INJURY | PERSONAL INJURY LAWYER | PERSONAL INJURY ATTORNEY | INJURIES

The FDA alerted dental health professionals on December 12, 2007, about the risks associated with poorly maintained electrical dental handpieces, including third degree burns. This problem is not limited to dentistry, either. Rotary surgical handpieces have been linked to third degree burns in patients as well, and health care professionals were notified in July 2003.

The FDA alerted dental health professionals on December 12, 2007, about the risks associated with poorly maintained electrical dental handpieces, including third degree burns. This problem is not limited to dentistry, either. Rotary surgical handpieces have been linked to third degree burns in patients as well, and health care professionals were notified in July 2003.

Because negligence is often involved, medical malpractice victims are strongly urged to seek compensation. Mistakes made by medical professionals can be painful, irreversible, and even deadly. They represent an unfair betrayal of trust. Medical malpractice victims should seek legal help immediately.

Have you been hurt by medical malpractice?
Frequently caused by overworked doctors, misplaced paperwork, and other errors, medical malpractice can happen in the emergency room, at the dentist office, or in the laboratory. Frequent malpractice injuries include:

• Amputation of the wrong limb
  
• Cerebral palsy and brain injuries at birth
  
• Disfigurement
  
• Faulty blood transfusions
  
• Wrongful death

What are the results of medical malpractice?
Medical mistakes can be expensive and heartbreaking. In addition to medical expenses already incurred, victims have to pay for their new injury. They may be incapacitated indefinitely, losing employment and ability to care for themselves. Worst of all, malpractice can rob families of a parent, grandparent, or child.

What if you’ve been the victim of medical malpractice?
Because of the high incidence of negligence in medical malpractice, victims are urged to contact a legal professional. Many attorneys specialize in obtaining compensation for victims of medical malpractice and will give you a free case consultation.

Laboratory negligence occurs when technicians fail to accurately obtain test results due to unreasonable actions. This can result in misdiagnosis and failure to provide appropriate treatment. If a lab technician, doctor, or other hospital or laboratory employee acts unreasonably, it means they knowingly made mistakes (or didn’t correct mistakes) such as:

• hurrying results
• not checking for accuracy
• using inappropriate or faulty equipment
• not collecting samples accurately
• not conducting the test in an effective way
• losing test results or samples and getting patients’ results mixed up
• failing to accurately report the results to the doctor and/or patient
• not double-checking positive results that indicate disease

In legal terms, laboratories and their employees have a responsibility to take reasonable care when collecting, handling and testing patient samples.

Laboratory tests are done for hospitals, dentist offices and other healthcare providers. Laboratory negligence can sometimes be linked to dental malpractice, pediatric malpractice, plastic surgery malpractice and hospital negligence. Laboratories check patients’ blood, semen, skin, tissue, fluid, stool and other samples to test for illnesses including:

• cancer
• heart and other organ disease
• all viruses
• bacterial infections
• drug use

Almost any type of illness occurring in the human body can be tested in a laboratory setting. Returning accurate results is important for the diagnosis, care and treatment of patients. Without accurate results, patients can be left untreated, they can receive the wrong treatment, they might unknowingly infect others, and they might die.

Recent cases of laboratory negligence include:

·        A man who was told he had tuberculosis even though he was healthy. His doctor started him on tuberculosis medicine, which was costly and made him very sick.

·        A woman’s cancer went undiagnosed because of faulty testing practices. She later died even though the cancer could have been treated had it been caught earlier.

·        A woman gave birth to a baby with an illness that could have been treated had the laboratory not mixed up her sample with someone else’s.

If you or a loved one experiences laboratory negligence, contact a personal injury attorney who specializes in medical malpractice.

When doctors and other healthcare personnel fail to provide appropriate treatment, injuries can become worse, fail to heal, and result in serious injury and death. Failing to provide appropriate treatment includes:

• failing to accurately diagnose an illness or injury
• failing to refer you to a specialist
• failing to properly treat and medicate the illness or injury
• taking a cast or sling off too soon
• under medicating or overmedicating
• prescribing the wrong medication
• further injuring the patient

Failing to provide appropriate treatment can be medical malpractice if the doctor or other staff can be found negligent. Negligent means that the doctor didn’t perform to the best of his/her abilities, and instead acted in a rash, uncaring and ignorant manner. Being negligent means that although the doctor was aware of or capable of finding better treatments, better instruments and better medications, he/she chose to treat the patient with less suitable or blatantly incorrect or inadequate methods.

Failure to provide appropriate treatment can be devastating. For example, if a doctor fails to appropriately treat cancer, the cancer can worsen, resulting in the patient’s death. If a doctor fails to appropriately treat an infection, the infection can spread and worsen, leading to amputation or death. If a doctor fails to appropriately resuscitate or anesthetize a patient, the patient can suffer brain injury, fall into a coma, and die.

If your doctor fails to provide you with appropriate treatment, you should contact a personal injury lawyer as soon as possible.

Disfigurements can happen for any number of reasons, but the fact remains that they are always painful and costly to treat, and they often result in the person’s physical and mental anguish. There are some disfigurements that are caused because of genetics, including:

• acne
• cleft lip
• birthmarks
• eczema

Disfigurements can happen because of an accident, including:

• workplace injury
• construction accident
• falls
• bicycle accident
• car accident

Disfigurements can be caused by assault or other trauma, including:

• physical assault
• rape
• gunshot wounds
• intentional falls
• knife wounds

Disfigurements can also happen because of malpractice, including:

• dental malpractice
  • nerve damage
  • scars
  • unnecessary tooth extraction
  • unnecessary surgery
  • failed diagnosis or treatment
• infection
• medical malpractice
  • unnecessary amputations or amputation of the wrong limb
  • nerve damage
  • lacerations and scars
  • birth injuries
  • failed diagnosis or treatment
  • paralysis
  • infection
• plastic surgery malpractice
  • nerve damage
  • unnecessary amputation
  • infection
  • failed treatment
  • unrequested changes

Often, disfigurements are caused by someone else. In the case of an accident, someone else may be at fault. In cases of medical, dental or plastic surgery malpractice, the doctor, nurse, dentist, or other medical personnel are responsible. Contact a personal injury attorney to talk about your rights and seek compensation for your medical expenses, pain and suffering.

It’s scary going to the dentist, especially for children and people who were injured by a dentist before or had to go through a painful procedure.

Dental malpractice occurs when dentists or dental hygienists or other assistants practice dentistry in a negligent manner. This includes using faulty or damaged equipment and using poor dentistry methods. Dental malpractice results in patient injury or death. Injuries from dental malpractice include infections, nerve damage, unnecessary loss of teeth, pain and lacerations. Unfortunately, dental malpractice occurs too often.

• negligent dental work
• failure to diagnose or treat oral conditions
• delayed diagnosis or treatment of oral conditions
• intentional misconduct
• failure to obtain informed consent before beginning treatment

A lawsuit may be brought if the dentist or any type of dental assistant, including dental hygienists, dental assistants, dental lab technicians and even receptionists, violates an acceptable standard of dental care and acts in negligent or incompetent manner or acts with intentional misconduct. If you or a loved one is a victim of dental malpractice, contact a personal injury attorney immediately to have your questions answered.

• injury to the lips, teeth, gums, face, jaw and/or chin
• loss of taste
• nerve damage
• wrongful death
• failure to diagnose
• failure to treat
• failure to refer to a specialist
• infection
• injuries associated with unnecessary surgery or extraction
• lacerations or other painful wounds

Stay safe by making sure your dentist has all the necessary education and comes highly recommended by others. Dentistry education includes a minimum of two years of pre-dental college education, passing the Dental Admissions Test, four years of dental school including graduation from dental school, two to four years of postgraduate education and practice and in some states, dentists have to pass the state dentistry test. You can also consider working with a board-certified dentist. Board-certified dentists are held to the highest standards of dentistry. Visit www.abgd.org to find a board-certified dentist in your area.

However, remember that even if your dentist is well educated, highly-recommended and board certified, dental malpractice can happen.