Most Common Types of Medical Malpractice

Medical malpractice is a serious issue, but not enough people seem to be aware of the dangers. However, it is the third leading cause of death for United States citizens, as per a report in The Washington Post. The two causes of death that are higher are cancer and heart disease.

Legal experts define medical malpractice as when a healthcare professional fails to provide an adequate duty of care. This does not mean the surgeon comes back with the news that is unpleasant. It simply means the surgeon should have had the capacity to do a better job but failed due to negligence or incompetence. There are various ways this can manifest itself.

Surgical mistakes

Surgeries are highly intricate, but occasionally, doctors make a mistake that should not have occurred. For example, a doctor may perform the wrong surgery or operate on the wrong patient. There have also been instances where a surgeon has left a piece of equipment, such as a medical sponge, inside a person.

Errors in prescribing medication

There have been cases where a doctor prescribed the wrong type of medication to a patient or prescribed an incorrect dosage amount. This actually occurs more often than many people think. The reason is that a prescription goes through numerous people, from the doctor to the physician’s assistant. If anyone of these people makes a small mistake, it could result in disaster.

Misdiagnosis

Due to physician error or a misreporting of symptoms, doctors can fail to diagnose someone of a condition. Some of the most common health problems where this occurs include:

• Blood clot
• Heart disease
• Tumors
• Infections

In some cases, the physician fails to locate a health problem entirely. In other cases, the doctor diagnoses a patient with the wrong medical condition and begins a treatment to remedy something else entirely. This allows the actual problem to exacerbate, leading to physical harm and a medical malpractice case.