A 45-year-old Philadelphia nurse who was permanently disabled during a routine heart test was just awarded in excess of $5 million in a medical malpractice suit brought against the hospital and doctor. In America we understand that doctors cannot save every patient. We know that sometimes life-saving efforts are no match for the inevitability of death. We realize that medical science and technology aren't advanced enough to cure every ill. Surgery, catastrophic illness and severe personal injury accidents all carry risk. Risk may be part of life, but we certainly don't expect to be risking our lives when we go to our doctor for a simple, routine, diagnostic procedure.
Doctors are no more immune to mistakes than the rest of us, but when doctors make a mistake their patients can wind up paying for it for the rest of their lives. Medical errors are the 8th leading cause of death in the U.S., according to the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine. Nearly 100,000 people die each year as the result of errors made by their doctors or other medical professionals; and thousands more are seriously injured, some irreparably so like the Philadelphia nurse.
"Nearly 15% of all patients are misdiagnosed, and half of those face serious harm, even death, because of the error," Dr. Jerome Groopman, a noted physician and medical author, said in the September/October 2008 issue of AARP magazine. Groopman noted that, surprisingly, only 20% of misdiagnosis errors are the result of technical problems; 80% are cognitive errors "due to mistakes in the mind of the doctor."
Doctors are not infallible. Medical mistakes happen every day. If you feel that you are the victim of a doctor's mistake, a Philadelphia medical malpractice personal injury lawyer can review your case to see if you are eligible for compensation.
