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Sadly, medical malpractice in New York and the United States is not a rare occurrence. According to some reports, medical malpractice is responsible for tens to hundreds of thousands of deaths each year and many more injuries.

For this reason, medical malpractice lawsuits are filed regularly in an attempt to collect valuable damages, hold healthcare professionals accountable, and make the healthcare industry safer for patients in the future.

A close look at the various medical malpractice lawsuits and claims reveals that there are a large number of different types of medical malpractice lawsuits. However, a handful of them are far more common than others.

What Is Medical Malpractice?

Medical malpractice, also known as medical negligence, describes the actions of a healthcare professional or a healthcare facility, such as a hospital, that fall below clear and accepted standards of care when treating or caring for a patient who subsequently becomes injured or experiences a worsening of their condition.

As you likely know, doctors are often the target of medical malpractice lawsuits, but they are not the only healthcare workers that can face medical malpractice allegations. The following professionals may also be held to account for medical malpractice:

• Nurses
• Midwives
• Physician’s assistants
• EMTs and paramedics

Additionally, healthcare facilities can also face medical malpractice, either through their own negligence or vicariously through the medical negligence of one of their employees.

The Most Common Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

The most common medical malpractice lawsuits often come from frequently performed procedures and treatments in the healthcare industry, which makes sense. The more times a procedure is performed, the higher the chances medical malpractice can occur.

Some of these common lawsuits include:

Birth Injuries

Birth injuries happen more often than they should and end up causing much pain and suffering for families. The fragility of babies makes them especially susceptible to experiencing some sort of harm. Some of the more common instances of medical malpractice leading to birth injuries include:

• Improper use of vacuum or forceps during labor
• Failure to properly monitor the fetus’s condition
• Failure to act in time to provide necessary treatment
• Trauma to the newborn
• Failure to perform a C-section when necessary
• Improper performance of a C-section

Medical malpractice may also be alleged when the professional in charge of labor allows for labor and delivery to go on for too long.

Surgical Errors

Surgical errors can lead to serious injury and death, yet they continue to occur with regularity. Some of the more common examples of these errors include:

• Wrong-site surgery
• Amputation of the wrong member
• Leaving items inside a patient
• Damaging veins, arteries, nerves, and other body parts during surgery
• Failure to diagnose a condition found during surgery

Surgeons also commit medical negligence when they perform surgeries in a drowsy state or take on surgeries that are beyond their abilities.

Anesthesia Errors

Anesthesiologists might make several different malpractice errors during surgery, including:

• Administering too much of an anesthesia drug
• Administering too little of an anesthesia drug
• Failing to properly monitor a patient under anesthesia

Anesthesiologists might also commit medical malpractice when they work in a state of fatigue or drowsiness.

Diagnosis Errors

Diagnosis errors make for one of the most common types of medical malpractice lawsuits. Generally, there are a few types of diagnosis errors that might rise to the level of malpractice. They are:

• Failure to diagnose a condition
• Diagnosing the wrong condition
• Diagnosing a condition later than it should have been diagnosed

Keep in mind that these are not just simple diagnostic mistakes. Medical malpractice requires that these mistakes be errors that no other similar reasonable healthcare provider would ever make.

Errors With Medication

Various types of medical malpractice can arise when dealing with patient medication. They include:

• Prescribing the wrong medication
• Prescribing too little of a medication
• Prescribing too much of a medication
• Continuing to prescribe a medication that is causing harm
• Failing to prescribe a particular medication

Medical malpractice might also occur when a healthcare professional improperly administers a medication to a patient.

Failure to Treat or Prevent

Failure to treat or prevent refers to situations where a healthcare provider was under an obligation to take action to treat a condition or injury or prevent it from occurring or getting worse. It happens often with infections but may occur with most other conditions as well.

Turn to a Medical Malpractice Attorney Who Fights for Maximum Compensation

Have you suffered losses due to a healthcare professional’s medical malpractice? Let Silberstein, Awad & Miklos fight to hold them accountable for the harm they have caused. Call for a free consultation and case review from a qualified medical malpractice attorney today.