Hardesty, Tyde, Green & Ashton, P.A. blog

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Preventable Medical Errors Kill and Injure

Hospitals, out patient surgery centers, nursing homes and rehabilitation facilities across our country kill over 100,000 people each year due to preventable medical errors and many more thousands of patients suffer life altering permanent injury. Surgical errors are more common than one would think. Medical experts advocate actually writing on the particular limb or location of the surgery with a waterproof marker "site marking" as a safeguard to having the appropriate surgery. The pre- surgical paperwork should also be carefully reviewed and corrected if necessary. Medication errors also claim lives due to the incorrect medication being administered or the incorrect dose given. Both can harm and often kill. It is extremely helpful to have a trusted family member or friend accompany the patient so that treatment and proposed treatment is monitored. Recently Actor Dennis Quaid has brought medical errors to the media's attention after his twin daughters were incorrectly given massive doses of Heparin a blood thinner that nearly killed them. His family's experience is chronicled in a 60 minutes segment attached below.

http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=3942114n

posted by Attorney W. Marc Hardesty at 3:15 AM