Serious Lawyers for Serious Injuries

Most Common Ways Medical Negligence Occurs in the Emergency Room

Published on Jul 16, 2020 at 7:00 pm in Medical Malpractice.

emergency room

When you decide to go to the emergency room, you’re most likely experiencing intense pain and you need immediate help. Whether you suspect you’ve broken a bone or you’re severely ill and need medical attention, you expect the doctors, nurses, and other staff members in the emergency room to provide you with quality care for whatever ailments you have. Sometimes, though, you don’t get the care you need or you are not seen in a timely manner and it makes your condition worse.

If you’ve suffered an injury from an accident and didn’t get the help you needed in the emergency room, then you could be eligible to file a medical malpractice claim. A medical malpractice lawyer from Buckingham Barrera Vega Law Firm can help you navigate your claim and hold the hospital or doctor responsible for their negligent actions. Let’s look at what medical negligence is, and how it happens in the emergency room.

What Is Medical Negligence?

When you’re filing a med mal claim, your case will most likely hinge on proving medical negligence. When a practitioner commits a negligent act or omission in care and injures or kills their patient, that is considered medical negligence. When a doctor or other practitioner is negligent, it breaks the contract of the standard of care that says they are to provide reasonable and diligent care to their patients. The resulting injury is what makes a valid med mal claim.

In order to prove medical negligence in a medical malpractice case, you must establish these four elements:

  • There was a duty of care owed to the patient by the medical practitioner.
  • There was a breach in the duty of care.
  • That breach directly caused an injury to the patient.
  • The injury caused damages.

Let’s take a look at some of the most common ways that medical negligence occurs in the emergency room.

How Medical Negligence Occurs in the Emergency Room

Emergency rooms exist to help people when they need immediate care. Many doctors, nurses, and other medical personnel are constantly trying to help their patients, but sometimes, they do the opposite. The problem is that when an emergency room is understaffed, overworked, or packed full of patients, errors can easily occur. Here are some of the errors that are considered medical negligence that commonly happen in emergency rooms:

  • Misdiagnosis
  • Taking too long to see the patient
  • Anesthesia errors
  • Medication errors
  • Surgical errors
  • Incompetent doctor on staff
  • Misinterpreting test results
  • Contaminated blood transfusions

All of these errors in an emergency room could lead to serious injuries or even death. If you’ve experienced any of these forms of medical negligence, you could be eligible to file a medical malpractice case, and you should seek legal help. It’s important you take legal action in a timely manner, though, because you need to do so within the statute of limitations.

In New Mexico, you have three years from the time you were injured to file a medical malpractice claim. Since these cases can be complex, you’ll want the help of an Albuquerque medical malpractice attorney on your side. At Buckingham Barrera Vega Law Firm, we know how devastating an error in the emergency room can be on the rest of your life. You were expecting help when you went to the hospital, not more problems.

We will fully investigate your claim so that we can get down to the bottom of the medical professional’s mistake and prove that their breach in the duty of care directly caused your injury. Reach out to us today so that our office can begin fighting for you. The sooner we start on your claim, the sooner you can focus on healing.

Meet Your Team

Free Legal Consultation

Call us or fill out the form below to tell us about your potential case and a personal injury lawyer will get back to you as quickly as possible.

Legal & Firm News

Common Spine Injuries From Car Accidents

Soreness is a common sensation to experience following a car accident. But don’t mistake what you’re feeling for routine aches and pains—if your back is hurting, you’re experiencing any loss of movement, or suffering respiratory distress, you may have suffered a back injury. Signs and symptoms of common spine injuries from car accidents are not […]

Read More

What Are Coup and Contrecoup Brain Injuries?

Brain injuries, even those considered minor, almost always have an intense, unignorable impact on a person’s life. Doctors have a number of different ways to classify traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) based on factors like severity, location, and whether the injury penetrated the skull or was considered a closed-head injury. Among closed-head injuries, coup and contrecoup […]

Read More

What Is Considered Patient Abuse or Elderly Abuse?

Many New Mexico families find themselves between a rock and a hard place. They can’t provide their incapacitated, aging, or otherwise vulnerable loved one with the around-the-clock care they need because they have to work or have other obligations, yet this attention is imperative to ensure their loved one’s wellbeing. This need often ends with […]

Read More