4 Most Common Medical Lawsuits You Need To Know

4 Most Common Medical Lawsuits You Need To Know

Knowing what medical malpractice is and how it can affect your health institution is crucial. These lawsuits happen more often than people assume, and knowing the most detrimental ones can ensure the staff performs the way they should. The slightest oversight can result in severe consequences. Read on to learn more about the four most common medical lawsuits you need to know.

Medication Mishaps

As you can imagine, prescribing the wrong medication to a patient could have severe consequences. Not only would that medication fail to treat an illness or condition, but it could also increase or introduce new ones.

When it comes to medication errors, there could be problems with the prescription, dosage, or brand. You need to ensure you relay the messages to the pharmacist correctly. Furthermore, ask the patient what medications they are currently taking or if they have any allergies. You don’t want them to have a bad reaction to necessary medication.

Misdiagnosis

Misdiagnosis happens far too often, which is why doctors tell patients to get a second opinion. Counting on only one doctor’s medical opinion sometimes produces fatal results. Medical professionals must due their due diligence to ensure they give the proper diagnosis. If your doctor recommends getting a second opinion, don’t ignore that advice.

Care providers need to cover all their basis to ensure correct conclusions. For example, some of the rarer forms of cancer involve a team of doctors for consultation and diagnosis. Make sure the conclusions are correct to avoid delays in medical treatment and overly expensive treatments.

Surgical Mistakes

Surgical mistakes can happen. These errors leave patients hesitant to go under the knife. After cosmetic surgical procedures, patients could experience facial nerve paralysis as an unexpected result of hospital negligence.

Simple things like the wrong incision could create a domino effect for more issues. Sometimes, doctors make the mistake of operating on the wrong patient. It doesn’t happen often, but it is a possibility. There could also be issues with the equipment and its sterilization.

Childbirth Injuries

Giving birth is one of the most dangerous things a person can go through. A lot of things can go wrong during childbirth, and bad things could happen to the infant and new parent alike. Doctors need to watch the vital signs of the parent and infant until they are both stable.

If complications arise, the caregivers need to order an emergency C-section. Wasting time could harm the parent and the baby. Keep these common childbirth injuries in mind:

  • Hypoxia
  • Cerebral palsy
  • Brain damage
  • Erb’s palsy
  • Spinal cord injuries
  • Death

Keep a close eye on the state of the parent and infant before, during, and after the delivery.

Medical lawsuits are not an enigma. They happen, and these four most common ones occur more often than you might assume.