What Makes a Hospital Negligence Case?

Have you ever watched a hospital drama on television like Grey’s Anatomy and thought to yourself, “This storyline is ridiculous because something like that would never happen in real life.” However, a recent incident might just change your mind.

A hospital in Ohio accidentally threw out a kidney that was supposed to be transplanted into a female patient. The woman needed a kidney transplant, and her brother was a perfect match. The siblings went to the University of Toledo Medical Center for the operations. After doctors successfully removed the brother’s kidney, but before they could transplant it into his sister, a nurse threw the perfectly good kidney away.  As a result of that nurse’s actions, the female patient had to undergo four additional surgeries, years of additional dialysis, and the kidney she ultimately received was not a perfect match like her brother’s would have been.

In addition to increasing your anxiety level the next time you step foot in a hospital, this incident also might have you wondering about who is at fault under these circumstances, and whether the patient can sue the hospital for negligence.

Generally, hospitals are liable for improper care rendered by their employees. Hospital employees often include paramedics, nurses and medical technicians.  Accordingly, hospitals would likely be responsible for job related negligent acts by those employees. Often, the negligence is due to miscommunication among the various hospital employees and their departments.

Doctors are usually not considered hospital employees and hospitals are generally not responsible for mistakes committed by doctors. In the incident outlined above, the patient sued the hospital for the nurse’s alleged negligence in throwing away the perfectly good kidney.

If you think that you may have a claim for hospital negligence, you should call an experienced Atlanta personal injury law firm today to discuss the facts of your case and receive advice about how best to proceed.