Medical Negligence

Medical Negligence.

It can be absolutely devastating when a medical error due to negligence becomes the primary cause of death or physical disability of any kind to a patient. Professionals in the medical fraternity such as the doctors and nurses have been given the sole responsibility to administer medical care to a patient and whenever there is a breach of trust that mainly involves medical errors by the medical practitioners they are solely to blame for the catastrophic injuries inflicted on the patients (Joseph, 2009). According to a recent study, an overwhelming 250,000 people die yearly in the USA due to medical errors and negligence caused by the American physicians. I t can be put to assumption that improved medical care and few errors can be attributed to an advancement in the technology but as it is turning out to be this is far from the truth, since USA stands behind other countries as far as better healthcare is concerned. It is a fact to note that medical practitioners face serious challenges in their cause of duty mainly when they are been overworked in the emergency rooms that lack the required number of staff.

Misdiagnosis is a major medical error by the medical staff mainly doctors who fail in the cause of consultations to understand the symptoms of the patient or underestimate the patient's condition. In case of a serious disease such as AIDS, cancer, heart disease among others; if the doctor does not diagnose properly, can lead to health complications that causes wrongful death due to the doctors' actions or inactions. Other causes that can lead to misdiagnosis are drug information that is incomplete or not available, failure of clear communication which involves a vague handwriting when writing the prescriptions, or two different drugs with identical names that can cause confusion.

Surgical error is another medical malpractice by the practitioners that is usually fatal to the victims, this can be in the form of amputating vital body parts for example, hand or leg that was not supposed to be amputated, failing to remove the tools that the surgeon was using inside the body during surgery or a sudden failure of the hospital equipment when an operation is taking place. While it is fair to acknowledge that medical practitioners are human, they have to handle a situation properly with care as professionals. This kind of surgical errors can cause death or disability when the patient has not been briefed before the surgery. One of the surgical errors that happen in many cases is the use of anesthesia which is responsible in reducing pain or making the patient to be unconscious when a surgery is taking place. Anesthesia can be used wrongly by the doctor when given too much to the patient because it interrupts with the oxygen system causing complications that can lead to death or physical harm. (Joseph, 2009)