Even if it’s sad to know it, sometimes healthcare experts make mistakes while treating patients. Suppose you’re the victim of medical malpractice, and your doctor made an error that rises to the level of medical malpractice and causes serious injuries. In that case, you can get compensation for your losses. Due to medical malpractice, dealing with personal injuries can leave you with a worsened condition, severe disabilities, and other substantial losses. Besides the physical suffering, you also have to deal with emotional trauma because your medical conditions can impact you for the rest of your life.
If you’ve been a victim of medical malpractice, you may have doubts about pursuing claims because you don’t truly understand what happened. Or you may simply be hesitant because the process is too complex. When avoidable medical errors occur and negatively impact your life, you should get support and help to recover and get compensation. This article provides in detail information about the most common medical malpractice claims to help you determine if yours is similar and you can make a claim.
Misdiagnosis
You’re the subject of misdiagnosis when your healthcare provider fails to diagnose your condition or gives you an incorrect one. This can cause you suffering and pain and can even cause long-term health issues.
The most common misdiagnosed health problems are meningitis, cancer, and diabetes.
However, it’s not always the doctor’s fault for misdiagnosis because the above conditions have symptoms that could be easily mistaken for other issues. Sadly, misdiagnosis of any of the above conditions can prove devastating for your health, and you’re entitled to claim compensation.
If you’ve been the victim of misdiagnosis and want to claim compensation for medical malpractice in the UK, you can hire a solicitor to assist you during the process.
Delayed diagnosis
Delayed diagnosis and misdiagnosis are often related because in most cases, the healthcare professional initially misdiagnoses you with a different condition or states that you have no medical problem at all. Eventually, you may visit another doctor who diagnoses your issue properly, but the delayed results triggered a worsening in your symptoms because you didn’t take appropriate treatment.
If you received a delayed diagnosis, you could qualify as a medical malpractice victim.
Surgical negligence
Most medical experts in the UK perform successful surgeries, but sometimes mistakes happen and can leave you with injuries. You’re the victim of surgical negligence when a surgeon makes an avoidable error during your operation, worsening your health issue or causing other problems. The most common kinds of surgical negligence cases include:
– Performing operation on a wrong body part or a wrong operation
– Infection
– Leaving foreign objects in your body
– Injury to organs or nerve damage
– Failing to inform you about the risks associated with the surgery
– Disfigurement or scarring as a result of cosmetic surgery
Anaesthesia errors
If your nurse anaesthetist or anesthesiologist makes a mistake before surgery, they can leave you with permanent health issues like brain damage. Anaesthesia errors usually result from failure to review your medical history or improper monitoring of vital signs during the operation.
Failure to prevent or treat infections
Unfortunately, hospital patients catch infections more often than you imagine. And if you’re a senior or have a compromised immune system, developing an infection can threaten your life. Also, you can get a superbug, also known as an infection resistant to most traditional antibiotics. Sometimes you catch an infection because the medical personnel fail to provide you with sanitary conditions. If they fail to follow the established infection prevention protocols, you can also become ill.
Medication and prescription errors
Daily, healthcare experts in the UK prescribe medicine, and while most prescriptions are correctly written and processed, mistakes still happen. Your doctor has the duty of care to ensure they prescribe the right medication and dosage. An incorrect dosage, wrong medication, or treatment that interferes with your previous health conditions can cause extreme consequences such as allergic reactions, digestive problems, psychological issues, or brain damage.
The most common medication or prescription errors include:
– Several medications wrongly prescribed together
– Incorrect dosage
– Medication you’re allergic to
– Wrong prescription
Several malpractice claims involve errors in the prescription of medicine. Sometimes the doctor recommends the wrong drug, while other times, the pharmacist misreads the prescription and provides you with the wrong drugs. You can have a life-threatening reaction if the doctor or pharmacist fails to check for interactions with other medication or allergies.
Defective medical devices
Some medical malpractice cases involve defective medical devices that cause injuries and health issues. When the doctors or medical staff use a defective medical device, they can put you in serious danger. For example, you can experience organ perforations because your medical expert uses poorly designed tools. Your health issue can also worsen when the healthcare professionals use a defective device because you don’t get the needed treatment.
Often people are injured due to defective medical equipment before someone discovers the issue. However, the manufacturer and user should have known about the defect because they’re supposed to check it regularly. So, you can hold the healthcare provider or device provider liable to pay compensation.
Pregnancy and birth injuries
Hundreds of women give birth in the UK daily, and most births are successful and neither the mom nor baby experience any health issues. However, birth is a complex medical procedure, and things can go wrong with even a normal, natural birth. For example, the medical staff might fail to monitor your condition or the baby properly. If you’re the victim of medical negligence during pregnancy or delivery, you and the baby can experience injuries that can be physically and emotionally devastating.
The most common examples of pregnancy and birth issues are:
– Injury to mother during birth
– Injury to baby during birth
– Obstetrics negligence
– Misdiagnosed miscarriage
– IVF/fertility negligence
– Neonatal negligence or stillbirth
– Failure to manage pregnancy complications
– Failed sterilisation
– Failure to diagnose an infection
Above are the most common cases of medical negligence. If you think you’re the victim of one of them, don’t hesitate to reach out to a professional.
