In 2008, the National Patient Advocacy Foundation reported that there were over 100 medical mistakes recorded in Pennsylvania.  These mistakes are made by doctors who administer too much, not enough or the wrong medication before, during, or after the surgery or treatment.
   
    Even after doctors make life-threatening mistakes, many fail to take responsibility or try to make amends. In some instances, patients are compelled to file for medical malpractice suits. With insurance rates at an all-time high, lives can be altered permanently by the mistakes of a trusted doctor.

Medical errors are not fun and games.  There were more than 100 cases of medical malpractice in Pennsylvania in 2008 alone.

The National Patient Advocacy Foundation interviewed a 47-year-old Los Angeles man who wants to remain anonymous due to pending legal issues.   The individual suffered from various medical mistakes, all at the hand of his physician.    In May 2007, the individual received surgery for a condition affecting his left arm. After surgery, his arm was never able to regain full function.  After spending $2,000 on the surgery, he visited the physician for help, only to find that the doctor gave him the wrong medication.  This mistake permanently disabled his left arm.

    “It just hurts that I trusted somebody who was supposed to help me,” the individual said.
Michelle Lynsberg, an employee for the National Patient Advocacy Group said, “We get hundreds of patients who put their lives’ in the doctor’s hands, and they ruin their lives and make them pay for it. This truly isn’t fair and it will no longer be tolerated.”
After a patient becomes aware of a mistake, gaining restitution is sometimes impossible. However, justice can prevail in these cases.
   
    In 2006, 18-year-old Brian Anderson of Cincinnati, Ohio filed a lawsuit against his doctor for leaving a sponge in his body after a surgical procedure.  The lawsuit lasted for over a month.  After Anderson verified his doctor left a sponge in his body, he was able to prove negligence. Anderson received a $2 million settlement, and the surgeon was suspended for two months without pay. In other cases, doctors found liable for negligence lose their jobs and credibility.
   
    While Anderson was reimbursed for his troubles, many are not as lucky.  Some still do not receive the proper compensation to ease the pain of a doctor’s mistake.
   
    “The patients are in the doctors care. They trust them, therefore they should do right by them,” said Lynsberg.