People who are sick or have a medical problem expect doctors to get to the bottom of it. Most patients believe that medical practitioners will be able to identify an illness and provide the appropriate treatment for it, but this does not always happen.
Doctors in Arizona and around the country are increasingly relying on surgical methods that involve the use of robots. While robotic surgery is supposed to make procedures less invasive, it can result in fatal injuries when something goes wrong. A recent study by researchers from MIT, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Rush University Medical Center found that there were 144 deaths and 1,391 injuries involving medical robots between 2000 and 2013.
Arizona residents may have heard about an especially egregious case of medical malpractice that occurred in Detroit. What makes the case even worse is the behavior of the practitioner involved in the case was intentional and affected 550 victims.
According to sources, a 50-year-old doctor had been prescribing chemotherapy treatment courses to patients who did not require it.
In a study conducted in May 2015, 61 percent of the respondents said that it took two years or more to obtain a correct diagnosis of their Lyme disease. Almost half said that they were misdiagnosed for 10 years or more while only 21 percent said that they were diagnosed within six months.
Arizona hospitals and health care professionals may work to avert medical mistakes that could result in damage to their patients. However, there are still incidences of errors, even from reputable professionals and facilities. Studies indicate that misdiagnosis is an issue in connection with approximately 15 percent of medical problems, making it important for both providers and patients to guard against such occurrences.
