If you believe you or a family member are a victim of medical malpractice, call Abels & Annes, P.C. These cases are almost always difficult. If you want to prevail in your claim, it is vitally important to work with attorneys who have the necessary experience. The Chicago Medical Malpractice Attorneys at Abels & Annes, P.C., have many years of experience handling personal injury lawsuits. They are here to help determine if you have a case.
Many people have heard of medical malpractice. You may usually associate it with very extreme errors in medical treatment. For example, performing an invasive surgical operation on the wrong patient. However, medical malpractice occurs in many less drastic forms. Further, a Chicago medical malpractice lawyer knows the results can be just as damaging or even fatal.
HealthGrades, a healthcare quality company, has released a study based upon 37 million medical records for the years 2000 through 2002. The company determined that up to 195,000 deaths per year are attributable to errors in medical treatment at U.S. hospitals.
And these are just the fatalities. This number does not include the many other injuries that can severely impair an individual’s health, enjoyment of life, and longevity. Unfortunately, these numbers cannot be verified absolutely. However, a report from the Department of Health and Human Services reaches a similar conclusion. It found that for patients utilizing Medicare, up to 180,000 deaths per year were at least partially attributable to errors in medical treatment.
Not every medical error is entirely preventable. For example, a patient may experience an unanticipated and unknown allergic reaction to an anesthetic or other medication. Or, an infection may develop during a surgery.
That being said, many errors are very preventable. In fact, a study published in 2000 from the Institute for Medicine, a non-profit body that operates under a congressional charter granted to the National Academy of Sciences, concluded that at least 44,000 deaths, and perhaps as many as 98,000 deaths, are attributable every year to preventable medical errors.
If these various estimates are accurate, preventable medical errors would be within the top ten leading causes of death in the United States—and perhaps as high as the third leading cause of death.