When a medical professional makes an error, or when their treatment falls below the acceptable standard of care and their patient is injured as a result, it is called medical malpractice.
Unfortunately, medical errors happen all the time, and many believe that they are grossly underreported.
From misdiagnosing an ailment, to failing to order the proper tests, to ignoring a patient's complaints, to accidentally nicking the wrong organ, medical errors can lead to advanced stages of disease and a preventable death.
7 Common Reasons for Lawsuits
While there are countless ways that a doctor, nurse, anesthesiologist, or surgeon can injure a patient, recent data from the Medscape Malpractice Report 2015: Why Most Doctors Get Sued, sheds light on the 7 most common reasons why victims sue their doctors.
After surveying about 4,000 physicians and specialists, here is what Medscape found:
- The failure to diagnose (31%)
- The patient suffered from an abnormal injury (31%)
- The failure to treat a patient (12%)
- Insufficient documentation of patient education and instruction (4%)
- Medication errors (4%)
- Failed to follow proper safety protocol (3%)
- Improperly obtained or lacked informed consent (3%)
Filing a Medical Malpractice Lawsuit
We all know that hospitals can be hectic and nurses can work long hours, often working while exhausted. Still, we should expect the highest level of care from doctors, specialists, hospitals, nurses and their staff because our lives can depend on it.
Often, factors such as fatigue contribute to medical mistakes, but we cannot accept or tolerate such errors because it puts patients' lives at risk.
If your doctor failed to diagnose you properly, or if they misdiagnosed your condition, or made another error that led to injuries, you should contact a medical malpractice lawyer for help.
If it can be proven that your doctor was negligent and that negligence was the reason for your injuries, you may be entitled to compensation through a medical malpractice lawsuit.
Contact a medical malpractice attorney now to see if you have grounds to seek damages.