Intensive care unit missed diagnoses are likely to lead to death

Researchers into missed diagnoses and medical malpractice in the hospital setting have discovered the dangers of these medical errors. The recent study of nearly 6,000 adults who died in the ICU of a hospital showed that many of them had a misdiagnosis. The investigators found that 28% of the patients had a diagnosis error at the time of their death. Patient safety advocates warn that a lot of these medical error victims had diseases or problems that were missed that made a big difference in the patient’s treatment. The researchers noted that many of the victims had a diagnosis that was serious enough to lead to a wrongful death. According to a top medical malpractice lawyer in New York, this type of medical malpractice is very serious but often overlooked by the doctor, hospital and even the family. The vast majority of wrong diagnosis errors were attributed to infections or problems with blood vessels. Among the doctor’s and nurse’s mistakes were not recognizing and diagnosing a heart attack or stroke, pneumonia and blood clots. This has patient advocates worried because the intensive care unit of the hospital is where the most seriously ill patients are and the medical treatment should be the best. Some wonder if the staff are too tired or not properly trained because of cut backs. Some patients and malpractice lawyers report that mistakes seem to happen when untrained doctors and nurses are not supervised as they should be or when they have been working for many hours straight. More details about the research into this area of medical mistakes are available here.

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