Failure to Monitor

Mary was a young mother of three children and suffered from chronic back pain. She was seeing a doctor for treatment and management of her pain and attempting to find ways to improve her situation.

Mary's doctor had her on a high opioid regime to alleviate her pain. After her last visit, Mary's doctor increased her pain medication and prescribed her Oxycodone SR to be taken with her other medication.

Oxycodone SR is a very strong pain killer. Its user should only take two a day maximum, and these two must be at least 12 hours apart from one another. With such serious narcotics, and without a Pain Management Specialist overseeing her use, Mary's doctor had a strict responsibility to monitor her patient and ensure she was taken her medication correctly.

When Mary's doctor prescribed her this serious medication, she vaguely instructed Mary to take two a day as needed and failed to monitor her use. With unclear directions, Mary took two pills six hours apart from one another. Reacting with the other medication she was taking, Mary experienced opioid toxicity, causing her heart to abruptly stop. She died that day leaving behind her family and three young children.

The above scenario is based on a true story and provides a great example of the harm that can come from failing to monitor a patient. Other cases include doctors not following up on test results or monitoring a patient after surgery. Whether this is a failure to monitor prescription narcotics or failure to monitor a patient recovering from surgery, the results can be devastating and deadly.

Unfortunately, there are situations when a doctor fails to monitor a patient’s treatment fully. This failure in medical care can bring about serious injury or illness and even death. There are numerous circumstances where a doctor will most often fail to monitor a patient's condition, these include:

• Failing to monitor a patient during surgery, i.e. proper management of anesthesia, verification of oxygen in the brain, and complete monitoring of patient’s health
• Failing to follow-up and review the results of any ordered tests
• Failing to monitor a patient's recovery, i.e. verifying the absence of internal bleeding, blood clots, infections, respiratory issues or heart problems
• Failing to analyze a patient's medical chart entirely, including confirming the proper medical tests and medicines have been administered to the patient.

Nursing homes are often associated with failure to monitor cases. All too often the elderly are left unattended or left to monitor their own medicine intake when they are no longer capable. Injuries range from slip and fall to sexual assault and rape to even broken bones, serious infection an d death, all due to failure to monitor a patient’s health and wellbeing under medical care.

Medical malpractice lawsuits result from a vast variety of negligent or careless mistakes from doctors, nurses, or a medical center. A failure to monitor can cause irreparable damage and future medical care that otherwise would have not occurred.

The most significant aspect of any medical malpractice claim is establishing the breach of duty that lead to the injury of the patient. To prove that the patient was injured due to a failure to monitor, the testimony of a professional medical witness will be required. An expert witness will be able to show that the doctor, nurse, or other hospital staff was negligent in a way that they did not properly monitor the patient as regularly or with as much attention as a reasonable healthcare professional would expect.

If you or a loved one has suffered an injury due to a failure to monitor, please call Moseley Collins. Moseley specializes in winning medical malpractice cases in the cities of Sacramento, San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles, and Palm Springs. He has over 40 years of experience and has recently won a medical malpractice case that resulted in the largest settlement of its kind in the history of California. Call Moseley today for help.

Moseley Collins
980 9th St, 16th Floor
Sacramento, CA 95814

Phone: (916) 444-4444

https://www.moseleycollins.com/