Exploring The Legal Process

When you become sick or injured, you have no choice but to trust your doctor to treat you properly. Unfortunately, doctors are human and they make mistakes. When doctors make mistakes they can seriously affect the health and even the life of their patients. If a doctor makes a mistake, you can file a medical malpractice lawsuit to seek a sum of money for damages. If you're interested to learn about some other medical malpractice cases, here are some of the most unbelievable incidents that have been reported.

Alexander Baez

The former Mr. Mexico and runner-up for Mr. Universe, Alexander Baez, was feel bad about his appearance despite his success. He found a cosmetic surgeon in Florida who would give him pectoral implants for a decent price and decided to go under the knife.

Unfortunately, when we woke from his anesthesia he discovered that his implants were not made for a man. He had breast implants—a c-cup to be exact. When the police investigated, they found that Doctor Reinaldo Silvestre was no doctor at all. Silvestre forged all of his medical credentials and treated hundreds of patients. Two women also came forward to report that he performed surgery on them with kitchen utensils, which led to disfigurement.

Willie King

In 1995, a man named Willie King had to get one of his feet removed due to diabetes. When he scheduled his surgery, the scheduler wrote down the wrong foot. After that, the blackboard and all of the paperwork listed the wrong foot for amputation. Due to the scheduling error, the doctor obviously removed the wrong foot, thinking it was the correct one.

This surgery happened in 1995 before surgeons began prepping patients before going under anesthesia. Many medical malpractice cases involving patients having the wrong operations made doctors begin writing on patients with surgical pens for the patient's approval.

Laurence Ball

A 31-year-old firefighter named Laurence Ball's life changed forever the day he was diagnosed with lung cancer. His team of doctors informed him that he would need one of his lungs removed before undergoing extensive chemotherapy treatments. It wasn't until after his surgery when the doctors discovered their life-altering error—Laurence was wrongly diagnosed.

Ball had a perfectly good lung removed for no reason at all. Now he can't work as a firefighter any longer or even walk up a flight of stairs since he is living with one lung. Ball wasn't offered compensation or even an apology so he decided to seek compensation through the court system with a medical malpractice lawsuit.

Milly Evans

In March 2001, Milly Evans was in distress while in utero. Her mother's midwife didn't properly monitor Milly's heartbeat, therefore didn't detect any complications. Due to Milly's birth injury, she was born cerebral palsy. The CP leaves Milly unable to walk or talk. She has to be in a wheel chair and needs around the clock care. Milly's mother sought compensation, and was awarded $13 million by London's High Court. The compensation helps the family deal with the high expenses involved in Milly's care.

Dr. Shipman

Many people have heard of Dr. Kevorkian. His British counterpart, Dr. Shipman has gone down in history as Britain's most prolific serial killer. The difference between Kevorkian and Shipman is that Dr. Shipman's patients weren't aware that they were going to die. An estimated 250 elderly patients died at the hands of Dr. Shipman. Dr. Shipman received a life sentence on January 31, 2000. He resided in prison for nearly four years before he took his own life while behind bars.

Many families of Dr. Shipman's victims filed medical malpractice and wrongful death lawsuits, making Dr. Shipman the target of more malpractice suits than any other doctor.

While most medical malpractice cases are accidents, the victims still deserve compensation. Doctors can't make mistakes because the results can be deadly. If a doctor has made a mistake caring for you that lead to serious injury, don't hesitate to go to sites online or call to contact a lawyer.