Can You Hold a Hospital Liable for Medical Malpractice in Wrongful Death Cases?

When we face major health issues, we turn towards doctors and hospitals to take care of our health and safe recovery. We blindly trust and rely on hospitals and doctors for treatment, whether from new drugs, efficient treatment plans, important medical information, or specific preventative measures. 

But what if this faith backfires? In fact, recent studies have shown that medical errors may have accounted for as many as 251,000 deaths annually in the United States, ranking it to be the third leading cause of death in the U.S. However, that doesn’t mean victims of medical malpractice have no remedy. A wrongful death lawyer in Boston can help the deceased’s family sue the hospital and get their rightful compensation. 

What physician negligence can lead to death?

Mistakes in prescribing medication:

• Wrongly prescribed over the counter medicines
• Powerful chemotherapy
• Wrongly prescribing pain killer medications
• Incorrect dosage

Negligence affecting pregnancy and childbirth:

• Uterine rupture
• Damage to internal organs from surgical instruments during a C-section.
• Leaving any disposable medical supplies inside the mother during a surgical operation.
• Anesthesia complications 
• Undetected preeclampsia leading to seizure during delivery
• Uncontrollable bleeding

Misdiagnosis:

• Failure to include an important potential medical problem in the diagnosis list.
• Wrongly interpreted test
• Delaying the diagnosis and failure to understand the urgency of the medical situation.
• Failure of the nurse to properly provide diagnostic medication altering the patient’s response to the medication.

Surgical errors:

• Unnecessary surgery
• Infection after surgery
• Wrong site surgery, surgery on the wrong body organ
• Surgical instruments left in the body
• Damage to other internal organs

In all these cases, where the physician’s negligence caused the patient’s death, the hospital will be held liable for wrongful death.

When will the liability fall on the hospital?

Liability will fall on the hospital when:

1. The fault is that of the physicians, nurses, or other health care providers employed by the hospital
2. The fault is that of the hospital for not properly hiring and/or supervising its employees, maintaining and repairing its equipment, or properly monitoring and overseeing the essential medical care at the hospital.

In most medical malpractice cases, it falls on the patient’s family to prove negligence, which is not easy. For this reason, you need to contact Swartz and Swartz, P.C., who has a team of attorneys and professionals dedicated to medical malpractice cases. They have close communication with some of the most knowledgeable and renowned medical experts in the country and have a proven track record of successful recoveries on behalf of victims of medical negligence.