The Most Common Medical Negligence Cases
What are the most common types of medical negligence cases? If you are undergoing surgery or will be visiting hospital or a treatment centre soon, what potential treatment problems could you encounter? This article looks at the most common types of cases that we see.
Birth Injury Claims
Sadly birth injury claims are definitely some of the most common medical negligence claims that we see. At a time when parents should be excited about the arrival of their new child they also need to be wary. So what are the potential problems with birth injury claims? Here are the most common complications:
- » Injuries to the baby, including Cerebral Palsy, Brachial Plexus Injury or Infant Death
- » Injuries to the mother, including Vaginal Tears and Episiotomy Complications
With any birth injury complications it is important to raise any concerns about the treatment (or lack of it) at the time of the birth so that immediate action can be taken to help the baby or the mother.
Failure To Diagnose
Another major cause of medical negligence claims are failue to diagnose a serious medical condition, most commonly cancer. The failed diagnosis, or late diagnosis can cause potentially fatal consequences as treatment that might have cured or delayed the onset of the condition may no longer be successful. This can lead to increased pain and suffering for the victim which can lead to a claim for compensation.
These types of cases can be particularly stressful for the victim if they have been complaining of symptoms for sometime and the doctor or surgeon has not been quick to correctly diagnose the illness or make a referral for further investigations.
Untreated Fractures
Another common medical negligence case involves the failure by a doctor or hospital to correctly diagnose a fracture, or the failure to diagnose a fracture at all. This can lead to the patient causing sustaining damage to the bone in question, and if the failure to diagnose relates to a neck or back fracture this can have dire consequences.
Once again often the patient continues to complain of severe pain whilst the fracture remains undiagnosed and untreated, so a second opinion can often correct this situation.
Amputations
Perhaps one of the most distressing types of medical negligence case occur when a wrong amputation takes place. This can be as simple as the hospital removing the wrong leg or arm, or a limb being amputated only to discover at a later date that there was no need for it to be removed at all.
Hospital Superbugs
In recent years there has been a lot of news and stories about hospital superbugs. The two most common types of superbug are MRSA and C Difficile (commonly referred to as C Diff). The main reason that they become a medical negligence case is due to a lack of cleanliness in the hospitals. The Government has set new targets to improve cleanliness and remove the incidences of Hospital Superbugs contaminating patients whilst in hospital and this is slowly reducing the number of medical negligence cases. Perhaps one of the most high profile types of medical negligence cases involved Lesley Ash, who received over £5 million in compensation after she contracted a strain of MRSA called MSSA. More details on her claim are featured here: Lesley Ash MRSA Claim.
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