Although each case is different, here are some examples of medical negligence claims in this area of law:

Failure to Diagnose: When patients suffer from life-threatening diseases, there may be a limited window of opportunity for the patient to receive successful treatment. Illnesses can quickly progress from being treatable with medication or a simple procedure to being fatal. Patients who have been harmed by a failure to diagnose may have lost years of their lives.

Doctors must take careful note of any symptoms described by patients, perform the tests required to reach an accurate diagnosis, and interpret the results of those tests with care. Doctors must also perform thorough differential diagnoses to ensure that no possible cause of a patient’s symptoms is missed. This thoroughness in diagnosing a patient is especially important when the patient has cancer or has had a stroke or heart attack, as a missed diagnosis can result in irreversible injuries.

Errors in communication: Patients who are admitted to a hospital for an extended period of time will be treated by a rotating panel of physicians and nurses. When one shift ends and another begins, it is critical that these doctors and nurses communicate clearly about the treatment that each patient is receiving, their current condition and symptoms, and any other information necessary to provide them with adequate care.

These medical professionals must also meticulously record the patient’s condition and treatment in their records. If doctors do not take careful notes, they may overlook important information to the incoming rotation of doctors. If this communication doesn’t occur or is incomplete, the patient can suffer serious consequences.

Failure to Obtain Informed Consent: Physicians must explain every risk associated with their treatments, whether surgical or related to dangerous side effects of prescribed medication. When doctors fail to do their homework, the patient suffers as a result.

Surgical Error: Even minor surgical procedures can expose patients to complications and infection. Patients must have confidence in their surgeon’s competence, attentiveness, and knowledge of current best practices in their field. When surgeons fail to carry out a medical procedure with the necessary care and skill, they can be held legally liable for any resulting injuries or even wrongful death.

Common surgical errors include performing a surgical procedure on the wrong patient, operating on the wrong part of the body, using insufficient or excessive anesthesia, leaving a surgical instrument inside the patient, and causing damage that did not exist prior to the surgery.

Prescription Error: When patients are prescribed new medications, they rely on their doctor and pharmacist to check for the possibility of harmful interactions with their existing prescription medications, as well as to alert them to any allergens that may cause an adverse reaction in the patient. They also believe that the pharmacist will fill the prescription correctly, using the correct medication in the correct dosage amount. Medication and prescription errors can cause painful side effects or, in the worst-case scenario, fatal injuries.