Military Medical Malpractice

Malpractice or professional wrongdoings that results in injury or damage, has been around since man embraced industry and institutions and hospitals, being a part of all the establishments is no exception as well. A huge problem in today’s world, medical malpractice is a phenomenon that often people overlook, even when the number of lives claimed approach 80,000 in count. And that is the number of people who die in the United States every year (source: "Patients, Doctors and Lawyers: Medical Injury, Malpractice Litigation, and Patient Compensation in New York," publisher - Harvard Medical Practice Study in 1990). One may raise question regarding the steps that had been taken and may wonder why it’s not being opposed, but fact remains that medical malpractice is a discreet affair and people seldom bother reporting. But what hurts more is the fact that even the military, with its strict rules and guidelines, also falls a victim to this disgraceful phenomenon called medical malpractice.

One of the reasons behind the affair being discreet is the increased cost of health care posed by the current American medical malpractice litigation system, which stands as a bar for all Americans to avail proper medical treatment. But on the other hand, those who like to defend the current system claim that there is virtually no frivolous medical malpractice litigation, which is, of course due to the large sums of money required to litigate even minor malpractice claims.

A fact that often physicians tend to forget is that patients getting treated at any military or veterans facilities hold equal rights to avail the same high-quality care that any civilian facility would deliver. Disrespecting the rights shall make the government financially liable for the inflicted injury and damage and compensation can be claimed if the phenomenon matches the following criteria:

• A newborn, delivered at a military hospital, suffers brain damage or nerve damage due to improper delivery procedures.
• A veteran being under the regular care of a VA facility falls victim to a preventable complication of diabetes. Diabetic blindness also applies, since it shows up due to a failure on the medic teams part in providing proper testing in a regular basis.
• A spouse of a military service person suffering from injuries due to poor hospital condition or improper clinic care.

In case a person suffers from a serious, permanent injury caused due to the negligence or malpractice of a military physician, there are several lawyers who provide free consultations to help determine if a valid claim can be made against a medical negligence case.

But the real problem regarding military medical malpractice is not the amount of money involved; it is the terrible physical and emotional damage that the innocent patients suffer due to the reluctance of careless or incompetent medical personnel. The recent times have proposed certain measures to stop military medical malpractice on a national level, out of which, a campaign to roll back the rights of the sufferers or the injured patients won the accolades of millions.