Misdiagnosis and Wrongful Death

Misdiagnosis or medical error is a mistake made by a healthcare professional. Misdiagnosis can involve a wrong diagnosis, incorrect medical treatment, or an incomplete diagnosis. A wrong diagnosis can lead to serious health consequences as the real cause of the pain, sickness, and syndromes goes unchecked and people are allowed to die because of that misdiagnosis.

There are many cases of a misdiagnosis that cause wrongful death. In the U.S. alone, medical errors are thought to cause forty four thousand to ninety eight thousand wrongful deaths a year. These medical errors are also thought to cause around one million injuries too.

Here are some of the causes of medical errors and misdiagnosis:

· Inexperienced physicians and doctors

· New or experimental procedures

· Poor communication, tourists not being able to speak to doctors of a different country

· Sleep deprivation has also caused doctors to misdiagnosis. This is caused by overworked doctors or interns that have stayed up too long.

· Illegible handwriting leading to incorrect diagnosis.

· Bad nurse to patient ratio

· Giving two or more drugs that interact unfavorably toward one another, causing serious health risks toward the patients.

And the list can go on. These are just a few of the errors that healthcare practitioners can make. People go to hospitals to receive treatment but instead receive inaccurate readings of their health that leads to a whole host of other problems. These problems can range from delayed diagnosis, wrong surgeries, and incorrect prescriptions. These are serious problems that need to be addressed within the medical field. Many people compare pilot error with medical error in that both lead to very tragic endings. However, there are significantly less pilot errors then medical ones. In fact, there are more medical errors than there are workplace injuries. It is estimated that one hundred eighty thousand people die a year from medical errors.

The medical community needs to face these errors and find a way to correct them and provide safer measures. These safer measures will help prevent both injuries and deaths. People deserve to walk into a hospital and receive treatment without having to suffer from fear of negligence from their doctor.