Our health is important to us. When we become sick or injured, we place our trust in hospitals and doctors to provide us with the proper care and treatment.
Doctors and medical professionals owe a duty of care to their patients. Medical malpractice occurs when this duty is breached, and that breach causes an injury or illness, or a current injury or illness to worsen.
Medical malpractice should be taken seriously
There are many types of medical malpractice. Some of the most common include:
- Birth injury
- Failure to diagnose
- Improper treatment
- Prescription errors
Examples of birth injuries include handling a baby improperly or misdiagnosing a pregnant mother who requires a c-section, resulting in a stroke, or brain injury to the baby.
Failure to diagnose can take various forms. A doctor may diagnose a serious condition too late or diagnose a wrong condition entirely. An example of improper treatment is a doctor using unapproved procedures or treatments involving additional risk to treat your condition.
Prescription errors are common and can be extremely serious. A doctor may provide you with the correct diagnosis, but prescribe the wrong medication, or prescribe medication that you are allergic to after not reading your records carefully.
Surgical errors and failure to monitor
Another major form of medical malpractice involves negligence during surgery. Most New York residents have probably heard of hernia mesh cases, involving negligence when placing mesh inside the bodies of hernia patients. Leaving surgical instruments inside patients or amputating the wrong body part are other forms of surgical negligence.
Even if you successfully make it through a procedure or treatment, your doctor has a duty to properly monitor you through follow-up appointments or other means. Negligence can occur if you develop a more serious condition because your doctor did not provide appropriate follow-up treatment.
Informed consent
You must give informed consent before undergoing any medical procedure. This means you must fully understand all the risks associated with the procedure. Your doctor must inform you of these, and if you experience after-effects that you were not told could happen, your doctor could be found negligent.
These are just a few examples of typical forms of medical malpractice. The effects of malpractice are often devastating and sometimes permanent. Medical malpractice attorneys can provide thoughtful advice on how to prove negligence and obtain compensation.