Medical Mistakes
Medical Mistakes Attorneys
When you go to the doctor or to a hospital, you trust that the physician and other medical professionals taking care of you will do so with the highest level of care and focus. You rely on them to take care of you during a troubling time and finding out that you have sustained injuries as a result of a provider’s negligence or recklessness can be devastating to discover. Medical mistakes can shape your life in major ways.
What Now?
If you or someone you know has sustained critical injuries after an event of medical malpractice in a hospital or physician’s office, you may be entitled to file a claim to receive compensation. Recent reports from a federal government task force indicate that somewhere between 40,000 and 98,000 individuals die every year as a result of mistakes made by physicians. Medical mistakes can take shape in several different forms:
- Medication mistakes
- Surgical errors
- Failing to choose the correct course of action or treatment to help or eradicate a patient’s problem
- Failing to diagnose the patient’s problem effectively
- Failing to properly carry through the treatment plan selected
Regardless of the form that a medical mistake takes, all medical mistakes can potentially be deadly. Unfortunately, many family members and patients don’t realize that a medical mistake has happened until it’s too late. There are many different causes for medical mistakes. First of all, many doctors work long hours and are under intense levels of pressure. Second, the increasing reliance on HMOs means that patients may not be sent to the appropriate medical specialist until the condition has become more challenging to treat. Finally, there is a shortage of appropriately trained nurses in the marketplace. All of these factors put severe stress on a system in which far too many preventable deaths and injuries happen as a result of exhausted, overworked or inexperienced caregivers.
Regardless of the conditions in a hospital or a doctor’s office that can contribute to malpractice, it is still the provider’s responsibility to treat your condition with the utmost level of care.
If your provider has ignored this or has otherwise treated you negligently, you may have grounds for a medical malpractice claim.
The first thing you should do is to consult with a knowledgeable medical malpractice attorney as soon as possible.
