If you suspect medical negligence, contact an experienced attorney immediately. Louisiana law requires that you request a review by a medical panel before filing a LA Malpractice Case Review. That process pauses the “clock” on your statute of limitations.
Moseley Collins Law provides patients and grieving loved ones with steadfast legal advocacy in medical negligence cases. Our precision litigation skills and depth of experience hold healthcare institutions accountable when profits or indifference result in irreversible patient harm.
Surgical Errors
Surgical errors are some of the most serious medical mistakes. From operating on the wrong body part to retained surgical sponges or instruments, these oversights often cause severe complications like infections or internal injuries that require additional surgeries to correct. Additionally, anesthesia errors ranging from overdosing to intraoperative awareness — in which patients are conscious during surgery but can’t move or communicate due to muscle paralysis caused by painkillers — harm thousands of people annually.
While surgical mistakes are shocking, they are also some of the most preventable. Effective strategies like better communication protocols, rigorous preoperative planning processes, establishing an environment that encourages reporting of near-misses, and instituting comprehensive training programs can help reduce these errors. For healthcare providers, however, the emotional fallout from these mistakes is immense; many experience guilt and self-doubt that compromises their ability to work in their field. Additionally, a surgical error can tarnish hospitals’ reputations and cost them valuable patients.
Medication Errors
Medical providers are expected to abide by specific protocols after making a diagnosis. When they fail to do so, patients can suffer irreparable harm or death.
Medication errors are among the most common healthcare mistakes. Physicians have a fiduciary duty to review patients’ medication history to steer clear of prescribing drugs that could injure or kill them. Nursing and pharmacy staff also have a duty to ensure hospitalized patients receive the correct dosage of medications.
In one instance, a nurse at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, named Madere Vaught, fatally administered 75-year-old Charlene Murphey with a powerful paralyzing drug called vecuronium. The mistake was a result of Vaught failing to properly read the prescription for the drug. According to a study by Leape and colleagues,27 most medication errors occur during the transcribing, verifying, dispensing, and delivery phases of the medication process. These errors can include:
Anesthesia Errors
Administering anesthesia can be a delicate task, with the risk of error posing significant risks to patient health. When medical professionals fail to follow protocol and adhere to standard of care practices, they can cause severe injuries.
Aside from the anesthesiologist, anesthesia technicians and assistants also play a crucial role in preparing equipment and assisting during surgery. If they commit any errors that lead to an adverse outcome, such as mishandling of a patient’s medication or improper preparation of the operating room, they can be held liable in an anesthesia claim.
Hospitals’ risk management teams have one goal – protecting the hospitals and doctors who fund their salaries from malpractice liability. Our firm’s independent attorneys have decades of courtroom experience holding healthcare institutions fully accountable when their profit-driven negligence inflicts irreversible patient suffering and wrongful deaths. We take the same passionate, dedicated approach to every case. If you or a loved one has suffered from anesthesia errors, we are here to help.
Misdiagnosis or Delayed Diagnosis
When doctors don’t diagnose serious conditions or fail to follow-up on test results, it can put patients in dangerous situations. The underlying health issue may progress and cause irreparable damage that timely intervention could have prevented.
Common medical malpractice cases include misdiagnosis of migraines, for example, which are often mistaken for sinus headaches or tension headaches. In such cases, physicians should consider all reported symptoms, thoroughly investigate them and order the appropriate tests to identify the problem.
When healthcare professionals’ mistakes result in catastrophic injuries, unwarranted suffering or wrongful death, victims and their families deserve strong legal guidance. Retaining a medical malpractice lawyer with precision litigation experience holding hospitals accountable enables clients to obtain full compensation. Contact Moseley Collins Law today for compassionate guidance. We offer free phone consultations. Our medical malpractice attorneys represent individuals and families throughout Glendale, LA County and Southern California. We have the insider insights other practices simply cannot match. Medical malpractice lawsuits require detailed analyses of technical medical protocol breaches enabling client harm.