Lawsuits Against Medical Professionals

Lawsuits against medical practitioners can cause traumatic stress reactions and, worse, the end of a professional career. For physicians who have spent considerable time and expense earning the right to practice medicine, an allegation of wrongdoing is a huge blow, with multiple reverberations for family, friends, and patients, and with the risk of losing one's practice. These types of lawsuits may be categorized as drug errors, birth-related injuries, surgical errors, or diagnostic errors. After a discussion of these errors, this entry presents a case illustration.

For medical practitioners, a lawsuit is a traumatic stressor that can cause irreparable harm and is comparable with what combat soldiers experience or, more precisely, what combat medics experience. Medics join the army to save people, as physicians take the Hippocratic ...