As noted by a recent article on the subject, the thing about medical malpractice that is so frightening is that it is the human body that is on the receiving end of substandard treatment.
That precious housing is flatly vulnerable and, notes the writer addressing the topic, unlike a house “that can be shored up or rebuilt if the contractor gets it wrong.”
Indeed, when a doctor in New Jersey or elsewhere “gets it wrong,” the results are often traumatic in the extreme for an individual and his or her family.
Any malpractice injury visited upon any person is indeed tragic, most especially because a negligent outcome would not have ensued at all had medicine simply been practiced competently and in a peer-recognized manner.
In other words, a medical malpractice act is absolutely preventable in every instance where a breach of standard care does not occur.
That basic fact concerning medical negligence often seems especially highlighted in birth injury cases, owing in no small part to the extreme vulnerability of newborns or babies about to be born.
A recent case from Texas amply bears that out. A mother’s request there to have a C-section delivery was overruled by her obstetrician. During delivery, the infant was alleged to have suffered both a broken spine and a cracked skull from the use of forceps.
Ironically, a belated emergency cesarean section was attempted, but, tragically, the baby did not survive the procedure.
Other malpractice incidents involving children are commonly reported and run a wide spectrum. The same media article that discussed the above-cited case also referred, for example, to the recent high-profile incident in California in which a young girl who underwent what was termed as a “routine tonsillectomy” died following surgery.
In another case, a three-year-girl in Hawaii seeking dental care was alleged to have been administered “grossly excessive” amounts of sedatives. She suffered brain damage and did not survive.
Such cases are truly tragic, especially because they are preventable through reasonably competent medical care.
Source: LawyersandSettlements.com, “Three heartbreaking examples of alleged medical malpractice,” Gordon Gibb, Jan. 11, 2014
