It is common for every person to make mistakes. Only those who do nothing make no mistakes. But when we're talking about about doctors, then a mistake can cost a person’s life. Unfortunately, no one is immune from this, especially when it comes to serious surgical interventions. But we will not touch on severe cases, but will talk about the most common mistakes of otolaryngologists. Be on your guard, because it is possible that the ENT will make similar mistakes to you.

Insufficient diagnosis

A good doctor always pays due attention to diagnosis. If at your appointment you notice that the ENT specialist barely glanced at your throat and is already prescribing medications for you, then most likely this is an unscrupulous specialist. In such cases, doctors tend to rely on the most common cases and prescribe standard medications. This is one of the most common mistakes doctors, which often results in complications or prolongation of the pathological process.

We often encounter situations where the doctor simply does not know some forms of the disease, which automatically leads to errors in prescribing a treatment regimen. Mistakes are also made when taking anamnesis, when the doctor does not take into account important features diseases and health conditions of the patient.

Punctures maxillary sinuses when they are not needed

Antibiotics

Often, when patients turn to ENT with purulent sore throats, then the doctor prescribes antibiotics for them without proper examination wide range actions. Sometimes this leads to dire consequences, since an incorrectly prescribed antibacterial therapy regimen can lead to a sore throat smoothly progressing to chronic tonsillitis.

Before prescribing antibiotics, the doctor must identify the pathological pathogen and prescribe the antibiotic that will best deal with this particular microbe.

Doctors often prescribe when there is absolutely no need to prescribe them. In Europe and the USA, everything is strict with antibiotics, and every doctor clearly knows in which cases he needs to prescribe them to a patient and in which cases he does not. We do not yet have uniform treatment protocols that every doctor must follow, and different specialists treat the same disease “in their own way,” which is unacceptable according to the canons of modern evidence-based medicine.

Arkady Galanin

Medical errors are the category of mistakes, the results of which people perceive most painfully. How can you justify a loss as a mistake? human life? But precisely because we are all living people, sometimes such cases happen.

Medical errors in America alone lead to more than 250 thousand deaths annually, which is about 9.5% of total mortality.

1. You can’t forget everything to remember - put a comma

The most common medical error is surgical supplies forgotten and sewn inside the patient. Such an error, innocent at first glance, can lead to an absolutely disastrous outcome. Therefore, the operating room always maintains total control over all equipment, including every thread or napkin. But even with such control, there are cases of oversight and negligence of health workers. Thus, in Dopropolye, a twenty-centimeter clamp was forgotten inside a patient during an operation to remove the appendix. Before this thing was discovered and removed, the man lived with it for 5 years.

2. Sew it and forget it

Doctors from Moscow had a much worse result. TO small intestine a rather large napkin was accidentally sewn on, which led to fatal outcome immediately after surgery.

3. The doctor overdid it

Many mistakes happen due to inexperience. But how can you call an inexperienced manager? surgical department from the Novosibirsk region. Doing simple operation to remove the appendix, he managed to cut iliac artery, which immediately led to the death of a person from heavy bleeding.

4. Caught, but not a thief

Escaped from an Australian psychiatric hospital violent patient. The police immediately rushed to search. The caught patient was immediately taken back to the clinic in handcuffs. There, having dressed him in a straitjacket, which was more familiar to such places, the doctors heartily treated the fugitive with psychotropic drugs. And only after some time the poor fellow managed to emerge from his drugged state and explain to his tormentors that they had caught the wrong one. The victim was an absolutely healthy and completely stranger man. Everything ended well, if you don’t take into account the fact that the “psycho” spent some time under cleansing drips.

5. Dad can do anything

Dad may even, due to someone's mistake, not become a dad. This is exactly what happened in a New York clinic artificial insemination. Parents suspected something was wrong immediately after the birth of the child. The baby was absolutely different from her father, namely, unlike her parents, she was dark-skinned. As it turned out, as a result of an investigation and DNA test carried out at the clinic, the test tubes were simply mixed up with the biomaterial. As a result, the father of the long-awaited daughter became a complete stranger. If we do not take into account the moral and social aspect problems, we can say that everything also turned out more or less well.

6. The Toothpick Doctor

An incredible story happened to a British army soldier, 25-year-old Alison Diver. While their unit was in Germany, Alison broke her two front teeth. For unknown reasons, she turned not to a military dentist, but to an unfamiliar civilian doctor. Because local anesthesia did not affect her, she agreed to the general one. Imagine Alison’s surprise when, after waking up, she did not find a doctor, but found a bag with all her teeth near her. The reasons that prompted the careless dentist to do such an act remained unknown. The young girl had to spend a lot of time and effort on complete prosthetics oral cavity.

7. Left – hay, right – straw

It would probably be a good idea for a surgeon in Tampa, Florida to use this simple rule. Having forgotten his basic knowledge, he managed to confuse and amputate 52-year-old patient Willie King's left leg instead of his right leg. The scandal could not be hushed up, and the clinic and the surgeon lost more than a million dollars, giving the money as compensation to the patient.

8. The doctor or the doctor needed an eye and an eye

As in the previous case, we'll talk about basic inattention. In 1892 ten year old boy Thomas Stewart, while playing with a knife, injured one eye, as a result of which he lost part of his vision. The doctor helped him become completely blind. Considering that the damaged eye needed to be removed, he mistakenly removed the boy’s absolutely healthy organ. We can only guess what kind of punishment doctors suffered for their mistakes more than a hundred years ago.

9. Radiation and treatment

A patient suffering from tongue cancer suffered even greater misfortune. Jerome Parks - that was the name of the patient - for several days, mistakenly received radiation aimed at others healthy organs, in particular on the brain. The consequence of this was the complete loss of hearing and vision of the patient. The unbearable torment of the unfortunate man was alleviated only by death.

10. Disinfected patient

Also fatal was the mistake of nurse Virginia Mason. She, having inattentively read the inscription on the package, gave the patient an injection disinfectant solution. Mary McClinton, 69, did not survive such negligence.

11. Lungs instead of a stomach

As sad as it is, this case is also fatal. 79-year-old patient from San Francisco Eugene Rigs suffered from a disease that did not allow him to eat properly through the esophagus. They planned to administer food to him through a special probe, which was supposed to pass through the esophagus. But the probe was mistakenly inserted not into the esophagus, but into the trachea, that is, into the lungs. Not only was the probe already in the way normal breathing, so food also began to enter the lungs. The error was discovered fairly quickly. Eugene and the doctors tried to cope with removing the remaining foreign mass from the lungs for several more months. But he still lost this fight for life.

12. A nervous doctor is worse than a medical error.

36-year-old Nel Radonescu from Romania had to undergo planned surgery to correct testicular pathology. But Dr. Naum Chomu made his own adjustments to the operation. The doctor's hot temper played a cruel joke on him. Having accidentally touched the urethra during an operation, the doctor became so angry that he cut off the patient’s genital organ. The doctor was able to calm down only by cutting the organ into pieces. It is predictable that this surgeon was forever deprived of his medical license through the court and was obliged to pay for the operation to restore the mutilated organ. In this case, part of the skin for the operation was taken from the hand of an unbalanced doctor.

13. Boy or girl – it doesn’t matter, the main thing is that the person is good

And finally, here are the most harmless medical errors. Each mother can probably tell several of them. These are classic mistakes when determining the sex of an unborn child using an ultrasound. Thus, one doctor promised a boy by showing a large “genital tubercle” on the screen (a definition probably understandable only to this doctor). Another, at 22 weeks of pregnancy, again on a computer monitor, clearly saw the scrotum and proudly showed it to his parents. As you can guess, in both cases girls were born. It would seem that the mistake was harmless, but it was precisely this kind of medical negligence that almost cost the lives of two Chinese citizens. Xianliang Shen, having just become the father of an unwanted daughter, beat his poor wife half to death and carried out an armed attack on the doctor who promised a son.

You can accept such excuses for medical errors as fatigue, inexperience, accidental circumstances, inattention and many other traits inherent in a living person. But no excuse will be so significant as to make up for the loss of health or relieve the pain of losing a loved one.

When you go to doctors, you hope that they won’t make a mistake. Meanwhile, these are the most ordinary people who, like everyone else, make mistakes in their work. But the consequences are quite terrible and their price is much higher. A person may ultimately lose his health, or even his life.

Amputation of a healthy limb? Introduction of a foreign drug instead of a medicine? These are not horror stories and gossip at all, but real cases.

IN medical practice There are things that you don’t immediately believe. At the same time, even the most highly qualified specialists in expensive and advanced clinics make mistakes. Let's talk about the most terrible medical errors.

Another leg. Few people can imagine that an experienced doctor would suddenly confuse left and right. But this is exactly what happened to a surgeon from Tampa, Florida. In 1995, during an operation he had to amputate right leg to his 52-year-old patient Willie King. When he woke up after anesthesia, he discovered that his sore limb was in place, but his left one was missing! They tried to console the patient with the fact that she, too, was unwell and would eventually be amputated anyway. King sued the hospital, won the case and received 900 thousand dollars in compensation from the clinic itself and 250 thousand from the inattentive doctor. In addition, the surgeon was deprived of his license for six months.

Wrong eye. This terrible doctor's mistake happened 120 years ago. In 1892, 10-year-old Thomas Stewart lost an eye in an accident. The boy accidentally stumbled upon a knife, which caused partial loss of vision. Doctor Alexander Proudfoot was called to help and quickly decided that the damaged eye needed to be urgently removed. Upon completion of this operation, the surgeon suddenly discovered that instead of a diseased eye, he had removed a healthy one.

Incorrect exposure. Radiation should not necessarily be considered harmful. Of course, it often harms health, leading to death. However, medicine also uses radiation to treat oncological diseases. But, like any other medicine, it must be used extremely carefully and in the right doses. Patient Jerome Parks was unlucky with radiation. He was diagnosed with tongue cancer, but the computer gave the wrong direction for radiation. As a result, the patient's healthy neck and brain stem were irradiated. The “treatment” lasted three days. As a result, the patient quickly lost his vision, hearing, and ability to swallow. When the error was discovered, no one could save Jerome, and he soon died.

Disinfectant instead of medicine. This story is another reason to read the inscriptions on medicine labels. In one medical center Virginia Mason did not follow this rule as often as she did. As a result, patient Mary McClinton was injected not with medicine, but with a disinfectant medical instruments. This caused the death of a 69-year-old woman, and the hospital became much stricter about the designation and sorting of medications.

Forgotten napkin. Stories of things forgotten in the womb of a patient, unfortunately, are not so rare for doctors. In 2007, Indian woman Sabnam Praveen experienced a joyful event - her son was born. A child was born as a result caesarean section. However, the joy did not last long; the woman soon felt unwell. Sabnam began to complain of abdominal pain. Doctors for three whole years could not understand the cause of the patient’s illness. In the end she ended up on operating table at Chattisgarh Institute of Medicine. It turned out that the surgeon who delivered the baby was very inattentive - he forgot a napkin in the patient’s stomach. It remains unclear in history whether the poor woman received any financial compensation. But Donald Church managed to earn 97 thousand dollars from the doctors’ mistake. A similar story happened to him. When he was operated on in 2000 at the Washington Medical Center, a 31-centimeter long surgical instrument was “forgotten” in his abdomen.

Food in the lungs. An elderly 79-year-old patient at a San Francisco clinic, Eugene Rigs, suffered from diverticular disease. He could not even imagine that he would die in hospital not because of this disease, but because of the monstrous negligence of the doctors. Eugene's illness prevented him from eating enough naturally. Doctors decided that food could be delivered to the patient’s stomach through a special tube. However, it was entered incorrectly. As a result, food began to flow not into the patient’s stomach, but into his lungs. The error was quickly discovered, but it was impossible to correct the consequences. A few months later, Rigs died due to complications. His wife sued the government, because according to US law, claims cannot be brought against hospitals and military doctors.

Wrong father. Married couple, Thomas and Nancy Andrews were unable to conceive a second child naturally for a long time. That is why they turned to the Center reproductive medicine in New York. There the couple was offered IVF, in vitro fertilization, which implies artificial conception in a test tube. Soon long-awaited pregnancy and really came. The couple were in seventh heaven. But when the child was born, the parents were quite surprised. The girl, named Jessica, had much darker skin and hair than her father and mother. It turned out that this phenomenon was not a whim of nature at all, but a mistake by doctors. This was confirmed by a DNA test, which showed that Thomas Andrews was not the biological father of the child, but some other man. His sperm was mistakenly used for artificial insemination.

Evil doctor. There is plenty of evidence that it is better not to anger doctors. Romanian Nel Radonescu was not lucky, he had to deal with nervous doctor. A 36-year-old man was sent for surgery to correct abnormal testicular structure. And due to a medical error, he was left without a penis. At the same time, Dr. Naum Chomu did not confuse the penis with the testicles. It’s just that during the operation he accidentally touched the patient’s urethra, which drove him crazy. In a rage, the doctor cut off his patient's penis, and also cut it into small pieces. The unfortunate patient was forced to sue. The authorities decided to oblige Choma to pay for the patient’s operation to restore his penis using skin from his arm. Moreover, the nervous doctor was deprived medical license and paid for the moral damages of his injured patient.

The concept of medical error in Russian legislation still does not have a precise definition. The same situation is observed in many other countries. At the legislative level, such an act can be proven, and the punishment depends on the specific situation.

Definition of medical error

Medical error is a situation where a doctor makes a mistake in the course of his work. The misconception is not malicious, but it leads to a deterioration in the patient’s health or death.

Medical error does not necessarily occur due to medical worker. The reason may be a lack of quality equipment for diagnosis or treatment.

Often the root cause of medical error is a lack of knowledge, experience and qualifications, as well as outdated techniques (possibly personal rejection of innovations).

Types of medical errors

Because medical error precise definition is not indicated, the classification should be considered conditional:

1. Diagnostic error. This option appears more often than others and means an incorrect diagnosis - this applies not only to the disease, but also to its complications.
2. Treatment and tactical error. As a rule, it is allowed due to a diagnostic error. This group includes several options: incorrect prescription or provision of medication, incorrectly selected therapy, incorrect prescription or implementation of preventive measures.
3. Technical error. Usually it consists of an incorrectly filled medical document. This could be: an incorrectly recorded measurement, an incomplete record, an inaccurate statement.
4. Organizational error. Indicates errors medical care in terms of organization. Often this concerns problems with recording, paperwork, and the lack of conditions for the functioning of a service.
5. Deontological error. This issue is about ethics. The problem lies in the specialist’s behavior towards the patient, his relative, and lower-ranking personnel.
6. Pharmaceutical error. Indicates error pharmaceutical company, as a result of which indications, contraindications or interactions with other drugs are incorrectly indicated.
7. Errors caused by not working medical equipment, technology or irregularities in the care delivery system.

Responsibility and punishment

Legal liability for medical malpractice can be civil or criminal.

Civil liability

This option means that the patient can receive reimbursement for several items:

• service costs;
• the amount spent on care required due to medical error;
• purchase of special transport;
• amount spent on medicines;
• costs for sanitary-resort therapy;
• compensation for lost income;
• costs of forced preparation for another profession.

Institutions are usually brought to civil liability, and employees face disciplinary and financial punishment. At the civil legal level, liability is reflected in the following sources:

• Civil code;
• Law “On Protection of Consumer Rights” (Articles 14-17);
• Federal Law “On the fundamentals of protecting the health of citizens in the Russian Federation.”

Criminal liability and punishment

They are brought to such liability for medical error in situations where a specialist caused harm. If the quality is poor medical care did no harm, then criminal liability it can't be.

The Criminal Code of the Russian Federation does not provide for the exact concept of medical error, but there are several approximate options when a specialist acted due to negligence:

• Article 109. If a specialist incorrectly performed his duties resulting in death, then he will be subject to restriction of freedom for 3 years ( maximum term) or its deprivation. An alternative to this could be correctional activities. The specialist is deprived of the right to hold a position (including activities) in this field.
• Article 118. Serious harm to health - a specialist is deprived of liberty for no longer than a year, or punished with forced labor. Activity and position may be prohibited for up to 3 years. Another punishment option is limited freedom to 4 years.
• Article 122. If a doctor performed his duties incorrectly and this resulted in the patient becoming infected with HIV, then the medical worker will face prison for up to 5 years (they may be replaced by forced labor). The ban on activities and positions is given for up to 3 years.
• Article 123. When a doctor, contrary to the law, artificially terminated a pregnancy, thereby causing grave harm to the patient, including death, he may be imprisoned for up to 5 years (replacement with forced labor is possible). Removal from office and prohibition of activities is given for up to 3 years.
• Article 124. When assistance was not provided contrary to obligations (exception - good reason), then two options are possible:

– harm moderate severity– the specialist will be punished with a fine (maximum 40,000 rubles or the income of the victim), up to 360 hours compulsory work, arrest for up to 4 months;

– grievous harm, death – the punishment is up to 4 years in prison (forced labor), while a ban on position and activity is possible for up to 3 years.

• Article 235. If a person carries out activities in the field of medicine or pharmaceuticals without a license, then the harm caused entails a fine of up to 120 thousand rubles (or the amount of the victim’s income), forced labor or restriction of freedom for up to 3 years. If the death of the patient ensues, the punishment is imprisonment for up to 5 years (can be replaced by forced labor).

Medical malpractice should not be confused with negligence. The second concept is considered by the Criminal Code in Article 293.

How to prove it?

To prove an error, you need to have certain documents, including:

• medical record (must be an evidentiary record);
• test results;
• examination results (copies are possible);
• a check or receipt for payment for services rendered or purchase of a prescribed drug.

Need to make copies collected documents and reassure them. For proof purposes, it is better to have witnesses.

You can file a complaint about a medical error in several instances. The choice depends on what result you want to achieve:

• If you need to achieve disciplinary action, then it is enough to contact the manager of the institution. He may resort to a reprimand, deduction from salary, fine or deprivation of bonus.
• If you want to punish not only a doctor, but also an institution, then you should contact insurance company. After consideration of the case and examination, the institution faces a fine.
• To receive compensation you must go to court. You will need to file a claim and provide evidence.
• To initiate a criminal case, you need to contact the prosecutor's office. The proceedings are usually long, but if there is evidence, they bring the desired result.

Statistics and examples of medical errors in Russia

According to statistics for 2015, about 900 people suffered in Russia due to doctors’ errors. At the same time, more than 700 people died (317 of them were children). Statistics for the first half of 2016 indicate 352 deaths, including 142 children.

In the first half of 2016 alone, 2,500 thousand reports of medical errors were left with the Investigative Committee. As a result, more than 400 criminal cases were initiated.

There are many examples of medical errors across Russia. Here are some of them:

• In the Primorsky Territory, a doctor refused to admit a patient to hospitalization, which resulted in his death. The punishment in accordance with Article 124 of the Civil Code was a suspended sentence of 2 years.
• At the Moscow Research Institute of Eye Diseases named after. Helmholtz affected 9 patients at once. After injections with one drug, they became blind.
• In Chelyabinsk Hospital No. 2, an 11-year-old girl was treated for almost 2 weeks, but the diagnosis was incorrect. A timely ultrasound would correct the error. The girl was saved, but in another hospital - her appendix was removed. A criminal case was opened only after the intervention of lawyer Bastrykin, so the investigators will also have to answer.
• A pensioner died in Zhukovsky near Moscow. IN diagnostic center he underwent an MRI, which is prohibited if a man has a pacemaker implanted. The patient had a statement confirming its presence.

Video about medical errors

Watch also the program with active discussion by experts actual problem mistakes made by doctors and answers to many troubling questions:

There are many cases of medical errors in our country. They often end with serious consequences, including the death of patients. In case of a medical error, it is important to collect the necessary evidence and submit it to the appropriate authority. Such acts must be punished.

Get a lawyer's answer in 5 minutes

It’s not uncommon for yesterday’s students to continue to cheat.” independent work”, for which they were not prepared, from a more experienced comrade.

A doctor at a commercial clinic takes money for a service that is provided improperly. And the clinic specialist does not treat according to the protocol, simply because he does not have the necessary technical means and reagents. Sometimes such violations end tragically. What to do? How to hold a doctor accountable?

Concept of medical error

The strict concept of medical error in Russian law No. Just as there is no separate article according to which a specialist providing medical service, could be held accountable.

There is Art. 41 of the Constitution, in accordance with which Russians have the right to medical care. There are laws aimed at protecting health and providing medical care through insurance, compulsory and voluntary. Finally, there are diagnostic and treatment protocols that doctors must follow when providing medical care. However, there is no mention of medical error anywhere.

There are several definitions of this concept in the legal literature. Typically, they describe actions in good faith medical specialist. A number of authors also include intentional actions in the category of medical error. However of great importance This classification does not apply to a practicing lawyer. From a legal perspective, what is important is harm to the patient. If there is harm, then there may be liability.

The most informative definitions:

• A medical error (ME) is an unintentional, conscientious error of a specialist, in whose actions there is no negligence or ignorance.
• VO is the improper performance by a specialist of his duties. Action or inaction resulting in harm to health, even death.

Thus, according to most experts, an error by a doctor or other medical professional is precisely an unintentional error. Negligent or dishonest actions that have resulted or could have resulted in harm to the patient do not apply to VO. But there is another opinion.

But in any case, guilty actions will be qualified under the relevant article of the criminal code (CC) or administrative code (CAC). For example, intentional harm caused to a patient resulting in death will be classified as intentional murder. Negligent actions of a doctor will also be classified depending on the consequences, i.e. harm caused to a person or people. This can be mild, moderate or severe harm to health, death, creating a danger to human life, etc.

Article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation

If caused serious harm patient, the act will be qualified under the Criminal Code. As mentioned above, there is no special article in the criminal code, and the one that corresponds to the harm caused will be applied.

When considering and preparing for such cases, important features need to be taken into account. Regarding the doctor and medical institution(clinics, clinics, hospitals, maternity hospitals, etc.) in which the crime occurred, there is actually a presumption of guilt. Those. It is they who will have to prove that the negative consequences for the patient’s health are not their fault. That the harm, if it occurred, was not caused by their culpable actions. This eases the fate of the injured patient, whose capabilities, unlike medical. institutions are very limited.

Discussion on topic:

Articles of the Criminal Code that can be applied in case of medical error:

• 109 Part 2 provides for the establishment of liability for a doctor or other medical specialist whose incompetent or careless actions resulted in the death of a patient. The maximum penalty is 3 years. And not necessarily colonies. Possible involvement in correctional labor.
• 118 part 2 - causing grievous harm due to careless professional actions. Serious harm is characterized by a condition in which there is a threat to life. This degree of harm also includes: deprivation of an organ, loss of organ functions, disfigurement, etc.
• 122 part 4 - infection of the patient incurable disease leading to death - HIV.
• 124 part 2 - inaction of a health worker resulting in harm. You can also be charged under this article if necessary help was not provided in a timely manner.
• 293 part 2 - negligence.

In all cases it will be necessary forensic examination and a medical litigation lawyer. If the doctor is really guilty, and it can be established, then it is absolutely possible to bring him to criminal liability. Although it must be admitted that judicial practice very poor. Medical workers are subject to criminal prosecution only in cases where their guilt is obvious.

Causes of medical errors

Harm to health can be caused due to the following reasons:

• Objective, which arose regardless of the actions of the health worker, his knowledge, prof. preparation. The first group includes the difficulty of diagnosing rare, poorly understood diseases. The same group includes the time limit for diagnostic measures caused by the patient's condition. There are many situations when measures need to be taken urgently, and the diagnostics required in such cases last too long. This group of reasons, as a rule, does not make it possible to hold a doctor accountable under the law.
• Subjective, having a direct relationship with the actions of the specialist. If the doctor inattentively questioned the patient or made incorrect conclusions from all the available information, it will not be easy to prove guilt, but it is possible, since in this case the doctor is guilty. But if the health worker did not prescribe the necessary diagnostic measures in such cases, which led to harm to health, then the grounds for persecution are obvious. However, a correct diagnosis often requires considerable experience in order to suspect rare disease. An expert may have it, but a doctor in a rural hospital does not. That is why it is so infrequent that courts satisfy the demands of victims, and investigative bodies initiate cases if the disaster did not occur as a result of medical negligence.

Medical errors can also include defects in the provision of medical care. This concept includes:

• Complications resulting from errors by health care workers (improper transportation of the patient, incorrect or untimely diagnosis, etc.).
• Accidental harm. Usually occurs as a result of surgery.
• The emergence of a new (different) disease as a consequence of treatment. The doctor may be found guilty in this case if any of the diagnostic and treatment measures were used unreasonably, i.e. were not required or were required in the wrong volume, etc.

Examples

In practice, prosecution of a doctor or institution for medical error is not very common. Most often, in connection with the guilty, unintentional actions of medical specialists, civil cases are initiated, allowing patients to receive compensation for actual and moral damage.

To criminal liability honey. institutions are not involved. In case serious consequences For the patient, as a result of the doctor’s guilty actions, a criminal case is initiated against a specific specialist. Such cases are very rare, since to establish the cause negative consequences requires special knowledge, sometimes in different areas medicine, equipment and many other things that the patient and his relatives do not have.

Examples from life

• Responsibility under Art. 109 occurred for a resuscitator who inattentively examined an admitted patient with drug intoxication. As a result, an incorrect diagnosis was made and the wrong treatment was prescribed. The lack of proper medical care resulted in the death of the patient.
• Responsibility under Art. 124 occurred for an ambulance paramedic who incorrectly pre-assessed the patient’s condition and refused hospitalization. The lack of timely medical care led to the death of the patient. The doctor was sentenced to 2 years probation. Unfortunately, in Russian reality such cases are not uncommon. Because hospitals are overcrowded and the availability of diagnostic tools is limited. To prove harm due to refusal of hospitalization, you need to obtain an expert opinion. To begin with, the opinion of another doctor can be very useful.
• In one region of the country, a teenager was treated for more than 2 weeks after being diagnosed incorrectly. The story ended happily only because the relatives, on their own initiative, went to another medical institution, where an ultrasound was performed, which made it possible to establish the real reason ailments.

The doctor’s guilt in the deterioration of health must not only be proven, but also established. And this is very difficult. Therefore, medical errors most often remain on the conscience of the specialists who made them. As the old proverb, once coined by one of the medical philosophers, says: “Every doctor has his own little cemetery.” In such a personal cemetery lie patients whom he could have saved, but at that moment he lacked experience (he was a young specialist), knowledge, ingenuity (the correct diagnosis came to mind later), and strength.