Emergency Room Mistakes

Parents have a responsibility to ensure their children have a safe, healthy, and happy upbringing. It is the responsibility of medical professionals, caretakers, and others to ensure this is possible for all children. Unfortunately, it is all too common for children to become victims of the negligent and reckless behaviors of others. 

Parents are under the impression that medical professionals are going to have the best interests of their children in mind with every action they take. However, numerous doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals engage in activities that can jeopardize the health and wellbeing of small children during emergency room visits. If your child suffered an injury, or you were injured, as a result of an emergency mistake caused by a careless or negligent medical professional, it is important for you to reach out to a medical malpractice attorney as soon as possible. You may have legal options available for you.

Being subjected to a mistake in the emergency room should never happen. Time and accuracy are of utmost importance, especially in emergency situations. One mistake can lead to death. For this reason, those harmed should reach out to an attorney to explore legal options. The Malpractice Group has decades of experience fighting to protect the legal rights of victims and their families. Our team will investigate your incident and determine the best legal approach to get you the justice you deserve. Contact our law firm at your earliest convenience to see how we can help you.

Time Matters in the Emergency Room

Time is of the essence in emergency situations. Errors and mistakes can happen for a variety of reasons in the emergency room. The stressful environment requires skillful medical decisions nearly instantaneously. Waiting too long to perform a service or duty can result in worsening or fatal consequences. 

If patients are in emergency rooms, there should be a sense of urgency in providing them care. This is often far from reality. Instead, many patients end up waiting for treatment after entering an emergency room. A matter of minutes can aggravate an existing condition, causing patients to suffer additional harm. Had these patients been examined properly and in a timely manner, their suffering and worsened conditions may not have occurred.

Causes of Mistakes

Due to the very nature of emergency rooms, the likelihood of mistakes are drastically increased. When doctors and nurses act carelessly and make mistakes, they can be held liable for resulting injuries and damages.

Some of the most common causes of emergency room errors include:

  • Missing Equipment
  • Inadequate Resources
  • Fatigued Personnel
  • Overcrowding
  • Inadequate Staffing
  • Shortage of Beds/Spaces for Patients
  • Failing to Follow Standard Protocol
  • Rushing Between Patients
  • Not Obtaining a Full Medical History from the Patient

As you can imagine, the consequences of emergency room errors can be devastating. Those harmed may have legal options available to them.

Common Emergency Room Errors

Although waiting too long to treat a patient is one of the leading factors in emergency room errors, there are an array of other mistakes that can have life-altering impacts on patients too. In many cases, victims who are subjected to medical mistakes in the emergency room often incur worse injuries than what they initially needed to treat. Some of the most common emergency room errors our team at The Malpractice Group helps patients receive justice for include:

Misdiagnosis of a Problem: Going into the emergency room usually means a patient needs immediate medical attention. Part of providing them with adequate care involves properly diagnosing their problem. Not diagnosing the problem appropriately and quickly can cause conditions to worsen, which may become life-threatening.

Delay in Treatment: Patients who go into the emergency room typically do so with the desire of having immediate medical attention. Hospitals that are understaffed with medical professionals who are not notified of patients may delay an initial consultation and treatment.

Refusal to Treat: Patients who are not provided care for whatever reason, including lack of insurance, can suffer debilitating consequences. When medical professionals refuse to treat patients, it can cause conditions to worsen.

Mistakes During Intake: When mistakes happen during intake, certain conditions or factors may be overlooked. Not viewing a patient as in critical need of care can have a life-threatening impact on whether they are appropriately treated in a timely manner.

Surgical Error: When patients experience problems during emergency surgery, they may require additional treatment. In some cases, patients are left with added pain and suffering that has a debilitating impact on their health and wellbeing.

Administering the Wrong Medications: Receiving the wrong medication or the improper dosage of a medication can have devastating consequences. This is particularly true in cases involving pregnant women. Babies in utero are more susceptible to medications taken by the mother, which places them at an increased risk for suffering negative consequences.

Whether a patient is misdiagnosed, experiences a surgical error, or another mistake in the emergency room, the attending physicians are still held to the same standards of care. Those harmed should reach out to an aggressive and responsive medical malpractice attorney as soon as possible to explore legal options available to them.

The Malpractice Group Can Help You

Proving liability for an emergency room mistake can be challenging. It may be difficult to bring up a successful claim when dealing with a specialist in an emergency room, especially if you have never received care from them before. For this reason, it can benefit victims greatly to work with a reputable medical malpractice attorney.

The team at The Malpractice Group has extensive experience fighting to protect the legal rights of victims across the state. Contact our law firm at (312) 561-4324 to see how we can help you.