7 Types of Medical Malpractice That Can Lead to Severe Injuries

Medical malpractice often results in severe, life-altering injuries. When a medical team makes errors, patients frequently suffer irreversible harm. However, it can be difficult to know when you’ve been the victim of medical malpractice because it can take many forms.

While any number of medical malpractice scenarios could be possible, some happen more often than others. Learning them can make it easier to know when it’s time to consult a medical malpractice attorney. With that in mind, here are the seven most common types of medical malpractice that can lead to severe injuries.

Surgical Errors

Surgical errors often constitute medical malpractice and can result in serious injury. Surgical errors can happen in many different ways. Some of the most common include:

• Performing the wrong type of surgery

• Operating on the wrong body part

• Leaving objects inside the patient when closing an incision

Wrong-site surgery brings the risk of damaging or removing a healthy body part, while an object left inside can cause a serious or life-threatening infection.

Misdiagnosis or Delays in Diagnosis

Misdiagnosis refers to diagnosing a patient with the wrong health condition, and delayed diagnosis refers to a doctor’s failure to promptly identify a patient’s medical condition. These errors can result in the patient receiving invasive or harmful treatment, such as chemotherapy or surgery for a condition they don’t have.

Alternatively, misdiagnosis can involve a doctor failing to identify a serious medical condition like cancer. This causes the disease to continue to progress when you should have already begun treatment.

Medication Errors

Taking the wrong medication can have a serious negative impact on a patient’s health. Medication errors happen for a lot of reasons. Some of the most common include:

• Administering an incorrect medication

• Making errors with dosage and frequency or method of administration

• Prescribing the wrong medication

• Sending the wrong prescription to the pharmacy

• Making pharmacy errors in filling the prescription

• Incorrectly giving or failing to give usage instructions

• Failing to consider health history and other medications

Medication errors are often related to an error with the medication itself. However, a patient can also be a victim of medication error if the doctor fails to inquire about health history and other medicines that might cause an adverse reaction.

Anesthesia Errors

Anesthesia use comes with many risks for a patient. Errors in dosage, equipment malfunction, or allergic reactions are all common issues associated with anesthesia use. The most common types of injuries related to anesthesia errors are paralysis and nerve damage.

Birth Injuries

Birth injuries are another very common type of medical malpractice. Birth injuries often result in severe, lifelong health conditions. Brain damage and conditions like cerebral palsy and brachial palsy are common outcomes of a birth injury. Physical injuries due to forceps use and infant oxygen deprivation are two common forms of birth injury.

Hospital-Acquired Infections

Hospital treatment can put a patient at risk of suffering a hospital-acquired infection. Staph infections like MRSA are a common type of serious infection patients might develop during the course of hospital treatment. A patient might experience death, organ failure, or serious illness after they end up getting an infection at the hospital.

Failure to Obtain Informed Consent

Doctors have to obtain informed consent before moving forward with a procedure. Failing to notify a patient of the possible risks and side effects of a procedure or treating a patient who is legally incapable of providing informed consent are two examples of failing to obtain informed consent.

FAQ

What Should I Do if I Think I Was the Victim of Medical Malpractice?

If you think you’ve been the victim of medical malpractice, you should collect documentation about your medical care and attend a free consultation with an experienced medical malpractice lawyer.

Do I Need a Medical Malpractice Attorney to Recover Compensation?

Medical malpractice is one of the most complex types of personal injury cases. You need a lawyer to build a case, prove negligence, and negotiate a fair settlement.

How Much Does It Cost to Hire a South Carolina Medical Malpractice Attorney?

Clore Law offers free consultations and contingency agreements. You don’t pay anything unless and until we win your case.