Shocking Examples of Medical Malpractice

Everybody knows that doctors are capable of making medical errors when treating patients.

Not every instance constitutes malpractice, but when a doctor makes a mistake that harms a patient and fails to meet the accepted standard of care, patients have the right to file a malpractice lawsuit.

Some examples are particularly terrifying.

In 1999 Alexander Baez decided to get pec implants. As a former Mr. Mexico and Mr. Universe runner-up and a bodybuilder, Baez was concerned with his body and physical appearance. He went in for the surgery in Florida and when he awoke from surgery, Baez realized that instead of pec implants, he was given breast implants.

It became apparent that Reinaldo Silvestre had posed as a doctor by forging his credentials and had allegedly operated on two Florida women using using kitchen utensils. Police found Silvestre in 2004 in Belize. They think that over the course of a year he had treated hundreds of patients.

During her surgery where she had one of her eyes removed, Carol Weihrer experienced anesthesia awareness, the worst nightmare of many patients. Weihrer had been suffering from chronic pain in her right eye for some time. At the advice of her doctor and to relieve pain, Weihrer agreed that the best course of action to improve her quality of life would be to have her right eye removed.

The entire surgery took five and a half hours. But for the last two hours of the surgery Weihrer was conscious and awake, but still paralyzed. There are two major components in anesthesia that make it effective. One element puts the patient to sleep, and the other element paralyzes the patient’s body. In Carol Weihrer’s case the paralytic agent worked for the entirety of the surgery but the element keeping her unconscious stopped working after several hours, and so she was conscious for the remainder of the surgery but was unable to move.

She says she was aware of the doctor listening to disco music, and giving instructions to doctors or nurses in the room, as well as having to hear things like “cut deeper, pull harder”. The doctor came to realize that she was conscious but she was traumatized by being aware at the moment her eye was removed.

Carol Weihrer’s example is not an isolated incident. One estimation supposes that up to 42,000 people in the US alone experience anesthesia awareness every year.

Jesica Santillan, a 17 year old girl in need of a heart and double-lung transplant, died just 15 days after receiving the much-needed operation that was supposed to save her life.

These extremely complicated procedures are not always successful and there are many things that could go wrong. But Jesica’s doctors at Duke University Hospital sadly made a very basic mistake. They failed to make sure that Jesica’s blood type matched the blood type of the donor. It is extremely important that blood types are matched, because if they are not, the body is much more likely to reject the new organs, which is what happened in Jesica’s case.

It is perplexing that something like this could happen because there were more than a dozen people involved who should have checked. After realizing what happened the hospital then hid their error, only going public 11 days later when they began searching for another donor. She did eventually get another transplant but was declared brain dead and life support was discontinued.

St. Louis Medical Malpractice Attorneys

Not every medical error is as major as these examples. But when a patient is mistreated, harmed, injured, or dies in the course of treatment, that patient or a family member has the legal right to sue the doctor or hospital. If you or a loved one have experienced medical malpractice, contact a medical malpractice attorney as soon as possible.

The Zevan and Davidson Law Firm is an awarded St. Louis law firm with a well-earned reputation for taking on and winning complicated medical malpractice cases. To schedule a free and private consultation call Zevan and Davidson at (314) 588-7200 or fill out our online contact form.

photo credit: phalinn