05-07-2010

Medical malpractice – diagnostic omissions

For several months, the law firm has been representing a patient in a dispute with a hospital in Ostrzeszow.

The client ended up there as the victim of a traffic accident. Despite the reported history of lumbar back pain and tingling in the extremities, the medical staff did not perform a CT scan of the spine and only stopped at an X-ray. After several hours of hospitalization, the patient was discharged and allowed to travel to Poznan.

It was not until the Poznan hospital that a full diagnostic was performed and a fracture of two vertebrae in the lumbar region was found. According to the law firm’s lawyers, there was a medical malpractice that could have significantly worsened the client’s health, and certainly exposed him to great suffering.

In his response to the demand for payment, the head of the department stated, among other things, that it was the patient who insisted on going home quickly (even though the discharge was not made at the patient’s request and risk). Does such reasoning absolve the doctor from liability? This question will be answered by the court.