Medical Malpractice: Surgical Errors

Posted by Chell in Medical Malpractice, Personal Injury

You go to the doctors to help treat your medical condition, but sadly, there are instances where the doctors do you more harm than good, like on the instances of medical malpractice.

Medical malpractice happens when a medical professional who has the duty of care to a patient has violated that duty of care, either through action or action, and this violation has resulted into the harm of the patient. According to the website of Russo, Russo & Slania, P.C., negligent medical professionals can be held accountable and forced to provide much-needed compensation to the victims through a medical malpractice lawsuit.

There are different negligent acts, such as misdiagnosis, medication error, and lack of informed consent. But whatever negligent act you have experienced, it doesn’t change the fact that it has health and monetary consequences. One of the most devastating, both in terms of health and monetary consequence, is surgical error.

A surgical error happens when a medical professional has made a mistake before, during, and after a surgical procedure. This is an extremely dangerous mistake because it can lead to the rise of new complications and worsening of existing ones, and the worst thing about it is the fact that the patient doesn’t deserve it. It has only happened because of the negligence of a medical professional.

Below are some of the most common surgical errors:

Anesthesia Error – Too much or too little anesthesia can have devastating effects, including brain damage and extreme pain during surgery.

Foreign Object Error – Surgical tools that are left in the body can be dangerous. Aside from the obvious pain, leaving foreign objects inside the body can lead to organ punctures and infections.

Nerve Damage Error – Speaking of organ punctures, foreign objects are not just the culprits of such, as even the wrong or incompetent use of surgical tools during surgery can also cause such injuries. The most common culprit is the scalpel.

Site Operation Error – This may sound ridiculous because of how incompetent it is, but operating on the wrong body part does happen, resulting into the extraction of the wrong kidney, amputation of the wrong limb, and many other scenarios.

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Erb’s Palsy – A Correctible Birth Injury

Posted by Chell in Birth Injuries, Erb's Palsy, Medical Malpractice, Personal Injury

One of the growing concerns in many US states is the increasing number of medical malpractice lawsuits filed against hospitals, doctors and other health care providers. Though every doctor owes patients that they take under their care timely and correct diagnosis plus prescription of correct and effective medication, medical malpractice still happens and it continues to increase every year.

Medical errors worsen the patient’s condition besides giving him/her a new illness or injury to worry about. There are thousands of medical mistakes reported yearly and so many more go unreported. One of the most painful mistakes a medical professional can commit is that which results to birth injuries, for this particularly inflicts severe pain to the couple or to all the members of the family, instantly turning a joyful occasion into a heartrending one. Some of the most common injuries during birth include brain and spinal damage, infections, cerebral palsy, subconjunctival hemorrhage or rupture of small blood vessels in the eyes, caput succedaneum or swelling of the head’s soft tissue, and brachial plexus or erb’s palsy.

The brachial plexus, in particular, is a group of nerves located near the neck which enables the fingers, hand and arm to feel and move. Stretching it during a difficult delivery, wherein the person assisting the delivery exerts force by pulling the baby from the birth canal and stretching the nerves at the same time, is the primary cause of erb’s palsy, which is paralysis of the arm.

Erb’s palsy is nothing more but the result of a medical practitioner failure to act responsibly or exercise proper care during delivery. Though pulling the baby from the birth canal is sometimes necessary, especially if the baby is quite big, during a breech delivery (feet come out first), or during a prolonged labor, care must be observed and exercised to make sure that no injury is inflicted on the newly born.

Erb’s palsy can be corrected through a non-surgical treatment. A daily physical therapy or shoulder, elbow, wrist, and hand exercises, as instructed by a physical therapist, will prevent the baby’s joints from becoming permanently stiff, a condition also known as joint contracture. But, despite its being correctable, it still renders the medical practitioner, whose carelessness caused the injury in the first place, to face the consequences of his/her careless act.

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