Medical Negligence

Over the years, a great many cases have been brought against doctors and other health professionals regarding different kinds of medical negligence. There are those where a doctor or nurse makes mistakes and little or no harm is caused to the patient themselves and most of the time the patient is none the wiser. However, there are also cases (of course a very small percentage) where a doctor has caused harm to a patient through calculated premeditation such as in the case of Harold Shipman. Although this is, as previously stated, extremely rare.

One of the most recently noted cases of medical negligence in the United States is that of parents taking their 5 month old infant to hospital in 2006 with Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) a congenital heart defect. The visit to hospital, prompted by the infant vomiting, ended with the infant put in a monitored hospital bed. Despite being in this monitored bed, her mother found that the child wasn’t breathing and notified staff nurses. The nurse whose pager was linked to the monitor failed to respond and as a result, the infant died. The nurse in question was a recent school graduate and was still in an orientation phase at the hospital and therefore, should not have been carrying the pager. Also, two of the doctors overseeing the child’s care were interns, another issue raised in the case. Compensation just short of one million and two hundred and twenty five thousand was given to the plaintiffs and the nurse was found to be 15% at fault.

Questions have been raised as to how these issues can be addressed and proper measures taken to prevent things like this from happening in the future. According to recent information from medical professionals, merely one more substantial claim against a US state hospital or medical clinic/centre could cause a complete bankruptcy of the government. It is apparent from recent investigations that there are many different things within the health system that need to be changed and/or updated in order to allow for better care of patients – and the hospitals’ budget!