We often leave our most critical health care situations in the hands of our doctors and other medical professionals. This is a special level of trust established by an important relationship. When a treating medical professional, such as a doctor, fails to act with the duty of care required of them under the law, and a patient is injured as a result, the injured party can seek compensation for harm suffered through bringing a medical malpractice claim.
In a medical malpractice claim, a doctor-patient relationship must have existed, the doctor must have failed to uphold his or her professional duty of care in treating the patient, and the patient must have sustained harm as a result of this lapse in the requisite standard of care. These are claims that can often involve dire circumstances for the victim. They trusted their doctor and found themselves in a worse health situation than before. Here, we will go over some of the more common types of medical malpractice that arise.
What Are Some of the Most Common Types of Medical Malpractice?
Some of the most common preventable medical errors that end up leading to medical malpractice claims include:
- Misdiagnosis: A misdiagnosis occurs when a medical condition is wrongfully deemed to be caused by a certain issue when it is really being caused by another. Heart attacks, for instance, are commonly misdiagnosed as are a variety of different types of cancer. Failure to properly diagnose a patient’s condition can lead to pursuing incorrect treatment options and critical delays in the patient receiving proper treatment.
- Failure to administer proper treatment: Other times, a condition is properly diagnosed, but the patient does not receive the necessary treatment. When a condition is not treated properly, it can quickly get worse or lead to other health complications. In some cases, a patient may be discharged too soon, before the proper level of care can be administered.
- Surgical errors: There are a range of surgical errors that are far too easily preventable when the proper level of care is exercised by medical professionals, but can still have tragic results for a patient. Sometimes, for instance, surgical tools or sponges are left inside of a person’s body after surgery is completed. In other cases, the wrong side of a person may have been operated on or the wrong person may have been operated on.
- Prescription medication errors: This type of medical malpractice claim can stem from a doctor prescribing the wrong medication or the right medication, but the wrong dosage to a patient. In certain cases, the error may have been in the doctor’s failure to take into account how a certain drug would adversely interact with other medication the patient was taking.
- Birth injuries: Mistakes made by doctors in obstetric medicine can place mothers and new babies at risk of great harm. Unfortunately, these types of claims are often involved in medical malpractice actions.
Personal Injury Attorney
Have you received negligent medical care causing you harm? Do not hesitate to talk to the team at Hunt Law about your options for recovering compensation. Contact us today.