Medical errors do happen sometimes but when they are as a result of negligent professionals, the damage can be very serious. We often place our trust in medical professionals who promise to help us but when they harm us, there may be cause for legal action.
If you believe you have been a victim of medical malpractice in New Bedford, it’s important that you contact a medical malpractice attorney who can file a medical malpractice case for you. These specialized lawyers are able to assess your claim and make sure you are informed about your rights.
Medical malpractice cases are complex and if you have been a victim, you have to prove:
- The doctor made a mistake that would not have been made by another doctor with similar training given similar circumstances,
- The doctor’s mistake caused you significant harm and
- The severity of your injuries resulting from the doctor’s negligence.
With this in mind, these are the four types of medical malpractice cases that you should be aware of:
Different Types of Medical Malpractice Cases
1. Misdiagnosis
According to recent studies, misdiagnosis is the leading type of doctor error. The most commonly misdiagnosed conditions include:
- Heart diseases
- Blood clot in the lungs
- Heart attack
- Tumors
- Infections
Misdiagnosis for these conditions occur because most patients do not display the obvious textbook list of symptoms. Misdiagnosis can make the condition worse because the doctor spends a lot of time treating a condition that the patient doesn’t have.
2. Childbirth and Pregnancy Negligence
Many things can go wrong during the course of pregnancy and even during delivery. You’d think that with all these scientific advances in medicine, childbirth and pregnancy negligence would be a thing of the past. Unfortunately, it isn’t and a lot of mothers have become victims of medical malpractice. Medical malpractice during pregnancy and child birth could be as a result of:
- Preeclampsia
- Long labor that leads to injury to the mother and the baby
- Gestational diabetes
- Abnormalities in the placenta
- Unexplained or excessive vaginal bleeding
- Premature babies
- Negligence administering anesthesia during caesarian section or labor
- Nerve injury to the baby during labor
Keep in mind that just because your labor or pregnancy didn’t go well doesn’t mean that you were a victim of medical malpractice.
3. Wrong Drug Prescription
Medication errors are extremely common. The errors can range from prescribing too much or too little to prescribing the wrong medication.
Your doctor might prescribe the right medication but the pharmacy gives you the wrong one. You’d be surprised at how easy it is to administer the wrong amount of medication. A misread digit or a wrongly misplaced decimal point can lead to a patient being administered ten times more medication.
4. Surgical Errors
Surgical errors or errors by the anesthesiologist are very common. The most common types of surgical errors include:
- Operating on the wrong site
- Leaving foreign objects inside the body
- Damaging nerves
- Performing the wrong operation
- Performing surgery on the wrong patient
- Failing to control bleeding
Anesthesia related negligence includes:
- Administering the wrong type of anesthesia
- Giving too little anesthesia
- Giving too much anesthesia
There is also anesthesia related negligence related to patient care. For instance, a patient can go blind during a long back surgery in which they are lying on their stomach. It is up to the anesthesiologist to have the patient moved during such a procedure to avoid putting too much pressure on the optic nerve and subsequently damaging it while the patient is lying on their stomach.
Filing a Medical Malpractice Claim in New Bedford
If you have been a victim of medical malpractice, you may want to file a medical malpractice claim. For this, you will need the services of a qualified and experienced medical malpractice lawyer.
Medical malpractice cases are complex and you may be required to jump through some procedural hoops along the way. A lawyer can help you with this and the sooner you consult with them the sooner they can start working on your case.
Consulting a lawyer as soon as possible will also decrease your chances of filing your lawsuit after the statute of limitations has expired.
To learn more about the legal issues of your medical malpractice case, you can contact one of our medical malpractice lawyer at Kevin P Landry Law Offices by dialing 508-999-0800 or by visiting our New Bedford offices today for a free legal review.
