We all know that prevention is better than the cure. But there are obviously times when it becomes necessary to take the cure in order to make a full recovery. With regular breakthroughs, medical technology has advanced so much that we see sophistication in both the treatment as well as treatment approach. However, sometimes even the most sophisticated knowledge and technology systems cannot do much if human errors occur whilst treatment is being provided. Medical negligence is not uncommon, whatever form of medicine you resort to. So before you investigate the plausibility of making medical negligence claims by consulting patient lawyers, it’s necessary to understand the causes of this negligence properly and make sure you seek expert advice through the correct channels. 

The type of treatment that you select greatly depends on the severity of your problem and your preferences. Depending on the illness, information, comfort and location you decide to opt for a treatment. The treatment can be based on Allopathy, homeopathy, naturopathy, Ayuved or just simple home remedies etc. In some case you may consult a medical practitioner and in some cases just seek help from an agony aunt. In minor cases, you may also just open a book or refer a website to check what medicine you should take.

But medical negligence may happen in any method of treatment. It may happen by you or the medical practitioner. So our efforts should be to reduce the negligence. 

The most common type of medical negligence is by the patient themselves. This is by ignoring the symptoms of the problem for a long time. There is a sever stomach ache and you don’t refer to a doctor for long because you are tied up with some important work and think that you will consult a doctor once the work is over. Finally, it may turn out that kidney is not functioning properly. There are several remedies and treatments for kidney problems including kidney transplant. However, if you ignore the problem even the best of doctors when contacted can not provide relief. 

Medical negligence can also happen with wrong diagnosis of the symptoms. A common example of this is stomach ache in women can be diagnosed with acidity or menstrual pains. But the actual cause may be presence of stones in the gall bladder which occur in 20% of the women by the age of 60 years. Some women end up taking medicines for acidity or menstrual pain for years only to realize at a later stage that the stones have increased in number and size and removal of the gall bladder remains the only option. Therefore, sometimes having a second opinion from another doctor is necessary. 

Another possibility of medical negligence is in delay in getting and reading medical reports and acting on them. For example in dengue fever, a very common disease in tropical countries, the platelet count in the blood may fall rapidly during the receding stage of the fever. During this stage, it is necessary to constantly monitor the platelet count every few hours. Any delay in reading the reports on time make the problem more severe. Sometimes internal / external bleeding may also occur and the condition can be fatal if platelets are not provided externally. Even in the best of hospitals the staff gets into the culture “the system is taking care of your patient”. Therefore, in such cases the patient’s relatives / friends need to keep bugging the hospital authorities to get the tests done and read the reports. 

Yet another medical negligence is missing out on details such as patient’s history and allergies. Sometimes the patient does not provide adequate details to the doctor and sometimes the doctor misses out on getting details of history and allergies. Here is an example of how the history of a patient was neglected.

In some cases, though few, the medical negligence can be gross error on part of the medical staff including doctors, especially during complex surgeries.  

Try to remember the instances of medical negligence that occurred in your life – by you or by a doctor. They may be severe or simple negligence, share them with others below so that others don’t repeat them.