The most catastrophic injuries in hospitals are not always the ones seen in an emergency room. In 2010, misdiagnosis, failure to diagnosis, and medical error—generally described as “bad hospital care” by the Office of Inspector General for Health and Human Services—contributed to the deaths of 180,000 patients in Medicare. Additionally, in 2013, a study published in the Journal of Patient Safety stated that those numbers are much higher—between 210,000 and 440,000 patients annually. 

Brain Injury and Jaundice in Newborns

Kernicterus, a relatively rare yet severe form of jaundice, can cause brain damage in babies if left undiagnosed and untreated. Surprisingly, 60 percent of newborns are diagnosed with jaundice, which is the result of a baby’s liver not adequately removing excess bilirubin.

Bilirubin is a naturally occurring substance in the blood, which is removed by the liver. A low-level build-up of bilirubin is normal in newborns, and can often cause mild jaundice in babies. Additionally, it can sometimes take a few days for a newborn’s liver to function properly to remove the excess bilirubin, which is why mild jaundice is normal. However, if a newborn has jaundice and it is not properly monitored by doctors and hospital staff, it can become a serious problem and lead to severe brain damage for which the hospital would be liable.

Treatment for severe jaundice can include phototherapy, which alters the bilirubin in a baby’s blood from toxic to non-toxic. But in some severe cases, such as those that lead to kernicterus, a more extreme treatment such as a blood exchange transfusion may need to be employed to ensure the safety of the child. Hence, diligent monitoring is essential to help prevent the extreme from occurring.

Contact a Compassionate Medical Malpractice Attorney

If you or someone you know had a newborn suffer from misdiagnosed jaundice or kernicterus, you may be eligible for compensation. Contact a compassionate Connecticut medical malpractice attorney today to discuss your case and your options.

One of the most common situations involving medical malpractice is the delayed or misdiagnosis of a patient. A well-publicized report published by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) revealed that as many as 98,000 people die in hospitals annually as a result of preventable medical errors.

Astounding statistics such as these raise adequate concerns among patients who may wonder if their medical providers are taking appropriate actions in favor of their or their family’s health. Patients are dependent upon their medical providers to proactively address concerns regarding suspected illness or injury.

A December online report from the Daily Mail confirmed the death of an eight-month-old baby as a result of meningitis due to the doctor’s failure to respond to the mother’s concerns. The doctor assigned to the case diagnosed the baby’s condition as only a virus even after she suffered a seizure and high temperature. This type of medical error occurs more often than doctors or hospitals would like to admit. Last year, a Connecticut family faced a battle of misdiagnosis between doctors resulting in lost custody of their daughter as she was left admitted to the hospital.

When misdiagnosis occurs, people’s lives are put in danger. A diagnostic error includes:

• Failure to make use of indicated tests;
• Failure to act upon results of testing or monitoring;
• Error or delay in medical diagnosis; and
• Use of therapy or tests not up-to-date with current medical standards.

Patients may face expenses to seek additional medical testing or receive care after an initial misdiagnosis. They may also report missed wages due to an inability to work. To say a delayed diagnosis or misdiagnosis is costly is an understatement. Extra incurred expenses add up to at least $17 billion and as high as $29 billion a year in hospitals as reported by IOM.

Patients who are victim to a delayed diagnosis may miss the opportunity to prevent certain medical conditions from worsening or to find a remedy in a more timely manner. As experts in their field, doctors are responsible for providing the best possible care to their patients. When this responsibility is compromised, so are the lives of patients.

If you have been injured and suffered harm as a result of a delayed or failed diagnosis in Connecticut, contact an experienced Westport medical malpractice attorney today.

This November, a California surgeon was placed on probation after mistakenly removing a patient’s right kidney. The operation, conducted in 2012, was supposed to be performed on the patient’s left, cancerous kidney. The surgeon, a urologist who was licensed for 41 years, performed the operation from memory—a mistake that has since required an additional surgery for the patient.

While wrong-site operations are not the most frequent of surgical errors, they are more common than one may think. A 2010 study of 6,000 doctors revealed 27,370 adverse events which occurred during surgeries performed between January 2002 and June 2008. Twenty-five were identified as wrong-patient surgeries and 107 were identified as wrong-site operations. “Of these,” reports USA Today, “five patients who received unnecessary surgery and 38 who received wrong-site operations were significantly harmed.” One patient who underwent a wrong-site surgery died as a result.

Additionally, a 2006 study reported by CNN revealed even more disturbing statistics. The study found that approximately 2,700 mistakes that involve a wrong-patient or wrong-site operation are made every year. When broken down, this equals nearly seven mistakes made every day. And while the mistakes may not be made intentionally, when they do occur, they can have far-reaching, negative consequences.

Doctor Marty Makary, a surgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital, reported in The Wallstreet Journal that although doctors take a vow to do no harm, they also operate under another unspoken rule in the field: “to overlook the mistakes of our colleagues.” Makary revealed how the astute perception of a nurse once saved him from cutting into a patient’s lung after an intern had prepped the wrong side. He also added how “U.S. surgeons operate on the wrong body part as often as 40 times a week.”

One recent event in Oregon left a little boy, who had come in for surgery to correct a lazy eye, with two painful operations. As the doctor was completing the procedure, she realized the operation had been performed on the wrong eye. “I feel like we had a right to know the second she realized she was in the wrong eye,” the boy’s mother told CNN. As a professional surgeon, the boy’s mother believes the doctor should have realized right away that she was not operating in the eye with the problem.

When a doctor makes a surgical error, such performing a wrong-site operation, a patient is likely eligible for compensation. If this has happened to you, you do not have to go through it alone. Contact a compassionate and experienced Westport medical malpractice attorney today. We are here to help you get the compensation you deserve.