Five Most Common Medical Mistakes
More often than not, we put doctors on pedestals, but they are just as capable of making mistakes as anyone else. In fact, we wrote a blog on how medical error is actually the third leading cause of death in the U.S. When common medical mistakes are made by doctors, hospitals will often try to hide the mistake. However, some doctors have stepped forward and have listed the most common causes of medical errors they have made, including:
- Wrong medications: This type of medical error can include incorrect instructions, wrong dosages, prescribing a medication that will harm the patient and failure to relay risks of side effects.
- Failure to coordinate care: There are many channels your patient information travels down before it lands in the hands of your doctor. Due to understaffing or lack of organization, administrative mistakes can happen and doctors can make fatal errors when they do not have the correct information available.
- Treating the wrong patient: This can take place when a doctor mixes up medications for patients, provides the wrong treatment plan or, in extreme cases, performs a surgery on the wrong patient.
- Air embolisms: This can happen when extracting a central line during a transfusion or surgery. Air embolisms can result in heart attacks, strokes, brain injuries and even death.
- Misdiagnosis: Unfortunately, not all patients exhibit the same symptoms for a single condition and not all symptoms are indicative of a single condition. However, a misdiagnosis can prevent patients from receiving the treatments they need and can cause long-term damage, particularly in cases where cancer is involved.
Our D.C. Personal Injury Lawyers Can Help
In order to ensure these medical errors don’t happen to you, be proactive in communicating with your doctor. While doctors may see a lot of patients, that is no excuse for your concerns not to be heard. If something about your doctor’s diagnosis or treatment seems off, seek a second opinion.
The Washington, D.C. personal injury attorneys at Koonz McKenney Johnson & DePaolis LLP help victims who were injured as a result of medical malpractice. We offer free consultations. Contact us today to speak to one of our attorneys.