Medical Malpractice: Is Your Care Below Standard?

Medical Malpractice:

Is Your Care Below Standard?

Imagine yourself lying on an operating table, motionless, quiet. Above, you notice people standing over you. You try to speak but the words just cannot come out. Your arms feel as if they are plastered to the table. You begin to stand up but feel as if weights are strapped to your back and you are bound to the table. Suddenly you feel a sharp pain in your midsection. In and out, you see a surgeon slicing your body open with a scalpel. Every motion the masked person makes is as if you are being torn apart from the inside out. One would hope this would simply be a nightmare and they will wake up and everything will be fine. In this instance, this person will come to and realize that they had just gotten the surgery that they needed, while they were still conscious.

This is not a horror story meant to scare anyone, this has actually happened on a number of occasions. People have actually woken up during there own surgery to all of the pain and the agony that would be expected of such a procedure. The only problem with that situation is, they cannot do anything about it because they are in a temporary paralysis. This is the sort of thing that can go wrong, among many other things, during a routine medical procedure. Not all cases are nearly as extreme as the one described, while others can be much more.

Malpractice can be a difficult subject to understand. The word malpractice is used in many ways to describe different circumstances. The actual term negligence refers to the carelessness of a professional or an associate (Cazalas 17). Although each situation is looked upon by a case-by-case basis, there is a system in which carelessness is determined. Under the eyes of the law, there is a scale which measures whether or not a situation is considered to be carelessness or not. This scale is called the standard of care. The standard of care describes what a prudent person, who acts under circumstances that are similar to the ones in question, would do. This prudent person is nobody specific; it is just a fictional person made up by the legal system who is completely average in every way. This person is an average person who is equipped with the average skills and knowledge that pertains to this field of work, and also contai...

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...ith a situation. Obtaining informed consent from the patient, and written documentation also helps in certain situations. If proper paperwork is filled out then the medical professional can save oneself from being accused of any malpractice. The medical staff the professional chooses should be well aware of what they are doing, and trained specifically for the job they are to be performing. The professionals themselves should also maintain their education by continuing to study new information, so as to keep themselves in check.

Medical malpractice is a very serious issue. Although not always life threatening, situations involving wrongdoing in the medical field can be physically as well as emotionally distressful. Maintaining an above average standard of care can help keep medical professionals out of trouble. Making sure communication is kept between oneself and ones’ health care provider will help make a more secure environment while undergoing any sort of medical procedure. Medicine should not be feared, being more informed of the facts will help deal with any problems that one may have. The standard of care must be maintained, and as long as it is everyone will be better off.