The worst type of medical malpractice cases
The core element in the ethical principles of medicine is the doctor-patient relationship. When you enter into this type of relationship, doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals owe you a duty of care; in other words, they are obligated to provide reasonable and competent medical care to you, the patient.
When a doctor or other healthcare provider deviates from the applicable standard of care due to negligence, carelessness, or an intentional act, a case for medical malpractice can be brought if the patient suffers harm or even death as a result.
Medical malpractice can happen for a variety of reasons, some of the most common include:
- Failure to diagnose/misdiagnosis
- Surgical errors
- Anesthesia mistakes
- Medication errors
- Failure to follow up on test results
- Premature discharge from the hospital
These and other nightmare situations arising from errors or negligence on the part of a healthcare professional are serious enough, but there are some very scary cases in which there has been such an egregious disregard for the safety of a patient that they’ve been labeled as some of the worst types of medical malpractice cases in the United States.
What would you do if…
The following stories involve four of the worst types of medical malpractice cases:
- Doctors began performing open-heart surgery on the wrong patient
- A surgeon amputated the wrong leg of a patient because the leg to be amputated was incorrectly identified in the patient’s medical charts and hospital records
- Doctors performed a heart and lung transplant on a patient before checking the compatibility of the donor’s blood with the patient. It was the wrong blood type, and the patient died two weeks later.
- SNL star, Dana Carvey, had double bypass surgery performed on the wrong artery which he wasn’t made aware of until two months after the initial procedure was performed.
Not all medical malpractice is so obvious
These worst types of medical malpractice are representative of some of the most egregious cases of malpractice to occur in the country. But sadly, these are not anomalous incidents; medical mistakes result in tens of thousands of deaths every year.
According to a study conducted at Johns Hopkins University, more than 250,000 people in the United States die every year from preventable medical errors and negligence, making medical malpractice the third-leading cause of death in the country. This figure does not include all of the individuals who are left with permanent injuries as a result of preventable medical errors.
If you feel that you were harmed or injured due to negligence on the part of a healthcare provider, seek the help of a reputable medical malpractice attorney.
Scott S. Harris, San Diego attorney, has been representing victims of medical malpractice in the San Diego area as well as throughout California for more than 30 years.