6 Common Types of Medical Malpractice

When doctors or other medical professionals make errors, the result can mean emotional and physical injuries that may affect you for the rest of your life.

People often hesitate to consider a malpractice suit because they are unsure of what mistakes constitute malpractice. If you feel you have been the victim of medical malpractice, it’s important to contact an attorney specializing in personal injury litigation Houston TX. The attorney can listen to your story and determine whether you have a claim or not.

Medical malpractice claims typically fall within these six types:

Misdiagnosis

Misdiagnosis happens when a doctor diagnoses you with the wrong illness or claims you don’t have an ailment, which you later find out you have. The mistake prevents you from getting the proper treatment or, in other cases, you may have received treatment that you didn’t need.

Malpractice doesn’t occur in all incorrect diagnosis cases, just in those where the patient dies or is injured after the doctor failed to do what other doctors would have done in the situation.

Delayed Diagnosis

Suppose your condition worsens because a doctor failed to make a correct diagnosis, and the accurate determination is found later. The negligent doctor may have failed to order a test that would have found the illness or misread X-rays or CT scans. In that case, there could be malpractice because of the delay in diagnosis.

Failure to Treat

Failure-to-treat situations happen when the doctor accurately diagnoses you but then doesn’t recommend the right treatment. This occurs when the doctor is seeing too many patients and “putting profits over safety.” By overbooking, the doctor is spreading himself or herself too thin to give their patients adequate care.

Surgical errors

Every year, many people are severely injured or killed by surgical errors. Failures such as leaving medical instruments inside the body, doing the wrong procedure or giving too much anesthesia can significantly affect your life. Even if you sign a consent form acknowledging the surgery risks, the doctor could be liable for negligence during a procedure that leads to your death or disability.

Birth Injury

A doctor’s negligence during labor or delivery can devastate a family. What should have been a joyous occasion could end in the injury or death of a baby or its mother. Medical negligence can occur through inadequate prenatal care or errors made during delivery.

Faulty Medical Device

Faulty medical devices can also lead to malpractice cases if you are injured because a medical device didn’t work as it’s supposed to. The medical device manufacturer can be liable if they knew of the defect but did nothing to fix it.