Generally speaking, medical malpractice occurs when a professional healthcare provider (doctor, nurse, healthcare facility, hospital, etc.) acts in a way that causes harm to a patient. A healthcare provider’s negligence to administer proper treatment, resulting in the injury, harm, or death of a patient, is also categorized as medical malpractice. In both instances, the standard of care has been breached.
Medical malpractice comes in various forms, all of which may warrant a law suit. The partners of Deal, Cooper & Holten, a Tennessee-based personal injury firm, compiled a more specific list of medical malpractice scenarios that may result in a patient or patient’s family seeking legal counsel:
• Failure to diagnose or misdiagnosis
• Misreading or ignoring laboratory results
• Unnecessary surgery
• Surgical errors or wrong site surgery
• Poor follow up or aftercare
• Premature discharge
• Disregarding or not taking appropriate patient history
• Failure to recognize symptoms
• Giving the patient the wrong dosage
• Giving the patient the wrong medication
• Leaving things inside the patient’s body after surgery
• Operating on the wrong part of the body
• Persistent back pain after surgery
• Potentially fatal staph infections
• Pressure ulcers (bedsores)