Common types of medical malpractice in Michigan

Michigan residents often rely on medical professionals to help keep them healthy. This is especially true as cold and flu season approaches. However, all too often, doctors, nurses and even hospitals make mistakes that put people’s lives at risk.

According to The Joint Commission, a number of unexpected events — or sentinel events — can happen in a medical setting. Some of these events occur through chance, but others are caused by a lack of doctor oversight or negligence. In these cases, it is likely that the doctor committed medical malpractice and, as a result, people can be seriously injured or killed.

There are several common types of medical malpractice in Michigan. Wrong-site, wrong-patient or wrong- procedure errors are most likely to blame for a sentinel event. In these cases, a doctor or hospital has erred by failing to help the right patient in the right way. Here, it was either the doctor or the hospital’s responsibility to make sure that they were doing their job correctly, but that did not happen.

Another common type of medical malpractice is the unintentional presence of a foreign body. In these cases, doctors or nurses left something in a patient’s body during a medical procedure. This could include leaving a sponge or similar object behind following a surgery.

A delay in treatment is another common type of medical malpractice. In these cases, the doctor may not have recognized a patient’s condition immediately or the doctor may have failed to treat a recognized condition in a timely manner.

Medication errors also are common in Michigan. When a medication error occurs, people can receive dangerous amounts of medication. They may suffer adverse side-effects as a result. Other common types of medical malpractice in Michigan include failure to control infections, anesthesia errors, maternal death due to complications and transfusion issues.

If someone has been a victim of any of these types of medical malpractice, an attorney can help explain the person’s legal rights. The person may be entitled to compensation as a result of the error.