Introduction
People make mistakes and it is obvious that people forgive, however, when it deals with medical malpractice, the mistakes are forbidden, however, they still occur. Ybarra v. Spangard is a case study which deals with a specific situation when doctor’s mistake has lead to patient’s injury.
Clinical negligence is a very serious and one of the most complicated accusing as at one and the same time the fault of a person is difficult to achieve. Having considered the case study Ybarra v. Spangard, the form of negligence that best fits this case is going to be discussed along with the elements for a claim of negligence found there.
Which form of negligence best fits this case?
The duty of care is one of the clinical negligence which perfectly fits the situation.
One of the main reasons for this is the four elements which are included in its definition, which are as follows, “the medical professional had a DUTY OF CARE owed to the plaintiff”, “the medical professional BREACHED that DUTY OF CARE”, “the breach was both the ACTUAL and PROXIMATE CAUSE of the injury”, and “the injury resulted in DAMAGES to the plaintiff” (Negligence, 2009).
In our case, the plaintiff was injured, however, due to anesthesia he is unable to make sure who of the doctors was responsible for it. Being put at the operational table, doctors failed to follow whether the patient is appropriately comforted.
Due to anesthesia, a patient was unable to comfort himself as well as he was unable to say about some problems which made him feel pain. Therefore, the doctors failed to take care of a patient while they had such a duty.
Are all the elements for a claim of negligence found in the case? Identify each of the four Ds.
Before answering a question whether all the elements for a claim of negligence are found in the case or not, it is important to enumerate those elements. Duty, dereliction, direct cause and damages are elements for a claim of negligence (Lynch, Hancox, Happell, & Parker, 2009). Duty means the obligation of a person to take care over another one.
Doctors had to care for a patient and the inability of them to complete this task makes this element related to the case study. Dereliction of duty means that a doctor did not provided an expected duty of care.
This is also a correct statement as in this case doctors are responsible for patient’s welfare, but their actions and dereliction led to patient’s trauma. Doctors’ actions and their dereliction have led to the paralysis of a hand. Finally, damage to patient’s health was made.
Summary
The case under consideration dwells upon the medical negligence when a duty of care is violated. Having put a patient at the operation desk, no one of the doctors and nurses cared for comfortable and appropriate position of the patient’s body. As a result, a patient got a neck and shoulder injury. The operation was devoted to appendices, therefore, surgeon could not cause such problem.
Staying at the hospital a patient received treatment, however, it was useless. After the discharge from the hospital, pain increased and sooner a patient was diagnosed with paralysis of a hand (Ybarra v. Spangard, 1944). Therefore, the violation of the duty of care is the reason of doctors’ negligence.
Reference List
Lynch, L., Hancox, K., Happell, B., & Parker, J. (2009). Clinical Supervision for Nurses. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Negligence. (2009). Sitemason Vanderbilt. Web. Ybarra v. Spangard. (1944). 25 Cal.2d 486, 154 P.2d 687.