Thirteen Hospitals Fined $850,000 for Medical Errors

Thirteen California hospitals were fined for medical negligence or errors that caused injury or death to patients. The California Department of Health slapped these hospitals with more than $850,000 in fines. Three of the hospitals were in Los Angeles County. The Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital was fined $50,000 because medical professionals overdosed a patient on an antibiotic, causing kidney failure. The patient had to undergo dialysis. The USC Medical Center was slapped with a $25,000 fine because doctors failed to remove a sponge after a patient had stomach surgery. Torrance Memorial Center also received a citation for a sponge that was left in a patient after surgery for esophageal cancer.
According to the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), more than 225,000 people die every year because of medical errors. In about half of these cases, the errors happened in an emergency room. There are about 12,000 deaths a year because of unnecessary surgery; another 80,000 because of infections contracted in hospitals, and about 7,000 because a medical professional made a mistake with medication.
Medical malpractice is when a doctor, nurse, hospital or other medical professional is reckless or negligent in their care resulting in injury to a patient. Medical professionals are trusted to provide a certain level of care to their patients and also treat patients efficiently and quickly. Medical negligence refers to an action, or in some cases, lack of action, on the part of a medical professional which directly injured or harmed a patient. This may include errors in treatment, surgical errors, improperly prescribing medication and failure to properly diagnose and treat a patient. In some cases, the hospitals themselves can be responsible for a patient’s injuries if the doctor, nurse, or medical professional is an employee of that facility and the employee was acting negligently.
Injuries sustained because of medical malpractice can range from minor to catastrophic. In some cases it can mean that the patient will have to undergo more unnecessary surgery to correct the error. Patients who were injured because of medical malpractice may be able to seek compensation to cover damages including, but not limited to, medical bills, lost wages and benefits, hospitalization, physical therapy, past and future pain and suffering, etc. A verdict of $43,940,000 was obtained for one of our clients for damages suffered after a hospital failed to diagnose fetal distress, which led to her baby’s permanent injuries including brain damage and cerebral palsy.
If you or a loved has been injured in New York as a result of medical negligence, the experienced New York personal injury attorneys at the Law Offices of Kenneth A. Wilhelm can provide you with more information about pursuing your legal rights. Please call our offices at 1-800-WORK-4-YOU (1-800-967-5496). We can also help with personal injury cases in New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, or Florida. If you have been seriously injured in any of the 50 U.S. states, please call us and we will try to help you with your case.
Other phone numbers for us are:
1-800-RADIO-LAW, 1-888-WYPADEK, OR 1-800-LAS-LEYES
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