There are a lot of Americans that are afraid of surgeries, doctors, and hospitals. One of the reasons are these wild accidents and events that you hear about. You know the ones: surgeon leaves a scalpel inside a patient, surgeons amputate the wrong leg, and all sorts of other horrific stories that you wouldn't want happening to you.
Well, building on that fear, researchers at John's Hopkins studied nearly 10,000 medical malpractice claims between 1990 and 2010 and determined that approximately 4,082 "never events" occur in hospitals every year. These events, as described above, are preventable and avoidable by paying closer attention and taking better care. Researchers published these results in the Journal Surgery and estimate that the number of non-reported and non-paid malpractice claims are much much higher.
Medical Malpractice Poses a Danger to Us All
Doctors are expected to meet a specific standard of care when treating their patients. This standard of care is breached when doctors forget surgical items inside patients, amputate the wrong limbs, and even perform unnecessary surgeries on the wrong patients.
When these kinds of "never events" occur, a patient could suffer a life altering change to their health, including death. These life altering consequences could cause patients to suffer for the rest of their lives- all because of a preventable surgical error.
If You Have Been Injured
If you have suffered such an injury, a medical malpractice claim could feel like a nightmare to navigate. You need a skilled medical malpractice attorney fighting on your side. These kinds of insurance claims can be extremely difficult and insurance companies are very afraid of having to pay big money for your injuries. You need the expertise of a professional. And according to this research, we should also take care to discuss our treatment with doctors and surgeons to help guard against these "never events."
