Emergency Room Errors

You or your loved one went to the Emergency room at a hospital, and the patient was seen by a provider.  The provider practiced medicine below the acceptable standard of care, meaning the provider failed to properly care for you, which resulted in additional harm to you or your loved one.

Following are some types of emergency room errors that result in injury:

• If you went in complaining of pain around your stomach or pelvis area: you could have your appendix or your gallbladder rupture
• You can suffer a stroke or heart attack
• Internal bleeding can continue causing great harm
• You can contract an infection or have an existing infection get much worse causing more harm

The Emergency Room is a place where mistakes can get out of control and multiply. For example, a typical emergency room is understaffed, and patients may be passed from doctor to doctor or nurse to nurse multiple times over the course of a shift.  Communications regarding a patient’s symptoms, medical information, allergies, and pain complaints are very important and not always done properly in an Emergency Room.

Patients are entitled to past and future medical costs, damages for pain and suffering, damages for lost income, and damages for loss of quality of life.  Also, many of these cases carry an associated post-traumatic stress component.  PTSD can occur when a patient is sent home when they knew something was wrong and the Emergency room did nothing to rule out all potential diagnoses.

When a patient presents to an Emergency Room with complaints, symptoms, and information, it is the #1 job of the Emergency room doctor or practitioner to use all of that information and rule out all of the possible diagnoses or “differential diagnosis.”