When you are the patient in a hospital emergency room, or ER, you expect that you will receive appropriate and proper care by nurses and doctors. Unfortunately, emergency room staff negligence or mistakes can cause patients any number of injuries, including brain damage, respiratory failure, organ damage, cardiac arrest or death.
ER negligence can be the result of insufficient staffing or inadequately trained personnel. A minor medical emergency can quickly turn into a permanent or fatal injury when there is negligence on the part of the medical staff, nurses, hospital or other healthcare providers.
Emergency room errors include:
- Failure to diagnose appendicitis, heart attack, stroke or internal bleeding
- Failure to diagnose cancer seen on an x-ray
- Administering the wrong medication or wrong dose of medicine
- Allowing a patient to fall out of bed
- Not properly monitoring vital signs or lab results
- Incorrectly connecting IV or medical device tubing
- Failure to respond to an emergent situation
- Failure to administer fluids or antibiotics in a timely manner
- Administering IV fluids or medications too quickly
- Insertion of a breathing tube into the esophagus or stomach instead of the lungs
- An adult dose of medication given to an infant or small child
If you or someone close to you was injured due to negligence in an emergency room you should find a lawyer familiar with ER mistakes or xperienced medical malpractice law firm for additional information.