Nurses are like any medical professional in that they have been carefully trained to fulfill an important role. However, they may make a mistake – such as accidentally switching patient cards – that causes a person to get injured. In this situation, malpractice has occurred – but who is to blame? Often, this situation is more complex and hard to suss out than it may seem.
Nurses May Causes Some Misdiagnoses
A nurse is often the eyes, ears, and hands of many doctors. That's because they spend more time with patients than the doctors and must keep track of how they are progressing. Unfortunately, nurses may be heavily overworked or get confused and end up swapping patient information between two or more individuals. When this happens, many different problems could occur that could be potentially lethal.
For example, someone could get the wrong medication and end up experiencing adverse reactions. They may even get a medication to which they are allergic, which could be potentially deadly. And in extreme cases, a patient may end up getting the wrong procedure or even a surgery that they don't need. This type of medical malpractice is often quite complex because liability takes on many layers when nurses are involved.
Liability May Be Complex
When a nurse accidentally swaps patient information and causes an injury, the hospital may be at fault for the injury and not the nurse. That's because the hospital not only hired the nurse but trained them to do their duties. Therefore, ultimately, the hospital is typically liable because they are legally responsible for what their nurse does. As a result, the nurse is not likely to be sued by the hospital instead.
However, this situation is more complex because this injury cannot occur without negligence from the attending physician. That's because they had to read the cards for the patients and not notice the mistake caused by their nurse. Most doctors should be capable of spotting swapped patient information quite quickly. Failure to do so means they likely did not perform their due diligence in preventing such problems from occurring.
Therefore, the doctor may end up being the one sued. The complications of pursuing this type of case make a medical malpractice lawyer an essential tool. They can help a person better understand how the nurse and the hospital injured them and can ensure that their case is strongly presented and more likely to be won with the evidence presented.
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