When patients suffer injury from medical malpractice, they are burdened with an additional injury or illness. While they should be recovering, they are forced to handle a new crisis. The most common cases of medical malpractice are usually the result of a wrong diagnosis, or late diagnosis, failure to diagnose, diagnostic error, or surgical mishap but there are countless other valid claims that can arise.

Many medical malpractice lawsuits arise under the following circumstances:

•  when a medical specialist departs from an accepted standard of care in that field of medicine
•  when a physician or hospital fails to properly or timely diagnose or treat a medical condition
•  when a physician or hospital fails to perform surgery properly
•  when a physician or hospital during the general practice of medicine deviates from the generally accepted standard of care in the community
•  when a hospital has inadequate sanitation, administers improper or overdoses of medication, engages in negligent nursing care, or has equipment failure
•  when a physician or hospital fails to obtain the informed consent of the patient before performing a procedure or operation

Failure to Diagnose

A doctor, hospital or medical professional's failure to diagnose a serious or life-threatening medical condition is a significant breach of medical standards. When a doctor, a surgeon or a hospital acts carelessly, or fails to act in time, it can result in serious injury and/or permanent disability.  Or it can cost you your life.  Errors that hospital emergency room doctors and nurses, such as failure to diagnosis a heart attack, appendicitis, or a stroke, kills patients every day.  If a nurse gives a patient the wrong medicine, or fails to consider how multiple drugs interact in a patient, it can seriously compromise the patient’s life. Saving a life often depends on the early and correct detection of serious health conditions such as breast cancer, cervical/endometrial cancer, colon cancer, lung cancer, skin cancer, appendicitis, heart attack, and strokes. Prompt, proper testing for these conditions in the doctor’s office, or hospital emergency room, can mean the difference between life or death for the patient.

Failed to Perform Properly

Equally devastating are the errors surgeons and anesthesiologists make in the operating room.  Botched surgery, anesthesia errors and post-operative negligence in hospital and clinical settings are just some of the causes of harm to patients -- harm that leads to medical malpractice suits against the doctor, or institution responsible for your pain and suffering. This may happen at times out of sheer negligence, or as a result of confusion experienced by an over-extended, and under-staffed, hospital emergency room.

Misdiagnosis

Compounding the problem are incidences of medical negligence even when proper diagnostic tests are used by doctors but when radiologists misread the films, or the pathologist misreads a biopsy. These mishaps can lead to unforgiving delays in making a diagnosis, and even sometimes result in incorrect diagnosis. When time is working against you, delays can limit treatment options, worsen prognosis, or even cause death.

Medical Malpractice is a serious matter. If you believe that you or a loved one have been a victim of medical malpractice, you should seek the advice of an experienced attorney to ensure your legal rights are protected.