Most Common Cases of Medical Malpractice

Although most of us rely on our Doctors always treating us with the utmost care, sometimes patients are faced with the fact that Doctors are very much human and sometimes make bad…or horrible decisions. However, these decisions can sometimes cause great trauma to those affected and when it happens it can be a legal nightmare.

Most Common types of Medical Malpractice are birth injuries, anasthesia malpractice, medication errors and surgical errors. Here are four examples of things we’re pretty sure you don’t want to have happen to you.

 

1. Doctor leaves a screwdriver in a patient

Dr. Robert Ricketson, a Doctor in Hawaii was performing a back surgery on a 73 year-old patient when he ‘screwed’ up big time.. literally. Dr. Ricketson did not have the appropriate rods needs to hold together the patients spine, so the Doctor improvised, with a nearby screwdriver! Ultimately, the patient died two years later from complications and the Doctor was sued. The family was awarded 5.6 Million Dollars by the jury for their loss.

 

2. Man gets acid poured over his johnson

William Morrison had the unthinkable happen to him with he underwent a normal test for the presence of the virus that involved a very weak acetic acid solution to be poured over his genitals. However the solution that was supposed to be 3% acidic was accidentally 72% causing excruciating chemical burns, pain, and long-term “issues”.  That’s strong enough to burn straight through the skin. That’s gonna leave a mark.

 

3. Doctor amputates the wrong leg

Even though knowing left from right is usually taught in kindergarten, somehow someone who went to medical school had forgotten.  When Willie King went to amputate his patient’s leg, he ended up amputating the WRONG one, ending in both legs having to be amputated. Not that it made up for it but at least the patient won $1.2 million after a lawsuit but I think he would have preferred his leg. Seems to me like an incredibly small amount of money for losing a freaking leg, don’t you think?

 

4. Surgeon leaves scissors in patients stomach.

Although this medical malpractice story is usually joked about in TV-shows and movies, leaving an instrument behind in surgery is NOT as funny as you’d think.

A patient in Lyon, France underwent surgery on her abdomen. After returning multiple times complaining of severe pain, the hospital finally decided to believe that this was more than just “recovery” pain when she began coughing up blood. An X-ray shockingly revealed that there was a pair of surgical scissors left in her abdomen from her previous surgery.

 

 

Cut it out doc, your screwing around with me right? Nope.