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Medical Malpractice

• Are You at Risk of a Wrong Site Surgery Mistake at a Kansas City Hospital?

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The Five Most Common Areas of Medical Malpractice

There are many ways that men, women and children can be seriously injured while receiving care from a healthcare provider and about 1.5 million patients are harmed by medical mistakes every year. Below are five of the most common areas of medical mistakes that patients in Missouri and Kansas can experience.

#1 Failure to diagnose or misdiagnosis

A medical professional who fails to diagnose a serious medical condition or who misdiagnoses a serious medical condition can be found guilty of medical malpractice. Healthcare workers can improperly read a lab result or an x-ray, lab tests can be mixed up or performed incorrectly, the wrong test can be ordered, a doctor can ignore or dismiss a patient's complaints, and much more. A failure to diagnose or misdiagnosis is especially dangerous for heart attack or stroke victims and for cancer victims, all of whom require immediate, appropriate care to ensure optimal survival.

#2 Improper treatment or failure to treat a medical condition
It is very important that patients suffering from a serious illness or medical condition receive the proper treatment - in a timely fashion. The failure to treat a medical condition or the improper treatment of a medical condition is closely related to the category above. However, a medical mistake can be made even if the doctor correctly diagnoses a patient's condition; doctors can still prescribe the wrong medication, order inappropriate surgery or they can wait too long to begin treatment. All of this can have a very serious detrimental effect on their patient's health.

#3 Birth injury
There are many ways that babies can be hurt by a medical mistake during the birth process. Doctors, nurses or midwives can misuse or fail to use forceps, vacuum extractors, heart rate monitors or other birth devices or can delay emergency treatment, leading to injury or even death of the baby or mother. Newborns can suffer from Cerebral, Erb's or Klumpke's palsy; facial paralysis; broken bones; hemorrhages; seizures or other serious and debilitating conditions.

#4 Prescription drug error
Prescription drug errors happen every day, and around 20 percent of these errors are life-threatening. A doctor can prescribe the wrong medication for a patient or a medication that interacts with one of the patient's other prescriptions, a pharmacist can misread a prescription and give a patient the wrong drug or an incorrect dose, or a medication can be mixed or prepared incorrectly. All of these scenarios can lead to a serious drug interaction or a fatal adverse reaction in a patient.

#5 Surgical or anesthesia error
Patients undergoing either outpatient or inpatient surgery can be harmed by a negligent surgeon, surgical nurse or anesthesiologist. Surgeons can perform the wrong surgery on a patient or perform surgery on the wrong part of their body, they can perform the surgery incorrectly or incompletely, and anesthesiologists can improperly monitor a patient or give too much or too little anesthesia.

Help for victims of medical mistakes

Do you believe that you or a loved one was the victim of a medical mistake? Would you like to discuss your situation with an attorney to determine if you have a case? Please contact the experienced medical malpractice lawyers at the Kansas City Accident Injury Attorneys and find out what a law firm with fifteen years of successful case results can do for you.

Kansas City Accident Injury Attorneys

1102 Grand Blvd., Suite 1901

Kansas City, MO 64106

Phone: 816-471-5111

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Latest News

• Posted on 7/29/2011Kansas City Hospitals Exceed National Average for Medical Mistakes
• Posted on 5/11/2011Medical Errors a Growing Problem for U.S. Health Care System

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Medical Malpractice

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