5 Medical Errors That Can Lead To a Medical Malpractice Lawsuit

Medical errors are an unfortunate reality of healthcare that can have serious consequences for patients and their families. When healthcare providers don’t meet the standard of care that’s expected of them, the results can be catastrophic. The silver lining, however, is that victims can seek justice and compensation for their damages.

To be fair, not all mistakes immediately constitute medical malpractice. However, certain errors, such as the five below, can cross the line into negligence and lead to serious injury or death:

1. Misdiagnosis or Delayed Diagnosis

1. Misdiagnosis or Delayed Diagnosis

Some of the most common medical errors cited in malpractice claims are incorrect or delayed diagnoses. A misdiagnosis can cause someone to get care that they don’t need. A delayed diagnosis could let a treatable condition fly under the radar for far too long and progress into something that can’t be cured. 

Conditions that are often seen in lawsuits regarding improper diagnoses include the following:

  • Cancer: Early detection is critical for treating most types of cancer, meaning an improper diagnosis can ultimately have fatal consequences
  • Heart Attack: Symptoms can be mistaken as less severe conditions like anxiety or acid reflux, and a late diagnosis can cost a patient their life
  • Stroke: Quick and accurate diagnoses are needed for prompt treatment to avoid long-term or severe neurological damage or death
  • Sepsis: Often mistaken for a urinary or staph infection, sepsis is far more deadly if not caught in time
  • Pulmonary Embolism: Another deadly condition often mistaken for pneumonia, asthma, bronchitis, a pulled muscle, or anxiety
  • Parkinson’s Disease: There’s no definitive test for Parkinson’s, meaning victims could be misdiagnosed with anything from a frozen shoulder to anxiety

Patients who face a missed or delayed diagnosis could end up having surgeries they don’t need, be given the wrong medications, and be deprived of the treatment they actually require. It can cause needless prolonged suffering while the disease gets worse, and it could ultimately kill the patient.

2. Surgical Mistakes

Surgical errors are especially troubling because they often lead to immediate and life-threatening consequences. They can happen before, during, or after surgery and usually occur because of surgeon negligence or a lack of proper care for the patient.

Certain scenarios involving surgical errors have become disturbingly common in recent times, such as:

  • Wrong Site: The procedure is done on the wrong part of the body
  • Wrong Procedure: The wrong type of surgery is done on the patient
  • Wrong Patient: The wrong patient is operated on
  • Nerve Damage: Poor technique or a lack of precision causes permanent nerve damage
  • Foreign Objects: Surgical tools, sponges, and other materials are left inside the patient after the surgery

Out of these, “wrong-site, wrong-procedure, and wrong-patient errors” (WSPEs), in particular, have been found to happen in one in 112,000 surgeries. Though that translates into any given hospital experiencing only one every five to ten years, WSPEs are considered “never events,” meaning they should never happen and indicate serious safety problems when they do.

The exact underlying problem behind surgical mistakes depends on the hospital environment. Some healthcare workers simply fail to properly plan the surgery, or there may be a breakdown of communication within the team. Long hours can lead to worker fatigue, and (perhaps most disturbingly) some surgeons don’t even have the expertise needed to do the job correctly.

3. Medication Errors

Mistakes involving medication can happen at any stage during the treatment process, from prescribing to administering the drugs. Incorrect dosages, wrong medications, and a failure to recognize allergies or anticipate interactions with other drugs can have major consequences for the patient.

Some medication errors can cause severe reactions, a worsening of the patient’s condition, and even death. As an example, giving an improper blood thinner dosage can lead to uncontrollable bleeding. Though usually just troublesome and inconvenient, an injury that wouldn’t normally be so problematic could become dangerous if the bleeding can’t be stopped.

4. Birth Injuries

Birth injuries can have lifelong impacts on both the child and their parents. They typically arise when nurses and doctors fail to keep an eye on the fetus’s heart rate or the mother’s condition during pregnancy, labor, or delivery. In turn, they miss signs of distress and other complications, and they fail to take action until the damage has already been done.

Some of the more common birth injuries are as follows:

  • Cerebral Palsy: A neurological disorder resulting from brain damage caused by oxygen deprivation during birth
  • Erb’s Palsy: Nerve damage in the shoulder that is often caused by excessive force during delivery
  • Fractures: Broken bones in the newborn caused by improper use of vacuum extractors or forceps

Additionally, if a cesarean section isn’t performed when it’s medically necessary, the baby could suffer serious injuries.

Because any of these conditions and injuries can result in lifelong specialized care and other hefty expenses, affected families often have grounds for legal action.

5. Anesthesia Mistakes

Anesthesia is a necessary part of many medical procedures, but when someone messes up its administration, it could cause serious complications. Most commonly, mistakes are made in dosage amounts, and a patient either receives too much or too little of the drug. Some people also end up having allergic reactions that aren’t properly accounted for.

Most problematic, though, is when healthcare providers fail to properly monitor the patient while they’re under. Providers are responsible for constantly checking a patient’s vital signs during surgery. When they don’t, serious complications can slip under the radar that aren’t addressed until it’s too late.

Brain injury, paralysis, and death are all common results of anesthesia mistakes. Survivors are often left to deal with permanent health challenges like chronic pain or cognitive changes. Given these severe outcomes, such errors are often at the center of medical malpractice lawsuits.

Seeking Justice After a Medical Error in Atlanta, GA

When a mistake made by a doctor or nurse causes severe harm to a patient, they and their family have the right to legal recourse. Medical malpractice claims are complicated and need to meet certain criteria to prove that the healthcare provider’s negligence directly led to the injury or death.

If you or a loved one has suffered because of a medical error in Atlanta, contact the legal team at Malone Law Medical Malpractice and Severe Injury Lawyers for a free consultation at (770) 390-7550. We have extensive experience with these cases and will help you fight for compensation for your suffering.