A recent study shows that medical malpractice causes a quarter-million deaths annually, but experts are afraid the number may be closer to a half-million. That’s because many instances of malpractice are never discovered. However, some individuals can intuitively tell when something is wrong. Find out if you have a claim by talking to medical malpractice attorneys in Waycross, GA.
The Duty of Care
It’s considered malpractice when a doctor or medical professional harms a patient. Medical malpractice attorneys in Waycross, GA can find out whether the physician was negligent. They’ll order the medical records and let an expert examine them. Interestingly, acts of malpractice can go undiscovered for years. For instance, a woman was once forced to have an operation for a tumor in her abdomen. Doctors discovered the tumor was actually harmless tissue growing around a piece of gauze. The gauze was left in the patient during an earlier surgery, which means that the woman had to undergo an otherwise unnecessary surgery due to negligence.
Different Types of Medical Malpractice
Medical malpractice comes in many forms. A physician can be negligent for failure to diagnose. Missing a critical diagnosis can result in a patient’s death. There are many cases where the patient is treated improperly. It’s negligent to treat a patient in a way that results in hurting them. In addition, doctors are negligent if they don’t inform a patient about the risks involved with a procedure.
Top Malpractice Cases of 2019
A medical malpractice case is settled every 45 minutes in the U.S. Here are two examples of cases heard in 2019. A former prison inmate was awarded a million dollars due to a hand injury. The lawsuit was brought against the contractor for prison health services. The inmate fractured his hand playing ball and the doctor did not set or x-ray the hand. Therefore, the hand healed improperly. A medical expert determined that the damage to the hand was permanent.
A Baltimore woman and her child were awarded $229 million dollars. The woman had pre-eclampsia and the unborn baby was threatened. The doctor opted to induce labor rather than perform a C-section. The baby did not get enough oxygen and was born with cerebral palsy.
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