MEDICAL MIX-UP COULD COST YOU YOUR LIFE
As a medical malpractice attorney, I appreciated an article recently posted on CNN.com encouraging patients to be proactive when receiving medical treatment in an effort to prevent medical errors. The article highlighted an unfortunate story involving a young pregnant woman who received a CAT scan of her abdomen when she was mistaken for another person with the same first name.
In an effort to reduce medical errors due to performing procedures and tests on the wrong person or body part, it is suggested that you do the following:
1. Identify yourself, your date of birth and the procedure you are getting to every doctor, nurse or technician who treats you.
2. Ask everyone who treats you to "Please check my identification bracelet."
3. Say: "Could you please look at my chart and tell me what procedure it states that I am having."
4. Tell your nurse that you want to mark up your surgical site with the surgeon present because if you mark it outside of the surgeon's presence and the surgeon does not know about the marking, then it may be pointless. Marking the site is an extra precaution to take to ensure that surgery is performed on the correct body part.
5. Speak up and if necessary, be impolite. Patients often nod their head or agree to what the nurses or doctors tell them in an effort to be polite. If something does not seem right, say something.
