When an Untrained Doctor Turned a Small Urology Surgery into a Nightmare
Gary Silverstein
September 19, 2014
How bad can a five minute urology procedure be? Well, you’re about to find out.
How bad can a five minute urology procedure be? Well, you’re about to find out.
Failure to diagnose a serious condition can be a basis for medical malpractice lawsuit, as the doctor has failed to provide the basic standard of care to the patient. To take an actual example, a person goes to his primary doctor, as he is suffering from significant pain in his left shoulder. The doctor performs a checkup and tells the patient he is fine.
What is Differential Diagnosis?
In medical malpractice cases, both the attorneys will try to prove their points by presenting testimony of medical experts. These testimonies are crucial in determining whether there was wrongdoing, whether the injuries were the result of negligence or carelessness, and the extent of the injuries suffered by the victim.
At the end of a trial, before closing remarks are given, the attorneys will give the judge a list about various areas of laws that the judge should instruct the jury about. This is known as Requests to Charge. The lists of the plaintiff and defense attorneys will obviously be different. Each of the two lawyers will be listing things that the jury should be instructed about, which are going to be favorable to their client in the case.
When we think of ‘malpractice’ we normally assume that the doctor who has been accused of negligence has done something really awful that could have permanent effects on a patient’s life and cause bodily injuries; perhaps even death.
According to data from the National Practitioner Data Bank, in the year 2012, New York was the top-ranking state for medical malpractice payouts in the nation. As of late, wrong-site surgery errors have been reported more frequently. These highly unforgiving medical mistakes are surgeries performed on the wrong part of the body or on the wrong patient altogether. Likely a fiasco for a surgical team and a disastrous event for a patient, wrong site surgeries are oftentimes caused by a breakdown in communication. The entity known as the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations defines these unforeseen occurrences as sentinel events involving death or
Despite advances in medical technology and an ever-increasing understanding of the failures that lead to medical malpractice, avoidable medical errors continue to occur at an alarming rate in New York hospitals and those nationwide. Due to ignorance or disregard of well-established safeguards, surgeons still perform surgical procedures on the wrong parts of the patients’ bodies.
For medical malpractice, wrongful death, or accident cases in New York, there is a jury trial. The jury will usually have six members, and at least five members should unanimously agree to a decision to reach a verdict. Only when five members of the jury are agreeable to a decision, a judgment can be passed.
During the course of a medical malpractice or accident case trial, several objections are raised by both lawyers. The lawyer raising the objection will have to give a reason for the objection, and the judge will have to make an on the spot decision about it. If the judge feels the objection is appropriate, he will rule, “objection sustained”, and if he feels the objections is improper, he will say, “objection overruled”.
