Chicago Medical Malpractice Lawyer

Errors made during the administration of anesthesia can have severe consequences. These mistakes may include miscalculating the dosage of  anesthesia, making intubation errors, or improperly monitoring a patient’s vital signs. Such errors can potentially lead to respiratory distress, brain damage, allergic reactions, or even death.

This occurs when a doctor incorrectly identifies a patient’s medical condition. It can result from inadequate medical histories, ignoring symptoms of serious conditions, or failing to order necessary tests. Misdiagnosis can lead to a lack of treatment, inappropriate or unnecessary treatments, and delayed intervention, potentially causing severe health complications. An estimated 12 million Americans experience a diagnostic error in primary care each year, and clinical misjudgment accounts for a significant percentage of these errors.

Cancer misdiagnosis is a specific and often devastating type of misdiagnosis. It represents a large portion of wrong diagnosis claims. Cases involve failure to properly read tests like Pap smears, leading to missed cervical cancer, or failure to biopsy tumors, delaying diagnosis and treatment.

Diagnosing heart attacks can be complex due to varied symptoms. Misdiagnosis can happen if symptoms are misinterpreted as less severe conditions like indigestion or anxiety, or if necessary tests like EKGs or blood tests are not conducted or are misread. Overlooking atypical symptoms in certain patient populations or failing to recognize silent heart attacks also contributes to these errors.

This involves a medical professional taking too long to identify a patient’s medical condition. The excessive delay in diagnosis can result in postponed treatment, reducing treatment options, and potentially leading to more severe health complications for the patient. Examples include delays in diagnosing conditions like lung cancer or postpartum issues based on ignored symptoms or test results.

A failure to diagnose occurs when a healthcare provider overlooks or misses a medical condition entirely. This lack of diagnosis means the patient does not receive the necessary treatment, which can have severe or fatal consequences. This can be caused by incomplete patient histories, neglecting symptoms, or failing to order appropriate diagnostic tests.

Healthcare providers are required to adequately inform patients about the potential benefits, risks, and alternatives of a medical procedure or treatment before proceeding. A lack of informed consent claim arises when a provider fails in this duty, and the patient suffers harm as a result of a procedure they did not fully understand or agree to.

These cases involve harm sustained by either the mother or the child during pregnancy, labor, delivery, or shortly after birth due to trauma or medical errors. Birth injuries can result from various mistakes, such as the improper use of birthing tools, failure to detect fetal distress, or delays in performing a necessary C-section. Common outcomes include brain injuries like cerebral palsy or brachial plexus injuries.

This broad category encompasses mistakes made by any medical professional, including doctors, nurses, technicians, and hospital staff, who fail to meet the standard of care. These errors can manifest in numerous ways, such as misdiagnoses, incorrect medication dosages, surgical mistakes, or failures in communication or charting. Overworked staff, inadequate training, or poor hospital protocols can contribute to these errors.

Errors in interpreting diagnostic imaging and test results are a significant cause of medical malpractice. A radiologist misreading an X-ray, a pathologist misinterpreting lab slides, or a technician misreading an ultrasound can lead to a missed or incorrect diagnosis of serious conditions like cancer or tumors, delaying critical treatment.

These claims involve injuries or death caused by defective medical devices. Defects can stem from the device’s design, manufacturing process, or marketing information. When commonly used devices like pacemakers or hip replacements malfunction, patients can suffer severe complications, leading to product liability claims against manufacturers or hospitals.

Healthcare Management Organizations (HMOs) or their affiliated doctors can be held liable for misconduct that leads to patient harm. This can include instances where an HMO doctor fails to diagnose a condition or disregards patient complaints, resulting in delayed or improper care and subsequent injury or death.

These preventable errors occur when healthcare professionals fail to follow best practices in prescribing, dispensing, or administering medications. Mistakes can include giving the wrong medication or dosage, administering it incorrectly, or overlooking dangerous drug interactions. Such errors can cause severe harm, including hospitalization, permanent injury, or death.

Medical negligence can result in severe and permanent spinal cord injuries. Cases may involve surgeons causing damage during procedures, or healthcare providers failing to recognize worsening neurological symptoms and delaying necessary intervention to relieve spinal cord compression. These injuries often lead to permanent disability or paralysis.

Residents in nursing homes can suffer harm due to the negligence or intentional acts of staff. This can include medication mismanagement, falls, neglect leading to infections like MRSA, or other failures to provide appropriate care based on the standard of care for vulnerable residents.

Mistakes made during surgery are preventable errors that can cause significant patient injury or death. These errors range from operating on the wrong site or patient to damaging nerves or organs, performing the incorrect procedure, or leaving foreign objects inside the body cavity.

Patients can acquire serious infections, such as Staph infections (like MRSA), while in a hospital or healthcare facility. If these infections are contracted or worsen due to negligent care, such as poor sanitation or failure to properly treat an existing infection, the hospital or staff may be liable for the resulting complications and harm.

Obstetrics and Gynecology (OB-GYN) malpractice involves negligence in care related to women’s health, including pregnancy, labor, delivery, and gynecological procedures. Errors can range from mismanaging labor and delivery, leading to birth injuries, to failing to diagnose critical conditions during pregnancy or performing unnecessary surgical procedures.