Medical Malpractice
Medical Malpractice
Here's a shocking statistic: medical mistakes kill and injure almost 100,000 people a year! That's even more people than are injured in car accidents each year. Some examples of medical malpractice include emergency room negligence, mistakes made during major surgery, and failure or delays in diagnosing cancer and other medical problems. If you feel a doctor or hospital may have played a part in a traumatic illness or death, find out what really happened.
Every year, thousands of people are injured as a result of medical malpractice. In 1990, a study conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health estimated that each year, more than 3% of patients in New York State hospitals suffered some form of a medical mistake which resulted in serious injury. Nationally, the Harvard Medical Practice Study estimated that each year, more than 180,000 people die, at least in part, because of medical mistakes. The consumer rights group Public Citizen estimates that each year, 1.3 million medical injuries are caused by negligence, and that more than two-thirds of these injuries are preventable.
Malpractice is the failure of a medical professional or a medical facility to meet the standard of good medical practice in the areas in which the medical professional or medical facility specializes. A medical professional may be a doctor, a nurse, a medical technician, or other health care provider. A medical facility may be a hospital, nursing home, medical testing facility or clinic. If the medical attention fails to meet the standard of good medical practice and results in harm to a patient, the medical professional or medical facility may be liable for any resulting damages.
Failure to Diagnose Cancer
One of the leading types of medical malpractice cases is failure to diagnose cancer. Too often, doctors fail to order the right tests, or simply mistake the signs of cancer for another illness. Because timing is such a factor in the survival rate of cervical, breast, prostate and other types of cancer, mistakes like this can result in deaths that could have been prevented. If you suspect a loved one's cancer should have been caught earlier, contact the Law Office of G. Patrick Jacobs for a free case evaluation.
Birth Injuries and Cerebral Palsy
As high as eighty percent of all child births end up in some form of complication. Many parents are not aware of the things that can happen during birth that can permanently disable or even kill their child. Negligence and mistakes made during delivery are often overlooked. One common subject of litigation is the childhood disease Cerebral Palsy. The cause of CP has been connected to accidents during child birth that result in brain damage, such as lack of oxygen or excessive force. Cerebral Palsy, or CP, is characterized by lack of muscle control and body movement.