People are happy to live in a world where visiting an emergency room means you’ll receive a very high standard of medical care, and that you’ll be safe in the hands of any medical practitioners you meet there. Unfortunately, ERs are run by human beings often working 12 and 14-hour shifts, so mistakes can happen.
These mistakes can result in negligence which can cause secondary infections, serious injury or even the loss of life, in the most serious of cases.
ER Medical Malpractice
Because of the chaotic nature of emergency rooms, the standard of care might not always be as high as if you were admitted to hospital under more normal circumstances. To provide protection for medical professionals most states prevent first responders from being sued for negligence, except if they’ve willfully acted in a negligent way which caused you pain and suffering. The list of first responders you might encounter includes ambulance crews, firefighters and EMTS (emergency medical technicians).
ER doctors and nurses are not protected in the same way as first responders from medical malpractice suits. You do, however, need to prove that a mistake was made by the medical practitioner you’re claiming against i.e. a competent doctor would not have made the same mistake in the same circumstances.
All emergency rooms have strict policies and procedures they must follow to provide you with an adequate level of care, and if those policies are breached for any reason, then you may have grounds to claim for negligence. Remember that in cases of ER malpractice the hospital itself is sued, and not the doctor or nurse guilty of the negligence.
Types of ER Malpractice
The most common type of negligence encountered in ERs across the United States is that of delayed diagnosis or incorrect misdiagnosis. Examples of this might be that a patient presents with chest pains, and it’s diagnosed as an anxiety attack and not a heart attack. Or that the patient has clearly defined symptoms of appendicitis, but the symptoms are ignored until the appendix bursts, poisoning the patient.
Other examples include surgical errors, where a secondary infection has taken place, or even a surgical instrument being left inside the patient. Other common examples of outright negligence are receiving a transfusion of infected blood or receiving medication you are allergic to.
Another form of negligence which is not often discussed is where you are denied treatment by the ER because you lacked sufficient medical insurance. Under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) all hospitals are legally obliged to provide you with basic medical care, and to stabilize your injury or condition, at the very least. Hospital ERs which deny you care are then open to a lawsuit against them.
Proving Malpractice
For your lawsuit to be successful you must be able to prove that the doctor or nurse’s negligence caused you pain or suffering that could have been avoided if they’d followed medical protocol and hospital policy.
If you can prove the medical staff deviated from providing you with an acceptable standard of care you can claim for loss of earnings, pain and suffering endured, and even for the fact that your quality of life has been diminished since you received treatment from them.
Medical malpractice cases are usually very complex, so please do engage the services of an attorney with several years of experience, and success, in this particular area of law.