Medical Errors that Kill in the Hospital

medical error

You can experience life-changing experience when it comes to errors with medical prescriptions. The fact is you can make a compensation claim if you have suffered due to medication errors. The law office of Fetterman & Associates will offer you legal advocacy in West Palm Beach, Port St. Lucie and the surrounding areas if you want to know how to receive compensation for your care and injuries.

Most people put a lot of faith in medical professionals to appropriately determine our care when we go to them. However, things can go wrong, causing you physical harm and frustration. Sadly, your condition can get worse with incomplete and inaccurate medication for an illness or inquiry. As it tends to have physical and psychological effects, medication errors can be fatal in severe cases.

Whether by private care or NHS, medical malpractice attorneys in West Palm Beach, Jupiter and the surrounding areas that deal with medication errors can make a medical negligence claim for you if someone close to you or you have suffered because of a medication error. Their experienced attorneys will never pressure or rush you into going ahead with a case. They will let you know if you can claim and give you needed support.

What Counts As a Medication Error

Any medication that makes your condition worse instead of better is a medication error. A healthcare professional could have been given incorrect medication or supplied with the wrong type of medication to administer to yourself. Medication errors include some of the following:

  • Providing medicine at the wrong time
  • Giving medicines to an allergic patient
  • Giving an incorrect combination of medications
  • Giving prescription to medication affecting another previously diagnosed condition
  • Receiving an accidental overdose
  • Giving the wrong type of medication for your condition

Medical malpractice attorneys at Fetterman Law, will help you when you feel unsure whether you could make a compensation claim. They will help you understand whether you can claim or happy to answer your questions.

Common Errors during Hospital Stay

Hospital Infections

Hospital-acquired infections affect about 1.7 million people every year, according to Disease Control and Preventions. These are bloodstream infections from IVs, urinary infections from catheters, infections around the surgery site, and pneumonia cases. Such infections tend to be deadly and may involve bacteria resistant to many antibiotics for those with weakened immune systems.

Uncoordinated Care

It is becoming a relic of the past with the idea of having “your” doctor in our changing healthcare system. When you go to the hospital, the doctor will take care of you instead of your regular doctor. Several specialists will examine you and give you rarely uncoordinated charts. You may have medications that interfere with each other or two of the same tests. You may have different coordination between your nurse and doctor, resulting in medical error and confusion.

Medication mistakes

While patients are in the hospital, more than 60 percent of hospitalized of them miss their regular medication. Wrong medications are given to patients, which resulted in medication error injuries of about 1.5 million Americans at the cost of $3.5 billion annually, according to a 2006 report of the Institute of Medicine.

Deadly Procedures and Unnecessary Tests

According to a study, $700 billion is spent on unnecessary treatments and tests. As these costs tend to be deadly, it is also costly. Dyes from MRIs and CTs may cause kidney failure, and your lifetime risk of cancer may increase through CT scans. Even you can get an infection from a simple blood draw. This is not to discourage you from having a test done, but you must always ask why a procedure or test is needed and aware of the risks involved.

Misdiagnosis

The error in diagnoses is the most common type of medical error. And because the right diagnosis is quite vital to your entire medical error, this appears not surprising. You can get delayed treatment with a wrong diagnosis, which can sometimes have deadly consequences. Also, it can be dangerous not to receive a diagnosis too. It isn’t just a list of things that you don’t have, as it is essential to aim to figure out what you have.

Know Whether to Make a Claim

You can make a claim due to medical negligence within the past 3 years if you have suffered a preventable physical or mental injury. The medical staff has to care for you without causing unnecessary harm or any further damage. Fetterman & Associates can help you if any medical staff has failed to provide you with the correct dosage or medication that causes you worse condition.

The efficient attorneys at Fetterman & Associates will help you claim on your behalf. Their legal advisors are trained and provide you with the advice you need if you have any questions concerning your claim.