WHEN PATIENTS ARE GIVEN THE WRONG BLOOD
When a patient needs a blood transfusion, medical professionals must act quickly and with absolute precision. If a patient is given the wrong blood product in a transfusion, the results are disastrous and often lead to death.
Reasons for these tragic errors include:
- Mislabeled blood products
- Incomplete or misfiled patient charts
- Failure of health care provider to accurately check a patient’s identity
- Failure of health care provider to note and respond to signs of error
- Insufficient staff training
THE EFFECTS OF BLOOD TRANSFUSION ERRORS
Errors may lead to transfusions of blood infected with AIDS or hepatitis. Patients can also receive a transfusion of the wrong blood type, or blood that was tainted because of improper storage. At the law offices of Friedman, Domiano & Smith, we represent victims—and the families of victims who died—of blood transfusion errors. In addition to winning award settlements for our clients, our litigation has led to policy changes in hospitals.