Malpractice is defined as a wrongdoing by an expert of a particular profession, for example, a doctor, lawyer, an accountant or a dentist. Malpractice and negligence lawsuits in the United States are quite common. Medical malpractice is described as any act or omission by a medical professional such as a doctor, nurse, physician or technician that causes harm, injury or death to the patient at the course of treatment. Simply put, a medical malpractice occurs when a medical professional for example a nurse or a doctor performs or fails to perform an action that in itself causes injury to the patient (Boeschen, 2015).
On the other hand, negligence is defined as a behavior that fails to meet standards which have been put in place to guide a particular profession (Boeschen, 2015). For instance, if a doctor or a nurse makes a mistake in diagnosing a patient or failing to give an appropriate treatment for a certain illness, then such an act is described as negligence. However, not all mistakes are acts of negligence. To qualify a mistake as negligence, there must be proof that the doctor or a nurse did not conform to the standards of care. Standards of care refer to the generally accepted way or ways of treatment and care for patients that are used under similar conditions by other medical experts.
Mistakes made by doctors and nurses while treating patients do not automatically entitle patients to file malpractice lawsuits against them. Patients have to consider two key factors, proving that a medical practitioner made a mistake by failing to follow appropriate standard of care and that such a mistake injured or harmed the patient. Proving these two factors is normally not easy, thus, medical malpractice cases are generally extensive and complex legal matter. However, there are a number of medical malpractice and negligence cases. Three examples of such cases are outlined below.
Cynthia A. Adae v. University of Cincinnati, Case No. 2007-08228
Cynthia had been taken to Clinton memorial hospital; the symptoms at that particular moment were fever, cough pain on her right shoulder and constrained motion on the right upper extremity of her body (Crow, 2013). The doctors who attended to her at the hospital hypothesized that Adae was suffering from thyroid abnormality. They thought of carrying out a spinal tap but never did it. Adae was later discharged the following day without being given results of her ailment despite the fact that a number of blood tests were done. On her malpractice complaint, Adae stated that the blood test done on her confirmed she was suffering from an infection (Crow, 2013).
She complained that one of the doctors attending to her was informed of the blood test results; the doctor, however, never took an initiative to advise Adae on the results nor treat her (Crow, 2013). On visiting Middletown hospital four days after being discharged from Clinton Memorial Hospital, Adae was diagnosed with an epidural abscess. By the time the true diagnosis was made, Adae was already suffering from progressive paraplegia.
Adae’s lawyers took legal action against the University of Cincinnati for operating a family practice residency programs which offered education and training for family practice residents at Clinton Memorial Hospital (Crow, 2013). The lawyers accused the University of Cincinnati of negligence that leads to Adae suffering considerable injuries, pain and becoming permanently disabled. Adae was compensated a total amount of $2.3 Million by University of Cincinnati.
Medication Error Lawsuit Resulting in Death of Woman Settles for $1.25 Million
This case involved a woman aged 76 years whose death was caused by a hemorrhage in 2010. The plaintiff representing her argued that her death was due to a medication error that could have been prevented. The drug in the case was Lepirudin, the patient had been given this medication 30 times more than the recommended dosage. As a result of Lepirudin overdose, the woman experienced an uncontainable internal bleeding that finally caused her death (Lubin & Meyer PC, 2011). Overdose occurred due to miscommunication between the doctors in charge and nurses. The case was heard and determined that the doctors and nurses had contravened the standard of care by giving the patient an inappropriate dosage of Lepirudin (Lubin & Meyer PC, 2016). This lawsuit was settled for $1.25 Million.
Family to Receive at Least $5M in Suit against Tufts Medical Center
In this particular case between the family of Edward Xu and Tufts Medical Center, Suffolk jury found out that doctors at the hospital were negligent in caring the newborn baby which left the baby with a devastating condition. In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs claimed that after the premature birth of their baby, the doctors in charge and the nurse practitioner did not respond correctly to the symptoms that showed a potentially fatal condition normally affecting premature newborns (Andersen, 2013). As a result of the negligence by the nurse and doctors, parts of their baby’s bowels had to be detached. This subjected the baby to long-term impacts such as not capable of digesting food, hence the need for tube feeding. The case was settled by the family of Xu receiving a $5.3 million as compensation for the injuries (Andersen, 2013).
Guidelines for preventing negligence and malpractice
Doctors, nurses and healthcare facilities should adhere to the following set of guidelines so as to avoid cases of negligence and medical malpractice: one is to ensure accuracy in the prescription of medications and use of medical devices. This can be done by ensuring that they comply with manufacture’s instruction while handling medical devices and medications and also by medical professionals performing what is only within their scope of practice. Secondly, they should always seek an informed consent from the patient before carrying out any medical treatment. This means that a nurse or a doctor should tell the patient all the necessary information regarding medical procedure he/she intends to perform. Lastly, all medical professionals should adhere to the standards set by the federal government, states and also a different medical professional association that they belong to.
Conclusively, to better train nurses on matters related to negligence and malpractice emphasis should be put on adherence to standards and principles that guide their practice. They should be educated on the need for communicating pertinent information to patients and ensure documentation of all patient data and communicate the same to the physicians.
References
Andersen, T. (2013, November 22). Largest Verdicts: Jury Awards $24.4M in Medical Malpractice Case Against Tufts Medical Center. Retrieved from http://www.lubinandmeyer.com/news/tufts-newborn-negligent.html
Boeschen, C. (2015). Proving Hospital Negligence in a Medical Malpractice Case - AllLaw.com. Retrieved from http://www.alllaw.com/articles/nolo/medical-malpractice/proving-hospital-negligence.html
Crow, B. (2013, November 4). Paralyzed Woman Settles Medical Negligence Case with University of Cincinnati for $2.3 Million. Retrieved from http://www.courtnewsohio.gov/cases/2013/COC/1104/2007-08228.asp#.VxEIF_l95di
Lubin & Meyer PC. (2011). Massachusetts Hospital Medication Error - Medical Malpractice Settlement Report. Retrieved from http://www.lubinandmeyer.com/cases/medication-error.html
