When we visit a hospital or go to a doctor for treatment, we are putting ourselves in their care and giving up our personal safety at their discretion. In most cases, the healthcare staff that we work with will do their utmost to live up to this responsibility and take it seriously. However, negligence, mistakes, and even outright malpractice do happen. How do you recognize when it happens and what do you do about it? Here are some of the most common instances you can address.
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Misdiagnosis
Getting an incorrect diagnosis isn’t always due to negligence. However, a lot of people find that certain symptoms or experiences may not be taken as seriously, which can lead to a pattern of misdiagnosis. Getting a second opinion is recommended if you’re not happy with a diagnosis, but if a doctor fails to act on the information you have provided, which leads to a misdiagnosis that causes suffering down the line, you could be entitled to compensation.
Medication errors
One of the more common errors can happen at any point in the treatment process, whether the personnel writes down the wrong medication name or misreads how much medication is to be given. There are efforts to reduce medication errors in healthcare settings but, as a patient, it’s not a bad idea to double-check that the prescription is for the correct amount.
Surgical malpractice
Practically every surgery that you could be part of involves some level of risk, and it’s important that your medical team informs you of those risks before you undergo said surgery. That said, there are mistakes that should never happen, like foreign objects being left inside the patient or the surgeon operating on the wrong parts of the body. When this happens, it’s a serious case of malpractice that the hospital is for liable.
Pregnancy and birth injuries
Despite being a stage of every single life, pregnancy, and birth injury that occurs due to poor care of the mother and child are more common than you might think. One of the most common forms of legal action as a result of this Erb’s palsy lawsuit. This is due to neurological damage that is caused often by excessive force during delivery, but this is only one example of how doctors can fail us during pregnancy and birth.
Billing errors
While it might not seem as immediately serious as the other examples, medical debt is one of the leading causes of bankruptcy and it is often exacerbated by incorrect or inappropriate billing from hospitals. If you’re looking to save on your medical bills, then you should get used to looking through those bills for duplicate charges, charges you can dispute, or mistakes in the details sent to your insurance company as they’re a lot more common than many realize.
It might not be reasonable for the average person to suspect that every time they see the doctor or hospital, something might go wrong. However, you should be aware that it can happen, and be ready to stand up for yourself when it does.
