Medical malpractice occurs when a doctor or medical professional is negligent in their care of a patient. While these cases tend to be pretty rare, we can identify certain types of errors that occur more than others.
Birth Injuries
During the labor and delivery process, medical negligence can lead to the child incurring fetal injuries, such as brain injuries, cerebral palsy, fractures and bruises, Erb's palsy, and paralysis. Doctors may make mistakes during childbirth or even many months prior:
- Failing to identify issues like birth defects
- Failing to identify possible complications
- Misusing medical tools, like forceps
- Failing to diagnose a C-section
Medication and Anesthesia Errors
When a doctor prescribes or administers the wrong dosage of medication or anesthesia, the repercussions can be very severe. Medication errors and anesthesia errors may occur because the doctor didn't investigate the patient's medical history, there was an equipment issue, or the doctor simply wrote the wrong number on the prescription.
Misdiagnosis or Delayed Diagnosis
The most common medical malpractice claim involves misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis, which occurs when a doctor provides the wrong analysis of a condition, or takes too long to provide the correct analysis of a condition. This can result in the patient getting the wrong treatment or failing to get treatment that would have otherwise prevented harm or death.
The key to proving misdiagnosis is showing that another doctor in the same circumstance would have made a correct diagnosis. This can be difficult, as some conditions can be very difficult to diagnose.
Mistakes that could cause misdiagnosis include:
- Diagnostic errors
- Testing errors
- Failure to order the correct tests
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