Three Situations That Can Lead to the Wrongful Death of a Patient at a Hospital
The number of people who die while being cared for in a hospital, can only be estimated, but this type of wrongful death is not uncommon. In fact, a John Hopkins study in 2016 suggested that it may be the third leading cause of death in the United States. Wrongful death takes place when someone dies through negligence, and without this negligence, would still be alive. There are many reasons that a person can lose their life while in the hands of a professional medical staff at a hospital. There following are only three of the most common reasons.
Your loved one was given the wrong medication
Although it is true that there are protocols in place to make sure patients receive their proper medication, the system cannot prevent gross negligence. There are usually several mistakes that must be made in order to administer the wrong medication, so
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Sometimes a patient will be neglected because the diagnosis was incorrect, even thought the evidence suggested that the patient might be suffering from a particular illness, and at the very least, needed more tests done. Sometimes the monitoring needed is understood, but there is a shift change at the hosptial and and the monitoring of the patient was not handled properly.
Hospitals do their best to avoid an appearance of malpractice. They will usually explain how nothing could have prevented the death of your loved one. Or if the death was blatantly negligent, they will settle out of court to limit the publicity. If you suspect that your loved one has died due to the negligence of the medical staff, you should consult with an attorney that has experience in this area. This type of lawyer will be able to help determine if you have a case of wrongful
Hospital is the place to go when someone is sick and requires medical attention. It is shocking to know that one can contract diseases while in the hospital facility which were not present during admission. And that ‘Never Events’ which are preventable incidents such as wrong site surgery do occur in the hospital setting. How do we prevent hospital acquired conditions and never events from occurring in the hospital? It will be interesting to figure out the answers to these questions as hospital acquired conditions and Never Events are the major concerns of the health care system.
Acute hospitals play a significant role in end of life care, it is the place where most people die. Evidence suggests that end of life care in hospitals needs improvement. The purpose of this paper was to investigate patient and family experiences of hospital death, the weaknesses within the hospital setting and possible solutions to improve. A literature search identified common themes, these included:
In April 2012, Mr. Hammett’s death was ruled to be human errors that individually would have been unlikely to harm him but proved collectively to be fatal. Mr. Hammett surgery was at at private hospital that did not have any after hours medical cover. During the procedure his oxygen saturation levels were almost perfect, maintaining it at 99%. Somehow during or after being transferred to Post Anaesthetic Care Unit (PACU) his oxygen saturation levels fell to 64%. The anaesthetist assumed that it was caused by an obstructed airway and discharged the patient to the ward; he did not look for anything further to be wrong with the patient. Mr. Hammett complained continously to the RN of high levels of pain; the RN ignored him and referred to him as a “wimp” when switching shifts. Although Mr. Hammett was on a Gemstar pump, which recorded him pressing
B required as his health deteriorated. The LPN, however, made the error of not notifying the staff of Mr. B’s condition. She again, made the error of simply silencing the patient’s alarms and walking away. Furthermore, according to policy, Mr. B was to be provided supplemental oxygen and continuously monitored, including the use of ECG, throughout the recovery period, for which he did not have. These numerous hazards and errors eventually led to a code situation and ultimately the death of Mr. B. This death, as it turns out, was a result of a simple medication error for which the team must now implement a change to prevent similar errors from occurring again in the future.
A wrongful act typically involves careless behavior by the offender, but the act can also be intentional. Some of the most common wrongful death cases include claims of medical malpractice in which the practitioner either made a bad decision or simply did nothing to prevent a death when action could still have been taken. Other cases see lawsuits being brought against companies whose methods are blatantly negligent and have caused deadly illness or injury, oftentimes to numerous people.
medication to the wrong patient is personal neglect and this heinous mistake should be followed
One legal issue I can recall is a sentinel event that happens to a 46-year-old male. Even looking back on that day I still can’t believe the events that led up to his untimely death. The patient was supposed to go home the previous day but was transferred to the unit for shortness of breath and dehydration. The team order for the patient to be given 1 litter of 0.9 NS bolus and continue fluid 0.9 NS at a rate of 125ml/hr. The patient was alert and talking on the bi-pap machine. An hour later the patient was wheezing still alert and talking. I approach the Dr. H and ask if we could stop the fluids because the patient was wheezing, I don’t believe he is dehydrated. Although I voiced my concern I was brushed off and the physician who continue to text on his phone. As the morning went on the patient had a call from his daughter, I explain that he was ok and on the bi-pap and could not talk because of the mask and covey to the patient she
Amongst all the personal injury cases, proving medical negligence is one of the toughest. For these types of cases, you will always require the help of an experienced, knowledgeable and skilled Personal Injury Lawyer Vaughan to fight your case. You can file a case if you feel that you have suffered injuries due to the incompetence, unprofessionalism or carelessness during diagnosis or treatment of your medical condition. Depending upon the provider, you can file your case against the nurse, hospital, doctor, laboratory, clinic or any other related medical provider.
To create prosperous Professional medical negligence claims, you can find 2 biggest aspects ought to prove. To start with, you must show in which problem from professional medical website, i. Electronic. Treatment is exhibiting ended up being poor along with executed under many appropriate prices and that has not been helped simply by physique. Second of all you have got to demonstrate causation means carelessness treatment right added to the damage.
Per Niles (2018), “There are two basic healthcare torts: 1. Negligence, which involves the unintentional omission of an act that would contribute to the positive health of a patient; and 2. Intentional torts; such as assault and battery or invasion of privacy (p. 278).” As stated before, another example of negligence in the health care industry is if a patient were to go see a physician for a checkup and mentions that she feels a lump on the side of her breast and the doctor does not give her the proper test that she needs. A year later the patient is diagnosed with breast cancer and has to surgically remove the breast; now the doctor is held accountable which would be considered failure to diagnose cancer.
Healthcare professionals have the responsibility to save and preserve lives. Simultaneously, the patient has rights as well. The patient has a legal right to a Do Not Resuscitate (DNR), in which is a legal order written in the hospital to withhold cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) or advanced cardiac life support (ACLS) in respect to the wishes of the patient. In this case, Mac’s legal rights were violated. The facility management made a decision based on his personal feelings. The facility Medical Doctor was at fault in denying Mac a Do Not Resuscitate Order.
Any health organisation cannot runs smoothly at all the time, there may be many changes occur which definitely create reaction in the feelings and behaviour of manager and other staff. So, I am presently working in palm rest home and previously I was working in memorial hospital in India. I will explain the reaction of both organisation when unexpected death of a patient in hospital.
the occurrence of these events. The events examined were wrong medication, patient falls with injuries, complaints from patients and families,
hospitals, 69% of which were at least partially due to errors in patient management. In 2000, the Institute of Medicine published a report that concluded that more people died each year from preventable errors in hospitals than from car accidents, breast cancer, or AIDS.
Joanna is an experienced nurse taking care of Mrs. Kelly, who was Joanna’s patient many times in the past for her primary problem which is COPD. This time Mrs. Kelly was admitted with complaints of abdominal pain what was different from her primary diagnoses. Her vital signs were with normal limits and no significant changes from privies results, but for the nurse she looks sick, and Joanna know that something is wrong. She calls the resident doctor, but he tell her to watches and calls back with series changes. Joanna multiple attempts to report that something needs to be done to evaluate the cause of Mrs. Kelly pain was ask to calm down. However nobody took patient symptoms series and the next day patient died.