While we often associate our time in the hospital or medical center with physicians, we actually have much more contact with nurses. Here in Mississippi, I have helped several clients with personal injury cases that stemmed from nurses’ mistakes, negligence, and misconduct. Because this is such a common situation, I have written the following blog post to provide you with an overview of steps you should take if a nurse injures you.
If you or a loved one was injured or killed as a result of medical malpractice, you will need to have experienced counsel help you attain your fair share of compensation for your injury and recovery. Barrett Law has the experience to help you—contact us now at (800) 707-9577.
Not all injuries are compensable. That means that just because you were injured while under a nurse’s care, it does not mean that you will necessarily recover any compensation for your injury. For example, if you develop a medical condition that requires medication and a nurse administers the medication according to standard protocols, he or she will not likely not be liable if you subsequently have an allergic reaction to the medication if the allergy was previously unknown. To be negligent, a nurse must breach the standard of care due to you, the patient. That means that he or she must provide a standard of care that fails to meet medical industry standards. That failure can be due to several different reasons, which I will describe below.
As I mentioned above, “accidents” do happen. Unavoidable accents such as the previously unknown allergy discussed above are pure accidents that occur even though a nurse acts reasonably to meet the accepted standard of care.
“Negligence,” on the other hand, occurs when a nurse fails to meet a standard of care. Taking the above example, imagine that a nurse did not review your chart, and you had disclosed that you had an allergy to penicillin. The reasonable standard of care mandates that a nurse checks a patient’s chart before administering a drug; accordingly, his or her failure to notice your disclosed allergy would likely result in a successful negligence claim. This failure does not have to be intentional, but can simply be an omission that a reasonable nurse would not have made.
“Misconduct” involves voluntary actions on the part of nurses that violate the accepted standard of care. Unfortunately, many medical professionals self-medicate with drugs to deal with the demands of the medical workplace. The opioid crisis has caught many nurses in its net. For example, imagine that nurse comes to work while under the influence of either legal opioids or illegal drugs such as cocaine and misreads your chart. Imagine the nurse gives 10 milligrams of a drug instead of .10 milligrams, a dosage mixup that could result in death or serious bodily harm. That is undoubtedly negligence, but the decision to come to work under the influence was intentional, making the conduct more serious.
The types of nursing negligence I most commonly see are: Administering the wrong dosage of a drug; Hurting a patient with medical equipment; Failing to chart actions taken that affect a patient’s treatment; Failing to notify medical staff of critical changes in a patient’s physical or mental condition; Administering the incorrect drug.
What Should You Do If You or a Loved One Has Been Injured?
If a nurse’s negligence or misconduct injured you or a loved one, you should seek medical attention immediately and contact an experienced personal injury attorney. Barrett Law is experienced in holding medical professionals accountable for any harm they cause. You are entitled to your fair share of compensation for your pain and suffering, work absences, and trauma. Let experienced counsel take care of preserving medical records, attaining expert opinions, reviewing evidence, and dealing with the defendant’s attorneys. These are essential tasks that only a personal injury attorney can handle for you.
Call Barrett Law now, an experienced Mississippi personal injury law firm, to represent you if you have suffered a serious injury. Contact us now at (800) 707-9577.
