If an injury associated with any medical procedure or treatment may have been avoided by the use of the accepted standard of care by a physician, a person may be entitled to compensation for medical malpractice based on a legal theory of negligence. Not every medical procedure that fails to produce desired results is an incident of medical malpractice, but such an occurrence nonetheless requires that an experienced and knowledgeable medical malpractice attorney review the matter for merit and the presence of liability.

Misdiagnosis

Many studies have indicated misdiagnosis of a medical condition as the leading type of physician error. Further, the five most misdiagnosed diseases or conditions are infections, tumors or masses inside the body, heart attack, blood clot in the lung (pulmonary embolism), and heart disease.

Misdiagnosis may occur with complex conditions since patients may not possess the typically expected list of symptoms. Because of a misdiagnosis, a physician may waste time treating the wrong illness or condition, thus creating life-threatening consequences.

Mistakes in Prescribing or Administering Prescription Drugs

It is easy to administer the wrong amount of medication. Medical malpractice relating to the prescribing of medication is extremely common. Errors in administering medication may result from providing the wrong medication or from administering too much or too little medication. Any errors, even a typographical error, in the chain of control of the medication may result in a patient being administered too little or too much medication.

Emergency Room Negligence

Because of the hectic nature of emergency rooms, the occupation of an emergency room physician is fraught with challenges. The standard of care in an emergency room will usually not be as high as the standard of care in a doctor’s office or other less chaotic environment. Despite the fact that the law of medical malpractice may allow an emergency room physician some allowance as to the standard of care based on the circumstances, emergency room physicians may still be held liable for a patient’s injuries caused as the result of sub-standard care.