Medical malpractice occurred in 298 bariatric surgery patients, where only 140 of those patients met criteria to move forward with a suit.

How would you reply to this?

briefly summarize the case.

In this case, medical malpractice occurred in 298 bariatric surgery patients, where only 140 of those patients met criteria to move forward with a suit. Each of these cases were reviewed for pertinent medicolegal information relating to the procedure, claim, and trial (Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery, 2017). With the rapid rate of obesity occurring in the United States, it has been estimated that by 2030, half of the adult population would be obese and bariatric surgeries will be in much greater demand (Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery, 2017). Since there is and will continue to be a greater demand for bariatric surgeries, physicians are becoming much more negligent to patients needs, aside from surgery. In this case, death was reported in 74 patients and 57 patients were awarded a payout of $1,090,000.

2. Who is the plaintiff and defendant?

– The plaintiff’s in this case are the 140 bariatric patients and the defendants are the bariatric surgeons neglecting the patients postoperative care.

3. Why is the plaintiff seeking litigation?

– The plaintiffs are seeking litigation because they felt as though there was a delay in their diagnosis or managing of complications in their postoperative environment.

4. Assess the strength of the case by discussing the four essential elements that must be present in a negligence case (the 4 Ds).

– The four essential elements that must be present in a negligence case are: duty of care, deviation breach of duty, damages, and direct cause (Arnold, 2020). In this case, the duty of care definitely failed each of the patients when they completely neglected their postoperative care, creating major complications. Deviation of duty can definitely be proven in this case because if the nurses or physicians complied by their duties, then none of these patients would be suffering complications. Damages have also occurred in this case because patients will now have to pay damages out of their pockets to hire attorney’s, as well as the damages that occurred from their complications. Direct cause can be proven as well because these patients were following all instructions to a certain extent, because the physicians did not attend to them as needed.

5. Summarize what you learned from these findings.

– The most important detail that I’ve learned from these findings is how important the four Ds are to malpractice cases and how they are able to prove certain situations occurred or not.

6. How can you take this week’s discussion topic and apply it in the real world?

– It is extremely important to keep promises or duties that you make to individuals, especially in health care because negligence can occur at any given time. Also, applying the four Ds to your healthcare administration role could greatly help negligence from happening to individuals, keeping them healthier and safer.