer long-term physical impairments and debilitating pain, or even prove fatal in some cases.

Many commonly misdiagnosed medical conditions include: vascular diseases, ectopic pregnancies, appendicitis, infections, brain tumors, prostate cancer, ovarian cancer, lung cancer, and breast cancer.

To file a lawsuit for misdiagnosis to receive compensation, the injured patient has to provide conclusive evidence of negligence on the part of the medical professional.

Here are a few instances of negligence that results in a misdiagnosis:

Failure to listen properly to information provided by the patient: If a patient informs their doctor regarding their condition, the doctor has a duty to listen carefully and examine every symptom they report. If they don’t examine a symptom, which results in the patient getting sicker over time, the doctor may be held liable.

Failure to diagnose symptoms: A doctor is trained to give a diagnosis based on the symptoms shown by their patients. If they are unable to make the correct diagnosis in spite of irrefutable evidence suggesting a particular illness, they may be considered liable.

Failure to check medical history: A doctor must check their patients’ family and personal medical histories. They are assumed to have been negligent if they don’t examine their patient’s family and personal medical histories, as a result of which the patient only gets sicker. If a simple reading of the patient’s history would have yielded the diagnosis, and the doctor did not do so, he or she may be held responsible.

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Ordering improper tests: If a doctor orders the wrong tests after evaluating their patients’ symptoms, and further injuries are sustained despite the difficulties, the doctor may be liable for negligence. Not ordering standard tests upon observing specific crucial symptoms may also be grounds for negligence.

Failure to interpret test results correctly: When a doctor orders a test for his patient, they’re also required to interpret the results accurately. If they interpret the test results carelessly, it could be considered to be a case of negligence. They will also be considered liable for all resulting illnesses or injuries.

According to the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine, Diagnostic error is one of the most important safety problems in health care today, and inflicts the most harm. Significant diagnostic errors are found in 10% to 20% of autopsies, suggesting that 40,000 to 80,000 patients die annually in the U.S. from diagnostic errors.

When a patient is misdiagnosed, their actual disease or illness has more time to advance without the patient receiving adequate treatment for their condition. In some cases, this could even result in the patient’s death. Additionally, being misdiagnosed with an illness could result in the patient undergoing risky and painful treatments without any reason. In both cases, doctors who were responsible for the misdiagnosis will be held accountable for negligence and be held liable for the losses suffered by their patients.

Postoperative Negligence

This term refers to all the monitoring and care received by a patient after their treatment or surgical procedure. Healthcare professionals must monitor their patients for any complications that may arise due to treatment or surgery, prevent and treat infections, monitor their vital signs, and provide comprehensive instructions to their patients regarding post-surgical care. They should also avoid possible complications and prescribe appropriate medicine to their patients to speed up their healing process. In case a doctor doesn’t monitor their patient properly or record apparent symptoms, this could result in the patient suffering from severe injuries. In such cases, a medical malpractice suit can be filed by the patient.

Here are a few conditions, illnesses, and infections commonly observed due to postoperative negligence:

• Peritonitis
• Respiratory infections like pneumonia
• Pulmonary embolism or blood clots
• Bloodstream infections
• Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA);
• Staphylococcus (Staph) infections;
• Urinary tract infections (UTIs);
• Organ perforation;
• Tissue necrosis (death);
• Conditions at the site of surgery;
• Necrotizing fasciitis;
• Internal bleeding
• Viral infections;
• Sepsis;

Reach out to the Rozhik Law Firm PLLC today for a free consultation with a top-notch attorney about your hospital negligence lawsuit.