Plastic Surgery Malpractice

Physician malpractice is common in the United States and it is the reason for thousand of injuries every year. It is the physician’s responsibility to ensure the safety of their patient. Patients put all their trust in their physician so it is important to honor that trust. Any error on the physician’s part can have serious consequences for the patients.

A medical lawyer represents victims of medical malpractice.

Alarming Statistics

According to the Institute of Medicine report taken in 1999, less than 100,000 deaths occur every year due to medical errors that should have been prevented. In addition, hundred of thousand of injuries occur because of these mistakes. In a large-scale government study, more than half of the physicians surveyed admitted to making a serious mistake during medical procedures. Three-quarters of physicians admitted to making minor errors.

As awful as these numbers are, it does not reflect the real extent of the problem. It is thought by experts that these numbers are under reported because:

• Physicians fear the consequences of their mistakes, professional and legal
• Patients are unaware malpractice had taken place

Victims of Physician Malpractice Have Rights

If a physician or other medical professional has caused you harm because of negligence, you are entitled to some medical compensation. Victims have legal rights to be compensated for losses they have suffered. If you or someone you know have been injured by a physician, contact a lawyer. You may be a victim of medical malpractice.

The list below is some examples of malpractice by physicians:

• Misdiagnosis/ Missed diagnosis
• Improper treatment
• Surgery on the wrong body part
• A surgical instrument such as gauze was left behind
• Infections
• Delayed treatment

There are severe consequences such as damage of the organs, disability, coma, stroke, or death because of physician malpractice. Victims can recover costs for medical bills and other costs related to the injury.

It is important to act promptly when it comes to filing malpractice lawsuits. Cases like these have legal deadlines (statutes of limitations) to file a claim. They will answer any questions you have regarding your case and will advise you of your options.

Find Out If You Have a Case

Contact a lawyer who will evaluate your case for free. A lawyer will consider your case and determine if you are eligible to be compensated for your loss. They will make sure your rights are protected. For more articles like this, bookmark www.PlasticSurgeryMalpractice.Info

Author: David Austin

Plastic Surgery Malpractice presents the following information on definitions of surgical errors and how they can occur.  While this list contains surgical errors that may not be applicable to plastic surgery, many are and are errors you should be aware of and even discuss in advance with your plastic surgeon.  If you suffered from any of these errors, or other errors, from a plastic surgery, you should contact a medical malpractice attorney to understand your rights and even obtain legal representation. 

Surgical errors, resulting in medical malpractice, are negligent medical mistakes that occur in the time period between when a patient is taken in for pre-operative care, undergoes surgery and receives care post-operatively.

Surgical mistakes can be attributed to many factors, including staff reductions.

Surgical malpractice does not just happen in complicated surgeries such as heart or brain operations, they may occur during what is considered routine surgery, for example, a tubal ligation.

A recent press release from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services gives insight to the prevalence of these medical errors. The press release’s definition of surgical errors is as follows:

"According to the National Quality Forum (NFQ), ‘never events’ are errors in medical care that are clearly identifiable, preventable and serious in their consequences for patients…".

For an event to be included on the National Quality Forum’s "never event" list, the mishap had to have been unambiguous, usually preventable, serious (as in death or loss of body part) and an adverse indication of a problem within the heath care facility or important in relation to public credibility or accountability.

The National Quality Forum "Never Events" list includes the following:

Surgical Events
Surgery on the wrong body part
Surgery on the wrong patient
Wrong surgical procedure
Death of an otherwise healthy patient during surgery or immediately post-operative

Product or Device Events
Death or serious disability through contaminated drugs, devices or biologics
Death or serious disability associated with improper use of a device
Death or serious disability due to an intravascular air embolism

Patient Protection Events
Infant discharged to the wrong person
Death or serious disability due to patient’s disappearance for longer than four hours
Suicide or attempted suicide

Care Management Events
Death or serious disability due to medication error
Death or serious disability due to incompatible blood products
Maternal death or serious disability concurrent with a low-risk pregnancy labor
Death or serious disability from hypoglycaemia
Death or serious disability from failure to identify and treat hyperbilirubinemia in neonates
Stage 3 or 4 pressure ulcers
Death or serious disability from spinal manipulative therapy

Environmental Events
Death or serious disability from electric shock
Receipt of wrong oxygen or the line delivering the gas is contaminated by toxic substances
Patient death or serious disability from burn
Patient death from fall
Patient death or serious disability resulting from restraints or bedrails

Criminal Events
Care ordered or provided by someone impersonating a health care professional
Abduction
Sexual assault
Physical assault

The State of Minnesota is required by legislation to report "never events". In the second year of reporting, there were 53 surgical events, 39 care management events, 4 environmental events, 6 products or devices events, 1 patient protection event and 3 criminal events. Twelve people died and nine suffered serious injuries.

These results demonstrate the high number of surgical and care management events that are by no means typical just for Minnesota. They occur with an alarming degree of regularity across the Nation.

If you have suffered serious disability or lost a loved to a surgical error, it is important to obtain legal advice from an experienced medical malpractice attorney as soon as possible.

Author: Richard Hastings

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Richard_Hastings

Plastic Surgery Malpractice brings to you a common question and the response of a plastic surgery malpractice attorney.  Plastic surgery is not without risk, and you need to make sure that you understand very clearly what your expectations are of the surgery you want to undertake, as well as discuss what can happen with your plastic surgeon.  If you have been a victim of plastic surgery malpractice, contact a medical malpractice attorney in your area for more information and potential legal representation. 

Q: I just had a breast implants put in and I don’t like the way they came out. Can I bring a lawsuit against my plastic surgeon if he won’t fix them for free?

A: There are two issues here. The first is your unhappiness with the result of the breast implants. The second is whether you can sue if he does not repair the first result for free.

First- the fact that you had breast implants suggests that you were not satisfied with your physical appearance to begin with. Breast implant and plastic surgery cases are inherently bad cases for me to take because they involve subjective feelings, opinions and impressions by the patient. Specifically, the patient is not happy with how they appear initially, and after the procedure, they are still not happy with the result. Just because you are unsatisfied with the breast surgery results does not mean that there was evidence of malpractice.

There are always risks associated with any surgery. I am positive that your plastic surgeon gave you a detailed form called an Informed Consent sheet that described the procedure. You may have also been given brochures or reading material describing the risks, benefits and alternatives to this breast surgery you were going to have. Again, I assume that since you went forward with the surgery, you signed this consent and recognized that there was a possibility the outcome might not be perfect.

The second point is that you must address your displeasure with your plastic surgeon. There are times when the doctor will agree to revise the procedure at no cost to you. At other times the doctor believes he or she did a good job, but other factors contributed to the poor outcome, and he may not be agreeable to revise the procedure for free.

Remember, you are free to bring a lawsuit, but the question is whether your case really has merit, and whether it is financially beneficial for you and your attorney to proceed.

In my opinion, I do not accept plastic surgery cases unless it is clear, based upon expert medical review, that there are departures from good care (not just that the patient is unhappy with the outcome of their boob job, or nose job), that the departures were a substantial factor in causing injury, and that the injury is permanent.

Author: Gerry Oginski

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Gerry_Oginski