Acts of negligence by physicians can take many forms. In some cases we have seen in the Detroit area, it involves a misdiagnosis or a failure to diagnosis a serious and obvious condition. In other situations, it involves wrong-site surgery or a surgeon who leaves a medical instrument inside a patient.
And in a case described recently in newspaper reports, a young woman underwent an operation that might have been avoided if her doctor had met the applicable standard of care and tried alternative treatment methods before rushing to perform a hysterectomy on a health 24-year-old.
The West Virginia woman had given birth to a child just days prior to the hysterectomy and was experiencing continued bleeding. Instead of trying alternative treatments, her doctor showed “a reckless disregard to a risk of harm to the patient,” the judge wrote.
She can now no longer bear children, though before the hysterectomy she told the surgeon of her desire to have more kids. The judge said that damages include her loss of fertility, as well as the early onset of menopause, hormonal changes, marital problems and emotional pain.
The trial was held in federal court because the doctor was employed by a clinic receiving federal funding.
The judge said the woman’s injuries are “the result of the negligence” of the doctor.
The jurist noted that there were a number of alternative treatment methods available, most of which “would not have taken more than a few minutes each. Some would have taken only seconds to perform.”
Birth injuries can occur to either the child or the mother. In this case, the young woman’s future has been drastically altered by a negligent doctor.
If you have suffered damages because of physician or hospital negligence, you can speak with a Michigan medical malpractice attorney about your legal options.