Medical Mistakes

 
Medical mistakes can change a patient’s life, including the family of that patient. Some medical mistakes lead to serious injury, and occasionally death. There are countless numbers of medical mistakes that affect a countless number of individuals and their families. I will focus on three medical mistakes that I believe to be the most dangerous in my mind, and deserve some attention. Medical mistakes do not get the attention that they deserve. With the medical mistakes that have already taken placed and caused damage or death, there should be ways to help patients, as well as doctors and nurses, prevent these mistakes.

One medical mistake is air bubbles in the blood. Air bubbles are caused when the hole in a patient's chest is not sealed airtight after a chest tube has been removed. The consequences of air bubbles are that they can get sucked into a wound and cut off blood supply to a patient's lungs, heart, kidneys and brain. According to a firm for medical malpractice cases, "air bubbles in the blood stream can be fatal" (Block O'Toole & Murphy, 2013 CZ Productions LLC). A way to prevent air bubbles is to ask how you, as a patient, should be positioned when the tube is being taken out. An example of a medical mistake with air bubbles in the blood, would be the case of Blake Fought, a 19 year old, "who asphyxiated and died because a nurse improperly removed an IV line" (2009 CBS Interactive Inc.).

Another medical mistake that is common, is waking up during surgery, also known as under-dose of anesthesia. The main consequence of under-dose anesthesia is that the brain styas awake while the muscles stay frozen. Not all, but most patients "may be able to feel everything, including pain" (Block O'Toole & Murphy, 2013 CZ Productions LLC). The best way to prevent under anesthesia, is to ask your surgeon if you will need to be put to sleep or whether a local anesthetic would work. An example of an under-dose of anesthesia, is in the case of Erin Cook....