One of the main reasons people enter nursing homes is because they can no longer perform their normal activities of daily living and need help. People who reside in nursing homes can generally do very little to care for themselves and must rely on caregivers for assistance with everything from eating to dressing. When your loved one in a nursing home presses their call light, everyone should be able to expect that someone will come along in a timely fashion to see what they need. Whether a nursing home resident presses their call light because they need help making a phone call or because they have fallen out of their chair, they deserve a prompt response. If your loved one’s call light is going unanswered, they may be facing nursing home neglect. An attorney can advise you on what your next steps should be. 

Dangers of Leaving a Call Light Unanswered 

Healthy people who can help themselves do not live in nursing homes. The people who do move into nursing homes are typically medically fragile and in poor health. A call light may be a nursing home resident’s only means of summoning help when they need assistance or are in trouble. Until a caregiver responds, there is no way for anyone to know whether the resident is calling for a normal, routine need or because they are having an emergency. While it is probably alright if someone has to wait a bit for help changing their clothes, it is absolutely not alright if someone has to wait more than a few minutes for help because they are having chest pains. 

When a nursing home resident uses their call light, someone should come by very shortly to determine what the need is. While waiting for a call light to be answered, a nursing home resident could be: 

Expecting a new baby is exciting and terrifying all at once. So many things can go wrong during pregnancy, labor, and delivery, so many expectant parents are understandably nervous. Doctors, nurses, and other medical staff are tasked with recognizing potential complications and taking the necessary action to mitigate any negative health consequences to the mother and baby. However, medical professionals involved in the birthing process do not always meet the high standards parents expect of them.

Failure to perform a Caesarean section or delayed c-section can cause serious and potentially deadly complications. If your baby was harmed during labor or delivery and you suspect that the doctor's failure to perform a timely c-section may have been the cause, read on to learn more.

Failure to Perform a Timely C-Section

Some c-sections are planned in advance. The mother may have had problems delivering her other children or suffers from health complications that make vaginal delivery impractical or unsafe. C-sections may also be a last resort when problems arise during labor, making it too dangerous for the mother to give birth traditionally.

When you or your loved one is extremely ill or badly injured, a hospital admission may come as a relief. Hospital patients are monitored by trained medical professionals 24 hours a day, so you would think that they are as safe as possible. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Hospitals are often understaffed and overwhelmed, which can contribute to critical safety mistakes. Hospitalized patients are medically fragile as it is. A single careless mistake can do serious harm or even prove fatal. If you were personally harmed by or lost an immediate family member due to medical malpractice in a hospital setting, you may be entitled to recover compensation. An attorney can help you better understand what rights you may have. 

What Are the Most Common Careless Mistakes Made in Hospitals?

Hospital inpatients are often not in a good position to speak up for themselves and look out for their own safety. They have little choice but to trust that the medical professionals treating them are taking the needed precautions to keep them safe. When they are not, the results can be traffic. The most common types of medical malpractice to look out for in hospitals include: 

People rely on their doctors to help them heal from illnesses and injuries. We tend to implicitly trust our doctors to help, rather than hurt us. Most people who do not work in the health care field lack a high level of medical knowledge and rely entirely on our doctor’s advice, diagnoses, and treatment plan. Like everyone else, doctors make mistakes at work. Unfortunately, these mistakes can cost people their lives. While the vast majority of doctors are not acting maliciously, those who have suffered due to medical malpractice deserve to be compensated for the harm done. No amount of money can undo this type of mistake, but it is quite frequently the best way the legal system can attempt to right a serious wrong. 

What Medical Mistakes Can Become Fatal?

Some types of medical errors can cause people to become seriously ill, suffer disfigurement, or cause life-altering disabilities. Others can lead to a patient’s death if not caught and corrected quickly. These mistakes include: 

• Delayed diagnosis - This is a particular risk when it comes to cancer. When certain conditions are not caught in time, they can progress to a point where the patient cannot be successfully treated. 

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According to the CDC, over 1.6 million people learn that they have cancer every year. As the second most common cause of death in the United States, cancer claims the lives of far too many people on an annual basis. However, not everyone who is diagnosed with cancer actually has cancerous cells in their body. Additionally, not everyone who has cancer is diagnosed with cancer upon seeking medical attention for their health concerns. Anywhere from 10 to 20 percent of people who receive a cancer diagnosis eventually learn that they were wrongfully diagnosed. 

Whether they were told that they had cancer when they did not or they received a different diagnosis despite having cancer, a misdiagnosis of cancer in any capacity can greatly affect the lives of those who have been misdiagnosed. You may be wondering how there could be any confusion about someone’s medical status, but the reason behind a cancer misdiagnosis often comes down to medical malpractice.

What is a Cancer Misdiagnosis? 

A misdiagnosis of cancer is a situation in which a patient is wrongfully diagnosed in a way that involves cancer. This is a vague definition, but that is because a cancer misdiagnosis can take many different forms. Misdiagnoses arise when physicians or healthcare providers either misunderstand, misidentify, or misconstrue the symptoms or test results that a patient is presenting with upon being evaluated.