Common types of medical negligence

Medical negligence used to be something that people shied away from, unsure of how to carry out an investigation into pain and injuries suffered as a result of said negligence. However, with the rise of  ‘no win no fee’ solicitors, medical compensation claims are increasing in number each year.

If you play your case right, you will be able to gain a successful medical claim with the help of medical negligence solicitors. This article seeks to inform you of the variety of types of medical negligence that can occur.

Misdiagnosis

This can be an extremely grave mistake for a doctor to make, and one that can lead to a lot of health problems. Misdiagnosis can occur when the symptoms of your condition or illness are not already obviously apparent.

Doctors often fail to diagnose things like cancer, symptoms of an impending heart attack or a stroke, diabetes, meningitis or appendicitis.

If you are being treated for something that you don’t have, or worse, not being treated at all, it can lead to very serious damage to your health.

Surgery-related negligence

This is a rare, but nonetheless very grave offence that will hold your doctor liable for violating his or her code of conduct. If you are operated on without giving your consent to the doctor, this is classed as ‘battery’, legally speaking.

There are many other pitfalls when it comes to surgery, unfortunately. The unintentional laceration of an organ or tissue that isn’t related to the area of concern will cause extra, unwarranted damage to your body.

Wrong site surgery occurs when there has been a mistake in communicating the area of concern to the doctor, and he or she in turn operates on a different area of your body.

A lot of jokes are often made about foreign objects being left in the body after surgery; there’s not that much to laugh at, unfortunately, if it happens to you. If something is left inside your body after the operation, it will more than likely lead to severe, life-threatening infection.

Anaesthesia-related negligence

There are two areas where negligence-caused damage can occur with an anaesthesiologist. During your patient review, he or she will go through your entire patient history to see whether you have a particular allergy or other conditions they need to be aware of.

A mistake in the review will inevitably result in a mistake during the operation, where an allergic reaction could cause severe damage or even death.

Even if the review is successful and the anaesthesiologist is adequately prepared, slip-ups may occur during the surgery, where they may not react in time to changes occurring in front of them.

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