Anesthesia Errors and Anesthesia Aspiration
Anesthesia is used for most medical procedures as a method of pain management. There are different types of anesthesia which are used for different medical procedures. This is dependent on the type of surgery and where on the body the surgery is taking place. The type of anesthesia used for major surgeries is called general anesthesia.
Risks of General Anesthesia
Due to the nature of major surgery and the medications involved, there are several risks associated with the use of general anesthesia which your doctor should discuss with you. Some major risks associated with general anesthesia include:
Burnout and Nursing Negligence
Nurse burnout is a physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion experienced by nurses which negatively affects patient outcomes and leads to job dissatisfaction. The number of nursing negligence lawsuits has increased due to nurse burnout, which is largely caused by organizational factors.
Nursing negligence is an unfortunate and often unavoidable consequence of nurse burnout. Stress, long working hours, infrequent breaks, and rotating shifts slow down reaction times, increases errors, and reduces motivation. All of these factors affect patient care.
Causes of Failure to Diagnose in Primary Care
A doctor’s failure to diagnose occurs when they are negligent or fail to take the necessary steps to determine the nature of your illness, which then causes you harm. The reason for this harm is because a doctor’s failure to diagnose can lead to incorrect or delayed treatment being administered or worse, no treatment is administered at all.
There are several factors that contribute to failure to diagnose within the primary healthcare system, with some being more prevalent than others. Such diagnostic errors include:
The Root Causes of Medical Errors
There are many causes of medical errors, something which is defined as a preventable adverse effect of medical care, whether it is evidently harmful to you or not.
Many people have suffered greatly due to medical errors. Some of these errors have occurred because there have been numerous factors involved, however, many of these errors have occurred because of medical malpractice and medical negligence and are thus viable cases for medical malpractice lawsuits.
Common Doctor Errors
As with general medical errors, a doctor error is a preventable adverse effect of care that you suffer at the hands of your doctor which causes you harm. Unlike a general medical error, which can be caused by various healthcare professionals and associated personnel, doctor errors are specific to your treating doctor.
Some doctor errors are more common than others. The following errors are commonly featured in various medical malpractice lawsuits, and it is important that you are aware of these common doctor errors so that you can help ensure that they do not happen to you.
Anesthesia Errors and Unintended Intraoperative Awareness
Of all the medications used in the healthcare industry, anesthesia is one of the most frequently used and one of the most important. Just about every medical procedure necessitates the use of anesthesia – whether local or general – and unfortunately, due to its complexity, errors can occur.
What is Anesthesia?
In short, anesthesia is a medical treatment that is used to prevent patients from feeling pain during the surgery and other medical procedures.
Wrongful Death and Civil Law
Wrongful death is the legal and medical term used to describe your death, or the death of someone you know, due to the negligence or reckless behavior of other people or institutions. In the medical context, and in medical malpractice law, these people are doctors, nurses, hospital administrators, and other healthcare professionals or healthcare organizations.
Wrongful Death Claims
Generally, it is your immediate family who will seek a wrongful death claim in the instance of your wrongful death. The most common reason for your family wanting to file a wrongful death lawsuit is to obtain compensation for the damages that have occurred as a result of your death. These damages can be financial and/or emotional.
Failure to Diagnose and Defensive Medicine
A doctor’s failure to diagnose a patient’s medical condition is the most common reason why patients sue their doctors. This statistic also includes a doctor misdiagnosing a patient and/or delaying their diagnosis.
What is Failure to Diagnose?
Failure to diagnose is caused by a doctor’s negligence or failure to take the specific steps necessary to determine the nature of your illness. This negligence then causes you harm, as treatment is either delayed or isn’t administered at all, due to there being no record of it.
Pregnancy-Related Injuries and Maternal Mortality
What is a Pregnancy-Related Injury?
A pregnancy-related injury is an injury that a woman sustains during pregnancy, at delivery, or shortly after delivery. These injuries can range from mild to severe with the worst cases resulting in death – known as maternal mortality. 700 women die each year in the United States due to pregnancy-related injuries resulting in maternal mortality.
What is Maternal Mortality?
Maternal Mortality is a term used to explain the deaths of women during their pregnancies and childbirth. Startingly, pregnant women in the United Starts are more likely to be at risk for maternal mortality than in any other developed country.
Birth Injuries and Cerebral Palsy
What Is Cerebral Palsy?
Cerebral Palsy is a neurological condition which commonly presents through disordered movement, muscle tone, and posture. It is caused by damage affecting your child’s developing brain before and/or during birth – this is why it is considered a birth injury.
What separates cerebral palsy from other birth injuries is that its effect on functional abilities varies significantly. This means that the medical costs associated with the condition will also vary, and the emotional strain on you and your family will be affected as well. For example, some individuals with cerebral palsy may have an average intellectual capacity whereas other individuals may not.