Seven Reasons Physicians Are Sued For Medical Malpractice
Author: Richard Hastings
It is estimated 100,000 people die each year from medical errors caused by physicians alone. There are a number of reasons patients sue their doctors, but Dr. R.J. Roberts, of the University of Wisconsin Medical School, identified in his Family Practice Management article of March, 2003, 7 reasons why medical errors occur:
1. Cancer Misdiagnosis or Failure to Diagnose or a Delay in Diagnosis: This is especially true of breast cancer patients. Doctors who rely on false negative mammogram studies rather than on patient complaints and following up appropriately may cause harm to the patient and be liable for medical malpractice. Approximately 29 percent of screening mammograms return false negative results;
2. Birth Injury Malpractice or Negligent Maternity Care Practice: The two most common birth defect or birth injury medical malpractice claims arise from excessive use of oxytocin, specifically if the baby is experiencing distress, and the doctor's failure to ensure their patient is covered by another physician informed about the patient's clinical history should the primary doctor be unavailable;
3. Wrong Diagnosis and Misdiagnosis of Negligent Fracture or Trauma: This medical malpractice claim occurs when a doctor assumes that a fracture is merely a sprain or other minor injury without follow through investigation with x-rays or other proper diagnostic tests. Dependent on the location of the fracture, this can have severe consequences, including loss of a limb;
4. Delay in Diagnosis or Failure to Consult in a Timely Manner: A doctor who is sued for failure to consult in a timely manner has hesitated too long before making a referral and the patient has suffered adverse repercussions as a result. Within a reasonable amount of visits to the family doctor, the patient should be referred to a specialist if the family doctor is having difficulty pronouncing a diagnosis or symptoms are not improving or worsening despite treatment;
5. Medication Errors or Medication Malpractice Resulting From Negligent Drug Treatment: This is the third leading cause of death. Medical error or negligence in prescribing medications may be the cause of 225,000 deaths per year. Lack of patient education about the medications prescribed is a component of negligent drug treatment. Prescription drug malpractice claims can also result from a doctor's poor handwriting on the prescription order and misinterpretation by a pharmacist;
6. Physician Malpractice Resulting From Negligent Procedures or Surgical Errors: Physicians do not necessarily have to be performing unfamiliar procedures for such a medical malpractice suit to ensue. Many physicians are sued because they performed procedures they are trained for when the doctor was not alert due to physical exhaustion or mental distraction. In these circumstances, sleep deprivation or mental stress may cause a deficiently performed procedure leading to patient complications;
7. Failure to Obtain Informed Consent: This allegation stems from the failure of the physician to ensure the patient is fully informed of expected outcomes, potential risks and reasonable alternatives to the recommended course of action advised by the doctor resulting in damages to the patient.
If you suspect you are a medical malpractice victim for any reason, it is recommended that you seek legal advice immediately. Attorney Richard Hastings, for the past two and one half decades, has been helping injured clients and families collect millions of dollars in losses ranging from motor vehicle accidents to wrongful death, to medical malpractice. He is the founder of Selectcounsel, LLC, a free service that helps you find one of the best lawyers in your area and is the author of the books "How To Find A Great Lawyer" and "Understanding And Improving The Value Of Your Personal Injury Case."
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/personal-injury-articles/seven-reasons-physicians-are-sued-for-medical-malpractice-832271.html
About the Author
Mr. Hastings concentrates his practice on civil and criminal litigation, real estate and business representation.
When should I consult a lawyer for a worker’s comp case?
My husband was severely injured at a second job just over a year ago; he is still receiving medical attention. We live in Wisconsin and I consulted an attorney shortly after the accident and was told to wait for a year. What am I waiting for? Bankruptcy?
Anyone that’s been through this would be a great asset. Thanks!
The first answer made me feel HORRIBLE. I’m not sure if it’s a WI law or what; that was the sense I got from the attorney I contacted and the documents I got from the state. Worker’s comp seems very structured here. I will call attorneys on Tuesday, but I’ve been more focused on my husband’s health than on legal matters.
I am fully aware of who is responsible for my husband’s medical bills and they are paying his bills; but because he was injured at a second job, their insurance is not liable for losses from his primary place of work.
can your ex get relief from past due medical bills for his kids if filing bankruptcy?
we live in Wisconsin and he never makes payments now he is listing me as a creditor and trying to get all medical bills erased. Can he do this and how do I stop him from trying?
Lot’s of medical bills. What to do?
So I’ve probably racked up over $10,000 in medical bills since living here in Wisconsin and I’m really having a hard time paying them back. I don’t really make enough to have a surplus after paying what I consider “the essentials” (rent, heat, cable, water, phone, food, etc) every month and therefore have not paid any of these bills for at least 3 years. Obviously the bill collectors are calling everyday and I send them right to voicemail because I don’t know what to say to them. So what I’m wondering is, considering the fact that it doesn’t look like I’m going to ever be able to pay them back, due I file some sort of bankruptcy? Is $10,00 worth of debt too little or an amount to even consider it? The other thing I’ve thought about are those “get out of debt” help numbers you always see on late night tv. They seem like a scam though. Maybe somebody has a good idea as to the path I should take. I’m not really worried about my credit as it’s pretty f’ed already. I just want to get to a point where I can stop worrying about all this money I owe.
Is this guy crazy: Wisconsin dad drives all the way to Kansas each week to hang on to a job in tough times?
JANESVILLE, Wis. – In the early dawn, after another week building cars, Michael Hanley leaves his job in Kansas. He quickly zips into Missouri, then heads up a ribbon of highway past grain silos and grazing deer, across the frozen fields of Iowa, over the Mississippi River and into the rolling hills of Wisconsin. Finally, he pulls into his driveway — 530 miles later.
It’s one heck of a haul: more than 1,000 miles roundtrip, 16-plus hours of driving, every week.
“I like to say I gave up an eight-minute commute for an eight-hour commute,” he says wearily, running a hand though salt-and-pepper hair as he watches his two sons play basketball for the first time this season.
After the aging General Motors plant where he worked for 23 years was idled about a year ago, Hanley faced a Hobson’s choice: Stay with his family and search for an autoworker’s salary ($28 an hour) in a county where more than 40 percent of its manufacturing jobs disappeared from 2006 to 2009. Or hang on to his GM paycheck and health insurance and follow the job, no matter where it leads.
In his case, it led to Fairfax, Kan., the same place his brother and two brothers-in-law — also GM workers, and now his roommates — landed. For others, it has been Indiana or Texas.
The long commute is not just a story of hard times, tough choices and a shrinking American auto industry. It’s also a case study of what happens when an aging industrial town loses an anchor, when workers too old to start over and too young to retire are caught in a squeeze and when economic survival means one family, but two far-flung ZIP codes.
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Hanley is not one to complain.
“GM has been good for us,” he says. “This whole town knows that.”
For 90 years, the sprawling plant — it started out building tractors — became a different kind of family business. Through the decades, sons followed fathers onto the line, sometimes rubbing shoulders as they built Chevy Cavaliers, Caprices, Tahoes, Suburbans and more.
Hanley’s father and brother worked there. So did his father-in-law, two brothers-in-law and an assortment of uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews.
But as GM’s financial troubles mounted, car and SUV sales fell and gas prices climbed, the automaker closed several plants, eliminating thousands of jobs.
Janesville — then the oldest of GM assembly plants — ended production of SUVs in December 2008, months before the automaker received billions of dollars in government loans and filed for bankruptcy. (The factory is on standby status; some hold out hope it will reopen one day.)
Some of about 1,200 remaining workers took buyouts or retired; some began new careers. Hundreds more stayed with GM, relocating, commuting or just waiting for an opening. The automaker has about 6,500 laid-off workers nationwide.
Even before the doors closed, Hanley began preparing for life after GM. He returned to college to complete two credits he needed for an accounting degree, but an offer in Kansas came first.
He didn’t hesitate. Auto work these days is like playing musical chairs. You grab an opening where you can.
Hanley didn’t want to lose his health insurance while his wife, Laura, was receiving costly chemotherapy treatments for a blood disease that will likely lead to cancer. The medical bills last year, she says, were in the tens of thousands of dollars.
“There’s no way I could possibly go through one treatment without him having insurance,” she says.
Like many other divided GM families, the Hanleys decided even though the job was important, there were reasons not to uproot everyone: Laura works at their sons’ Catholic school, the boys are immersed in band, Scouts, basketball and church, and the sale of a house was an iffy and perhaps money-losing proposition.
Hanley knew it would be a trade-off — financial security for a lonely existence.
His eyes mist as he talks about what he misses: dinner with his family, coaching basketball, going to the YMCA with his boys, wrestling with them at night, attending their concerts and games, watching them grow up.
“It’s an adjustment, not being home,” he says. “I probably sounded cruel because I said I wouldn’t miss my wife as much because she’s going to be there when I come back, when I retire. But those years with the kids aren’t going to be there. That’s the hard part, not being able to be around them. … I don’t know if I really appreciated it before.”
Hanley plans to commute another 18 months, until he turns 50, hoping for a retirement package then — something, he says, he “prays about every night.”
Laura, meanwhile, does double duty as a single parent. It’s all overwhelming — working, shuttling her sons around, keeping an eye on her elderly mother and worrying about her husband’s long commutes.
“The kids are tired of seeing mom cry because she’s stressed and seeing dad cry when he needs to go back to work,” she says. “We’re really close — the four of us. You can’t talk to
Is Bankruptcy my best option?
Live in Wisconsin have just incurred over $70,000 in medical bills. Don’t own a house. Make $10.50 per hour. Car is 13 year old POS. Also, when to file? Not in collections yet no judgments or liens.
Go talk to a bankruptcy attorney. They will usually give you 1/2 hour free consultation. They will outline your options and tell you if you even qualify for bankruptcy. Talking to the attorney now, before you have judgements, collections, etc is the BEST time to talk to them.
If you need recommendations for a bankruptcy attorney and none of your friends or relatives have used one, call your local Bar Association (this is where attorney’s get their license, NOT where they gather for some Old Milwaukee). They will often have a bankruptcy class you can attend for free too.
You can only file for bankruptcy once very 7 or 8 years, so make sure this is something you need to do.
my son works 800 miles round trip away from his family right now – you do what you have to do……
I have handled numerous workers comp claims and am uncertain why you sought an attorney. An attorney is secured if and when the place of employment refuses to pay OR they stopped paying because WI claims the person is no longer eligible although they are. Workers comp is structured in all states and has become much more difficult to attain for long periods of time in the last few years due to so many fraudulent claims (not to say this is your case at all.) I have no idea why this attorney would tell you to wait a year. The only thing I can think of based on cases that have come to our law firm is if the prospective client is still unemployed due to the injury and has been unable to return to that line of work and unable to return to even light duty the attorney can file a suit against the company where the client was injured for the loss of past and future wages he/she could have earned. I hope this helps.