Key Takeaways
- A poor medical outcome doesn't necessarily indicate malpractice. A claim may exist when a healthcare provider fails to meet the applicable standard of care and that failure injures you further.
- A surgical object left inside your body can provide direct evidence of a medical error, particularly when a retained sponge, gauze, needle, clamp, or instrument causes an injury or requires another procedure.
- Nerve damage can warrant investigation when it results from improper surgical technique, prolonged compression, patient positioning, or an anesthesia-related error rather than a recognized risk of treatment.
- Delayed diagnoses and untreated infections can support malpractice claims when earlier intervention would have prevented additional injury or improved the patient's medical outcome.
- Anesthesia and radiology errors can cause severe harm when providers fail to administer or monitor anesthesia appropriately, identify abnormalities on imaging, or communicate important findings.
- Patient falls and medication errors can indicate negligence when healthcare providers fail to use appropriate safety precautions or administer the wrong drug, dosage, or medication intended for another patient.
Most Georgia medical professionals work hard to provide quality care, but mistakes can happen. A doctor may miss signs of a serious illness. A surgeon may make a preventable mistake during a procedure. A nurse may administer the wrong medication. In some situations, a provider may fail to order testing, review results, or respond to warning signs that require immediate attention.
The effects of these mistakes can be serious and far-reaching. You may face ongoing medical treatment, higher medical expenses, lost income, or long-term health challenges. While some patients recognize a problem right away, others don't discover that a medical provider's actions contributed to their injuries until much later.
In this article, we'll review common signs of medical malpractice, explain why the injury itself doesn't establish negligence and why the connection between a medical error and the resulting injury is central to a malpractice claim. If you're questioning the care that you or a family member received, these examples can help you recognize when further investigation may be appropriate.
What Is Medical Malpractice?
Medical malpractice occurs when a healthcare professional or medical facility provides care that falls below the accepted standard of care and a patient suffers harm as a result. A poor outcome by itself doesn't mean malpractice occurred. Some conditions are difficult to diagnose, and some treatments carry known risks even when medical professionals act appropriately.
Liable parties may include:
- Physicians
- Surgeons
- Nurses
- Anesthesiologists
- Pharmacists
- Hospitals
- Clinics
- Urgent care centers
In some cases, multiple parties or facilities share responsibility for a patient's injuries.
Negligence can happen during any stage of your medical care. A healthcare professional may miss signs of a serious condition, make medication mistakes, or fail to respond to abnormal results from diagnostic scans or lab tests. Identifying the warning signs can help you recognize when an injury may be linked to negligent medical care rather than an unavoidable outcome.
How Do I Know if I Have a Malpractice Claim?
A serious injury or poor result after medical treatment doesn't establish malpractice on its own. There are risks inherent in certain types of medical care, and complications can happen even when treatment meets the accepted standard. The question is whether the healthcare provider exercised a reasonable degree of care and skill when treating you. A failure to meet that standard can support a malpractice claim when it causes an injury.
Postoperative infections are a common example. An infection can develop despite appropriate preventive measures and treatment. It’s different, however, if medical staff detect signs of infection and don’t respond appropriately or warning signs aren’t investigated further. In these cases, it becomes an issue of whether the infection should have been recognized, how it should have been treated, and how the delay affected the patient's condition.
Causation and Medical Malpractice
Even when the evidence establishes that a provider made a mistake, you must connect that error to your subsequent illness or injuries. In a delayed diagnosis case, for instance, the underlying illness may have harmed you regardless of the delay. In that case, the medical negligence claim would involve showing that an earlier diagnosis would have either prevented further injury or produced a better medical outcome.
Medical records can help establish what happened and when. Documentation like the following can outline your condition, what information was available to your medical team, and what actions were taken in response:
- Test results
- Imaging studies
- Physician notes
- Nursing records
- Medication records
- Operative reports
A qualified medical professional can then assess that evidence against the appropriate standard of care and determine if the provider's conduct caused your injury. O.C.G.A. § 9-11-9.1 generally calls for an affidavit from a qualified professional to accompany your malpractice complaint. This affidavit must identify at least one alleged negligent act or omission and state the basis for the allegation.
Signs You May Have a Medical Malpractice Claim
While some medical errors leave more obvious signs, others are apparent only after you receive further treatment or your records are reviewed. The signs below illustrate situations that may justify investigating the care you received.
1. A Surgical Object Was Left Inside Your Body
Retained objects can include sponges, gauze, needles, clamps, or other instruments. Any of them can cause infection, internal bleeding, organ damage, bowel obstruction, pain, and other injuries. Some patients need another surgery to remove the object and treat the resulting injury.
These types of errors may be discovered soon after surgery or months later, when persistent symptoms lead to imaging or another procedure. Surgical records, instrument and sponge counts, imaging studies, and records documenting the removal can help establish what happened and how the retained object affected your health.
Note: Georgia law has a separate rule for qualifying foreign objects left inside a patient’s body. Under O.C.G.A. § 9-3-72, if the object is discovered after the usual two-year statute of limitations has expired, you may have up to one year from the date of discovery to file a claim. This rule can extend the filing deadline, but it doesn’t shorten the standard two-year period. Speak with a Georgia medical malpractice attorney as soon as possible to determine which deadline applies.
2. You Suffered an Unexpected Nerve Injury
Nerve damage can occur when a nerve is cut, stretched, compressed, or injured by surgical instruments. It can also result from prolonged pressure caused by patient positioning or complications involving regional anesthesia, such as a nerve block. Symptoms can include numbness, tingling, burning pain, weakness, loss of sensation, or reduced use of the affected body part.
Some procedures do have a recognized risk of nerve damage. It’s different when the location or severity of the injury suggests improper surgical technique, inadequate positioning, prolonged compression, or another preventable error. If you develop unexplained neurological symptoms after surgery, your operative report, anesthesia records, positioning documentation, and postoperative evaluations can help determine how the injury occurred.
3. Your Condition Worsened Because of a Delayed Diagnosis
A delayed diagnosis can cause serious and even life-threatening injuries when your health worsens during the time it should have been treated. These claims can involve conditions like cancer, heart attacks, strokes, appendicitis, internal bleeding, blood clots, and serious infections. Common examples of errors include:
- Failing to order appropriate tests
- Overlooking abnormal results
- Misinterpreting symptoms
- Failing to follow up on findings that called for further evaluation
The delay itself isn't enough to establish malpractice. You also have to show that receiving the correct diagnosis at the appropriate time would have changed the outcome. Georgia courts have applied this causation requirement in misdiagnosis cases, including claims involving delayed treatment of an aortic dissection and appendicitis..
4. A Serious Infection Wasn't Diagnosed or Treated in Time
While infections can happen despite appropriate medical care, you may have a claim when your medical providers fail to recognize signs of infection or delay treatment after your condition calls for intervention. Warning signs can include:
- Fever
- Worsening pain
- Redness or swelling
- Abnormal laboratory results
- Wound drainage
- Symptoms associated with sepsis
Causation can be difficult in these cases because the infection itself may have caused some of the patient's injuries. You must therefore establish which harm resulted from the delay in diagnosis or treatment. Georgia courts have recognized this distinction in delayed-diagnosis cases, where the claimed injury can stem from the period during which the underlying condition went untreated.
5. You Suffered a Brain Injury or a Loved One Died From an Anesthesia Error
Anesthesia providers are responsible for administering medications and monitoring vital functions during a procedure. Errors involving dosage, airway management, intubation, or monitoring can deprive the brain of oxygen and lead to permanent brain damage or death. Georgia medical malpractice cases have involved patients who suffered severe brain injuries after complications interrupted their oxygen supply during anesthesia.
Warning signs of a potential anesthesia error include:
- An unexpected cardiac arrest
- Prolonged oxygen deprivation
- Difficulty restoring an airway
- Brain damage discovered after surgery
An investigation may examine the anesthesia record, medication dosages, oxygen levels, blood pressure readings, heart rate, ventilation data, and the medical team's response to signs of distress. The evidence must show that the provider failed to meet the applicable standard of care and that this failure caused or contributed to the patient's injury or death.
6. A Radiology Error Delayed Your Diagnosis
X-rays, CT scans, MRIs, and other imaging studies can reveal tumors, fractures, internal bleeding, infections, and other conditions that aren't apparent during a physical examination. A radiology error can occur when a provider misses an abnormality visible on the images, interprets a finding incorrectly, or fails to communicate an important result. Georgia malpractice cases have involved missed fractures and tumors visible on earlier imaging studies.
A missed finding can delay treatment and allow an injury or disease to progress. For example, an undetected fracture may worsen without proper stabilization, while a missed tumor can continue growing before treatment begins. A claim may also arise when an abnormal result is identified but isn't communicated to the patient or the appropriate treating provider. Georgia courts have treated the failure to communicate medical test results as an issue of professional negligence.
As with other diagnostic errors, the key question is what would have happened if the imaging had been interpreted and communicated correctly. The evidence must connect the radiology error to any injuries caused by the resulting delay.
7. You Fell or Were Dropped While Receiving Medical Care
Your medical condition, medications, mobility limitations, dizziness, sedation, or recent surgery may call for assistance when walking, getting out of bed, or transferring between a bed and wheelchair. Georgia courts have addressed malpractice claims involving failures to assess fall risks and implement appropriate precautions.
Similar concerns arise when a patient is dropped during a transfer or procedure. A claim may involve inadequate assistance, failure to follow established fall precautions, or disregard of an existing instruction to use bed rails or other safety measures. The resulting injuries can include fractures, head trauma, spinal injuries, and damage to a recent surgical site.
The relevant question is why the fall occurred and if the patient's condition called for precautions that weren't taken. Georgia courts have distinguished between professional negligence involving medical judgment and ordinary negligence involving patient safety, so the legal classification depends on the conduct at issue.
8. You Were Given the Wrong Medication or Dosage
Medication errors can occur when you receive a drug intended for another patient, the wrong medication, or an incorrect dose. Errors can also involve giving a drug through the wrong route or failing to account for medications you're already taking. Depending on the drug and dosage, the consequences can include dangerous changes in blood pressure, respiratory problems, neurological injuries, cardiac arrest, or death.
Georgia courts have addressed cases involving serious injuries after patients received incorrect medications or dosages. In Wellstar Health System, Inc. v. Painter, for example, a hospitalized patient received the wrong medication and subsequently went into cardiac arrest. The Georgia Court of Appeals concluded that the allegations concerning the nurse's decision to administer the medication involved professional negligence.
Prescription and medication administration records can help identify what was ordered, what you received, the dosage, and who administered it. That said, establishing a medication error is only one part of the claim. You must also connect the incorrect drug or dosage to the injury that followed.
What Should You Do if You Suspect Medical Malpractice?
If you suspect that a medical error caused your injury, seek treatment from another healthcare provider. Addressing your current condition is the priority, and subsequent treatment can document complications or injuries associated with the earlier care. You should also request copies of your medical records, including test results, imaging studies, operative reports, discharge instructions, and medication records.
You should also:
- Keep a written timeline of your symptoms, appointments, procedures, diagnoses, and conversations with healthcare providers.
- Save medical bills, receipts, patient portal messages, and other documents related to your treatment.
- Avoid discussing a potential claim with the healthcare provider's insurer or posting about it on social media before speaking with an attorney.
- Speak to a lawyer right away. Most Georgia medical malpractice claims are subject to a two-year statute of limitations, while a five-year statute of repose applies to many claims. Exceptions can change these deadlines, however, so the sooner you get legal advice, the better.
At The Champion Firm, we can obtain and review the relevant records, investigate the medical treatment you received, and work with qualified medical professionals to determine if the evidence supports a malpractice claim.
Speak With a Georgia Medical Malpractice Lawyer Today
If you believe a medical provider's actions left you injured, call a Georgia medical malpractice lawyer. At The Champion Firm, Personal Injury Attorneys, P.C., our team will review what happened, explain your legal rights, and assess the remedies that may be available to you. For more information or to schedule a free consultation, call 404-637-1709. Hablamos Español.
