A List Of 9 Prominent Medical Malpractice Cases
The average inpatient medical malpractice case paid $363,000 in damages, while the average outpatient case paid approximately $290,000 in financial settlement funds. The interesting thing to note about malpractice cases is that an amazing 93 percent are settled before they get to a jury trial.
Nine Cases Of Medical Malpractice
When people look to medical professionals for medical care, they do not plan on running into a case of doctor negligence. But, if people are going to protect themselves from medical malpractice, then it helps to become familiar with cases that have happened in the past and have resulted in financial compensation. Some of these cases include:
1. Wrong Side Of The Brain
A prestigious Rhode Island Hospital, which is known around the world as one of the premier brain surgery facilities for any type of brain ailment, had three medical malpractice cases. The hospital even acts as a teaching facility for students looking to get into the field of brain surgery.
Despite its prestigious reputation, Rhode Island Hospital was guilty of operating on the wrong side of the brain for three separate patients in one year. The medical malpractice acts were committed by three different doctors, but the financial settlement burden still falls on the hospital.
2. The Growing Infection
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel tells the story of a 53-year-old woman in Wisconsin who sued for medical malpractice and won $25.3 million.
The lawsuit alleged that the woman had an infection that went undetected until the hospital was forced to amputate all of her limbs. The mother of four and her husband received their compensation through a jury trial.
3. Don’t Upset The Famous Funny Man
In 2001, comedian Dana Carvey had a surgical procedure to bypass two of the arteries to his heart. But when the doctor who did the surgery admitted that he bypassed one of the wrong arteries, Carvey sued for medical malpractice and was awarded a financial settlement of $7.5 million.
4. It Is Important To Monitor The Equipment
In 2009, a 65-year-old woman named Janice McCall was seriously injured on the operating table when she caught fire. Six days after her surgery, the injuries she suffered during the fire took her life.
From oxygen tanks near open flames to electronic surgical equipment, doctors must always monitor their equipment to provide the best medical care.
5. Incompatible Blood Type
Doctors at Duke University Hospital made a horrible mistake in 2003 when they did not check to make sure that the blood type of an organ donor was compatible with the blood type of the organ recipient.
The body of the recipient rejected the two lungs and heart that were transplanted, and the patient passed away only days later.
6. Taking The Wrong Leg
One of the complications that can occur from having diabetes is that one or both of your legs may have to be amputated. A patient named Willie King learned to ask questions before his surgeries in the future when his right leg was mistakenly amputated by doctors.
Mr. King was awarded more than $1 million in compensation, and he also had the left leg eventually amputated as well.
7. Doctor Negligence Can Happen At Any Time
In 2008, Esmin Green went to the waiting room of Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, NY and wound up waiting 24 hours in the waiting room. Her visit ended when she collapsed to the floor and died. To add to doctor negligence, it was also reported that hospital personnel passed by Ms. Green as struggled on the floor and did nothing to help.
8. Doing A Surgical Inventory
People often wonder if the stories about doctors leaving their medical instruments inside patients are true. In 2000, Donald Church found out that it is true when doctors completed his surgery and left a 13-inch metal instrument in his abdominal area. The instrument was quickly removed, and Mr. Church was awarded a financial settlement of just under $100,000.
9. An Incorrect Diagnosis
Doctors who are not very careful with their diagnosis can often find themselves in the middle of a medical malpractice lawsuit. The doctors of Kim Tutt wound up paying her a financial settlement when they thought they discovered a cancerous lump in her jaw and had her undergo intense surgery to remove the lump.
The doctors used bone and tissue from other parts of Ms. Tutt’s body to replace what was removed, and the resulting surgery left her horribly disfigured. A few months later, Ms. Tutt was told that she never had cancer and that she went through all of that surgery for nothing.
