What Constitutes Medical Malpractice?
Being sick or injured is nothing to take lightly. Depending on the circumstances surrounding your ailment, you may be facing a long road to recovery.
What happens, though, when your injury or illness is made worse by the doctors? Medical professionals are tasked with caring for and helping those in need, especially when they are at their worst physically and mentally. In the medical profession, when mistakes are made that were unavoidable, they may be characterized as medical malpractice. Discover what constitutes medical malpractice, so it is more easily identified.
The Doctor Ignores the Patient’s Symptoms
One of the most significant mistakes doctors make is assuming the patient is overreacting. When someone goes to the doctor for diagnostic purposes, the doctor’s proper course of action should include all the appropriate testing that goes along with the symptoms the patient is describing. However, all too often, doctors brush off what the patient says, and instead looks for concrete facts. Sometimes, this works, but other times, it backfires. When a doctor does not order the proper tests, a patient’s condition may worsen. If a doctor diagnoses the wrong condition and treatment begins, the underlying and real cause of the problem may worsen until it is no longer treatable.
The Hospital Worker Charts the Wrong Medication
A hospital is a place where patients are supposed to feel safe and well-cared for. However, there are mistakes made at this level all the time. One of the most common involves the charting system. Hospitals use a chart to record all relevant information regarding a patient from drug and food allergies to the treatment plan. Hospital workers know that they are to verify the information in the chart before taking action. Dispensing the wrong medication due to a failure with the charting system may land the offending medical worker in hot water. If the mistake was negligent or could have been avoided, then it may rise to malpractice.
The Surgeon Operates on the Wrong Body Part
While a surgical mistake like operating on the wrong body part is not as prevalent as it once was, do not think that it does not happen. There are times when a surgeon still mixes up limbs, sides of the stomach and even patients. Part of this may be due to an error in the patient’s records. Other times, the surgeon may be rushing to get as many surgeries done as possible. Regardless, if the error is due to recklessness, it is malpractice.
Consulting a medical malpractice lawyer, like medical malpractice lawyer in Miami, FL, can help decipher what kind of mistake a doctor made.
Thank you to the law firm of Needle & Ellenberg, P.A. for their insight into medical malpractice and the law.
