It is amazing that something as simple as marking the body part to cut on can prevent surgeons and hospitals from harming patients.
However, it works. Hospitals have long needed to modernize and standardize their practices to ensure patient safety. A landmark 2000 article and study showed that a hundred thousand patients die each year from medical mistakes in hospitals. This does not even include those who are simply harmed, rather than killed, by medical errors.
By putting an “X” on the body part to be worked on, the hospital can prevent taking out the wrong kidney or amputating the wrong leg. It sounds crazy, but it has happened with some frequency. One way it happens is for the x-ray to simply be read upside down. Another way is for someone’s handwriting to make the word left seem like the word right.
Our firm recently handled a medical malpractice case where the hospital x-ray department sent a film by email to the radiologist in another town to read. The problem was the hospital sent the wrong persons x-ray. The radiologist read a different film than the one intended. The result was that the patient was severely injured.
One other change, which hospitals should make, is to require that their staff disclose medical errors promptly to patients and families. Most often, the clients that call our firm about medical malpractice cases are clients who were treated badly. It isn’t as much a factor of what was done wrong medically as the bad bedside manner and customer service by the doctors and hospitals.
Hopefully, the medical profession will improve their safety record and reduce the number of injuries caused by medical malpractice.
Rick Shapiro has practiced personal injury law for over 30 years in Virginia, North Carolina, and throughout the Southeastern United States. He is a Board-Certified Civil Trial Advocate by the National Board of Trial Advocacy (ABA Accredited) and has litigated injury cases throughout the eastern United States, including wrongful death, trucking, faulty products, railroad, and medical negligence claims. During his three-decade career, Shapiro has won client appeals before the VA Supreme Court, VA Court of Appeals, NC Supreme Court, SC Supreme Court, WV Supreme Court, TN Supreme Court, and three times before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, underscoring Shapiro’s trial achievements. In addition, he and his law firm have won settlements/verdicts in excess of $100 million. His success in and out of the courtroom is a big reason why he was named 2019 “Lawyer of the Year” in railroad law in U.S. News & World Report's Best Lawyers publication (Norfolk, VA area), and he has been named a “Best Lawyer” and “Super Lawyer” by those peer-reviewed organizations for multiple years. Rick was also named a “Leader in the Law, Class of 2022” by Virginia Lawyers Weekly (total of 33 statewide honorees consisting of lawyers and judges across Virginia). And in September 2023, Rick was selected as a recipient of the National Board of Trial Advocacy (NBTA) 2023 President’s Award. Although many nominations were submitted from across the country, Rick was just one of eight attorneys chosen by the prestigious National Board which certifies civil trial attorneys across the U.S. Rick was also recently named to Virginia Lawyers Weekly 2024 Virginia’s Go To Lawyers Medical Malpractice. The attorneys awarded this honor are nominated by their colleagues and chosen by a panel from the publication.
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