When a person goes to an emergency room at a New York hospital, it is with the expectation that he or she will receive quality care and an accurate diagnosis. Unfortunately, emergency room patients may experience complications or serious effects from a misdiagnosis or completely missing the right diagnosis altogether.
Doctors can make mistakes, but there are times when a missed diagnosis is the result of negligence. If you experienced pain and suffering because a doctor missed something crucial during your emergency room visit, you have options. You may have grounds to file a civil claim, seeking compensation from all liable parties. You should not have to suffer from malpractice or negligence alone.
The most common ER mistakes
Emergency rooms are high-pressure, busy places to work, yet doctors still have the responsibility to recognize obvious warning signs, initiate needed testing and provide patients with a certain standard of care. Failure to properly diagnose could have fatal consequences for patients. Some of the most common ailments often missed by emergency room personnel include the following:
- Causes of chest pain
- Heart attacks in females
- Causes of abdominal pain
- Pulmonary embolisms
- Causes of rectal bleeding
Any of these conditions could indicate than something more serious is going on. No patient demonstrating the above symptoms should go home before proper testing and a thorough examination.
How do these mistakes happen?
Medical mistakes can happen for many reasons, but regardless of why, victims have the right to seek compensation for their subsequent pain and suffering. In many cases of emergency room errors, it is possible to trace mistakes back to the following:
- High influx of patients
- Inexperience
- Short staffing
- Misreading test results or x-rays
- Failure to consider an alternate diagnosis
- Signing charts without reading them
If you believe that you suffered because of an incorrect or missed diagnosis after visiting an emergency room, you may feel overwhelmed by your current circumstances, but you do not have to face this alone.
Speak up, fight back
It’s normal to feel distraught and even violated after experiencing the negative effects of an ER mistake. While frustrating, you have the right to both speak up about what you experienced and fight for a full recovery.
The physical and financial ramifications of an ER error are significant. You may be able to secure compensation not only for your pain and suffering, but also for your medical bills and other expenses related to your delayed diagnosis or misdiagnosis. When there is much at stake, you have no time to lose in seeking the support and guidance you deserve.
