When you went to the hospital for a minor outpatient procedure, you didn’t expect anything to go wrong. You were aware that the doctor knew you from a previous appointment and were confident that their records were accurate since you’d just called recently to confirm the procedure.
You were taken by surprise when the nurse called you by the wrong name in the waiting room, but you shrugged it off. After all, they work with many patients in a day. You just assumed that they had inadvertently confused your name with somebody else’s. Unfortunately, it was a much bigger error than you could have imagined.
You went into surgery on a Wednesday for a 45-minute operation, and you didn’t wake up fully until a few days later. When you realized how long it had been, you had no idea what was going on. You were told there were complications, but after demanding an explanation, you discovered that you’d been given a medication to which you were allergic. You had a serious reaction, and it took days to get you stabilized and allow your body time to heal. What was most frustrating was that you’d told your doctor of this allergy prior to the procedure. How could this have happened?
Medical errors can happen for any number of reasons, but mixing up patients is common. A nurse or doctor only has to pick up the wrong chart or go to the wrong room for everything to go wrong. That’s why it’s important to speak up if you’re called by the wrong name. Accuracy is a vital part of the medical profession and getting your name right is very important. If you’re hurt in a case like this, remember that you can hold the medical team responsible by filing a claim for damages.
