Doctors sometimes make medical errors that threaten the lives of their patients or put them in harm’s way. While errors don’t always leave a lasting impact, it’s very important for doctors to recognize how a single error could change the course of a patient’s life.
There are three main types of errors that doctors usually make. They include surgical errors, medication errors and diagnostic errors. Here is a little more about each.
Surgical errors are relatively self-explanatory. They’re errors made during a surgery that result in serious injuries or death. For example, a surgeon may operate on the wrong body part, leaving a patient with an amputation that he or she did not need and the need for a second operation.
Medications are used in everyday life, but they still have innate risks. For some, the medications they receive may be given in the wrong dosages or too closely to one another, leading to serious side effects or death. Patients must receive the right dosages of the right medications at the right time.
One of the most complicated kinds of medical malpractice is a diagnostic error. Not all delayed diagnoses are errors. Sometimes, it takes time to narrow down the different illnesses to find the one affecting a patient. However, if a doctor misses an obvious sign of disease, there’s a chance that he or she made a diagnostic error that you can file a claim for.
Medical errors put you in danger. If you’ve been hurt because a doctor made a mistake, you can learn more about what to do next at our website.