Medical malpractice is a term commonly thrown around, with few people knowing what it means. Medical malpractice is not a healthcare worker, such as a physician or nurse, making an honest mistake in a hospital or clinic setting. As with so many areas of life, honest mistakes happen. However, for medical malpractice to have taken place, there needs to have been negligence on the part of the healthcare professional or entity who performed the medical care, resulting in the injury or death of the patient.

Medical malpractice lawsuits can be costly and time-consuming since such cases usually require medical experts to evaluate what happened and determine whether there was negligence. If you have been injured from what you believe to be medical malpractice or a loved one was injured or passed away due to medical malpractice, contact an experienced attorney with experience in this field of law who can help you through the process to pursue the most favorable outcome possible in your case.

Common Forms of Medical Malpractice

According to the National Library of Medicine, a shocking one in three clinicians can expect to be sued at least once sometime during their career. Medical negligence can take a wide variety of forms. Common forms include the following:

Medical malpractice claims are often considered in terms of general practice and hospital care. While cases stemming from general healthcare errors are very common, those born of an error by a dentist or oral surgeon are also common. Dentists and other dental practitioners are held to a professional standard of care similar to healthcare professionals because careless mistakes by the medical professional tasked with caring for a patient’s teeth and mouth can cause significant harm to the patient. 

Patients who have experienced medical malpractice at the hands of a dentist may suffer lasting harm, such as missing or badly damaged teeth, permanent numbness due to nerve damage, or anesthesia errors that can be severe or fatal. If you suspect that you have been harmed by medical malpractice in a dental setting, it would be advisable to contact an attorney as soon as your suspicions have been aroused. Strict statutes of limitation apply to malpractice cases of all varieties, so time is of the essence when preparing for potential malpractice litigation. 

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: