5 examples of medical negligence

Medical negligence can occur in almost any medical treatment or operation, resulting in a huge variety of injuries cause. There are several procedures that are more prone to risk, but even in these cases the NHS has a duty of care to ensure that only the most qualified doctors with the right training and safeguards carries it out.

Negligence can be caused by a multitude of factors, including short staffing, in which case the medical staff can become more tired and prone to mistakes. Not following procedure, for example patient identification can also lead to very serious errors.

Below are some of the most common types of medical negligence cases:

1.    Negligence at the time of birth: The family of a child with cerebral palsy were awarded 4.5 Million Euros on the grounds of medical negligence. The court ruled that the hospital neglected to monitor the heartbeat of the mother and so they didn’t realise that the baby was under trauma. The result was that the baby was deprived of oxygen, which affected his brain and he was diagnose cerebral palsy of the kid. Cerebral palsy requires a lifelong care and medication. Although compensation money will take care of the medical bills, this family will never be compensated fully for their grief.

 2.    Surgical error: In one case a young woman was admitted in hospital and underwent an operation. She was suffering from type-I diabetes. The operation had high chances of developing pressure sores in her body, but the hospital failed to provide care to the patient and failed to assess the high chances of development of pressure sores. This lead to Osteomyelitis as the pressure sores expanded and infected the bones of the patient. The woman received 20,000 Euros as compensation for her injuries.

3.    Dental negligence: Irene went for a tooth filling, but the doctor botched the procedure. This resulted in a painful root canal and other corrections which needed to be made. The patient received a compensation of 17,000 Euros.

4.    Delayed diagnosis: There was a woman suffering from an ear infection was not diagnosed properly. After two years of painful ear infection, some other ENT specialist diagnosed her with cholesteatoma. This required immediate surgery else she would have been deaf for the rest of her life. She sued the first hospital and won 7500 Euros for the mental trauma and pain she had to bear for 2 years.

5.    Wrong diagnosis: Laurence ball in the year 2005 was diagnosed with lung cancer and underwent a surgery to remove the infected lung. However, later on, it came to light  that he was not actually suffering from cancer, and the lung was removed for no good reason. The removal of his lung has limited his lifestyle as now he cannot undergo any exercise. He is currently fighting a legal case against the hospital which diagnosed him with cancer.