Medical Malpractice- What's a Never Event?

Medical malpractice may seem less common than it actually is, but this is due to the fact that many victims in malpractice cases refuse to come forward and tell their stories. In this website you will find real life stories of people who have decided to share their experiences with the world in order to encourage others to take action and also raise awareness and attempt to reduce the incidence of these deplorable events.

First however, it is of the utmost importance to clarify a few key concepts related to the subject at hand. Medical malpractice happens when a medical professional (doctor, nurse, dentist, etc.) neglects to carry out their duties in a manner that complies with legal standards and regulations, resulting in a patient’s injury and/or death. This broadly includes failing to correctly perform a medical procedure as well as omitting to perform it altogether. A doctor may or may not also be liable for prescribing an experimental drug or performing cosmetic surgery. The aforementioned standards and regulations may vary by country and jurisdiction inside countries.

In order to better understand what may qualify as medical malpractice, it is useful to take a look at “Never Events”. In the United States, a never event list is comprised of at least 28 instances of inexcusable deeds. This particular list includes the following events: artificial insemination with the wrong donor sperm or donor egg, unintended retention of a foreign object in a patient after surgery, patient death or serious disability associated with patient elopement, patient death or serious disability associated with a medication error (wrong drug, wrong dose, wrong patient, wrong time, wrong rate, wrong preparation, wrong route of administration), patient death or serious disability associated with a hemolytic reaction due to the administration of incompatible blood or blood products,
patient death or serious disability associated with an electric shock or elective cardioversion, patient death or serious disability associated with a fall while being cared for in a health care facility, surgery performed on the wrong body part, surgery performed on the wrong patient, wrong surgical procedure performed on a patient, patient death or serious disability associated with the use of contaminated drugs or devices, patient death or serious disability associated with a device not being used or functioning as intended, patient death or serious disability associated with intravascular air embolism, infant discharged to the wrong person, patient suicide or attempted suicide resulting in serious disability while being cared for in a healthcare facility, maternal death or serious disability associated with labor or delivery in a low-risk pregnancy, patient death or serious disability associated with hypoglycemia occurring while the patient is being cared for in a healthcare facility, death or serious disability associated with failure to identify and treat hyperbilirubinemia in neonates, stage 3 or 4 pressure ulcers acquired after admission, patient death or serious disability due to spinal manipulative therapy, any incident in which a line designated for oxygen or other gas to be delivered to a patient contains the wrong gas or is contaminated by toxic substances, patient death or serious disability associated with a burn incurred from any source while being cared for in a healthcare facility, patient death or serious disability associated with the use of restraints or bedrails while being cared for in a healthcare facility, and any occurrence of care ordered or provided by someone impersonating a physician, nurse, pharmacist, or other licensed healthcare provider. While doctor’s and nurses are human being that make mistakes, it is worth mentioning that the offenses listed above are largely avoidable.

Any person who believes that they have been the victims of medical malpractice should consult a lawyer and decide whether to take legal measures. The strongest medical malpractice cases are those in which permanent injury can be demonstrated. Three conditions that make a case viable are liability (it means that someone is at fault and that the mistake was preventable, and that in fact it was more than a mistake but sheer negligence that any other prudent doctor would not have incurred in. The testimony of medical experts is usually necessary to prove this), causation (was the physician’s negligence the one and only cause of the patient’s grief) and damages (was the patient injured so badly that they will have to pay a large amount of money to recover, and will they ever be able to go back to work). Other factors to take into account are the fact that malpractice suits take an awful lot of time, can be very expensive, and can add emotional distress to the physical injury that the patient has already suffered. However, this should not deter victims from speaking up and trying to obtain some measure of compensation. It is something that is owed to oneself and to the all of the silent victims.