Doctors and emergency room personnel are failing to diagnose the Ebola virus in patients, which may lead to medical malpractice claims.
The Ebola virus scare appears to be making its way around the globe. According to NBC and other news sources from around the world, cases are popping up in the U.S., raising the alarm in medical centers across the country.
Unfortunately, doctors and other medical personnel are missing the telltale signs of the deadly virus. Earlier this fall, a man who had just returned from an Ebola-stricken country, visited an emergency room seeking medical help. Medical staff failed to properly diagnose his obvious symptoms and merely sent him home with antibiotics. Four days later, he was finally admitted to the same hospital but it was too late to save him and he died just days later.
Since his wrongful death, the hospital publicly apologized for misdiagnosing the man’s illness. The medical facility further admits that proper safeguards were not used by medical staff and an investigation is currently underway into why two of the man’s treating nurses have since contracted Ebola.
Medical malpractice lawsuits may help stop mistakes and bring relief
Personal injury attorneys in Georgia may differ about the likelihood of prevailing in a lawsuit against the hospital responsible for the man’s death. However, lawyer Mia Frieder, a partner at the Atlanta law firm of Hilley & Frieder, P.C., was quoted in the Daily Report, a legal source of news in the state of Georgia, as saying that the family “would have grounds for a lawsuit for failure to diagnose.”
Pointing to indications that the man was medically stable at the time he initially sought care, proof that the hospital deviated from the expected standard of care may be enough to win a medical malpractice lawsuit.
If a similar incident were to occur in Georgia, Freider pointed out a number of important steps she would take to prove that medical mistakes were made, including:
- Carefully reviewing emergency records regarding what the patient said and tests given
- Using a medical expert to show that a timely diagnosis could have saved the patient’s life
- Pointing out that reports of the dangers of Ebola was so prevalent that it is grossly negligent to fail to test for the virus
The risk of illness and death is so great with many diseases and certain injuries that medical mistakes cannot be forgiven.
Help for victims of medical mistakes
If you or a loved one suffers an injury or serious illness because of a misdiagnosis or another medical mistake, contact an experienced personal injury attorney. A Georgia lawyer knowledgeable about medical malpractice claims can help you obtain compensation for your losses such as medical treatment, pain and suffering, lost wages, future medical care and wrongful death.
From our offices in Atlanta, GA, we help workers throughout much of Georgia with their medical malpractice claims, including employees in the counties of Fulton, Cobb, Gwinnett, and DeKalb, as well as the cities of Norcross, Duluth, Macon, Athens, Marietta, Kennesaw, and Decatur. Contact us today at 404-233-6200.
Keywords: medical malpractice, personal injury, Ebola