Doctor negligence is defined as a physician's failure to exercise the level of skill, care, and prudence necessary to prevent patient injury. Doctor negligence falls under the broader category of medical malpractice. Too often in society we believe that doctors are infallible and perhaps somehow superhuman. We assume that every doctor we encounter knows everything: every condition, every treatment, and every consequence of treatment.

We also assume that a doctor will not harm us, but rather help remedy the malady we present. It is reasonable for us to believe this, but the reality is that doctor negligence harms thousands of people every year. It is estimated that approximately 180,000 people die as a result of doctor negligence or malpractice every year. While doctor negligence is not often intentional, it is often preventable.

Doctors must be held to a higher standard of accountability than others because their mistakes and negligence have much greater consequences. When under-qualified, careless, overworked, or inexperienced physicians practice their craft, they threaten the lives and health of innocent patients. Doctor negligence can result in permanent injury, disability, death, and emotional and financial devastation for the victim and their loved ones.

There are a number of situations whereby doctor negligence can cause serious patient injury or illness. A failure to diagnose or a misdiagnosis of a patient's condition can lead to serious damages. This type of doctor negligence may be caused by a physician's failure to properly identify and address a patient's signs and symptoms, a failure to order the necessary medical tests to identify a patient's condition, and the like.

Doctor negligence may also involve prescription and medication errors. When a doctor fails to prescribe the right medication, at the right dose, for the right patient, that person may suffer serious injury. When a doctor fails to take allergies, concurrent drug therapies, existing medical conditions, and other factors into consideration when prescribing medication, a patient may have a serious adverse drug reaction caused by doctor negligence. Illegible handwriting is a form of doctor negligence that may result in serious injury if a pharmacist then fills the wrong prescription for a patient.

Surgical error is another area of serious injury caused by doctor negligence. Surgical errors may involve poor pre-operative planning, lack of communication between professionals, anesthesia mistakes, unsanitary surgical instruments or environment, mistakes in the procedure itself, injury to area surrounding surgical site, leaving sponges or instruments inside a patient, and wrong site surgery. Wrong site surgery, arguably one of the most extreme types of doctor negligence, occurs at more than fifty times a year in the United States.

If you or a loved one has suffered serious injury, illness, suffering, or death because of doctor negligence, please contact us to speak with a qualified and experienced medical malpractice attorney who can evaluate your case and protect your legal interests. Contact us by Email or call us today at  (401) 788-0600 to speak with a someone from our  firm..