What Are The Examples Of Medical Errors In Hospitals?
Gregg Hollander | November 16, 2025 | Uncategorized
Hospitals are supposed to be places of healing, but many of the cases we handle start with preventable errors that occur inside those walls. When you look at patterns across years of malpractice work, certain types of mistakes show up again and again.
Some of the main categories of injuries we see specifically with hospital and emergency room cases include:
- Failure to diagnose
- Misdiagnosis
- Delayed diagnosis
- Surgical errors
- Medication errors
- Anesthesia errors
- Birth injury cases related to labor and delivery
- Failure to properly monitor or follow up on a patient’s condition
What Is The Most Commonly Missed Diagnosis In The Emergency Department?
Injuries relating to failures to diagnosis are probably the most common. Something important is missed, or not taken seriously, and the opportunity to intervene early is lost.
Stroke is the diagnosis most often missed in emergency care. The early signs can look mild or inconsistent, and patients who do not match the usual risk profile are sometimes evaluated without the urgency their symptoms deserve. Yet the medical approach is clear.
When stroke is possible, timely imaging is essential because no physical exam can rule it out. When that step is delayed, the brief window for effective treatment closes quickly and a reversible condition becomes permanent.
What Is a Real Life Example of Medical Negligence?
A few patterns come up repeatedly:
- A patient with classic stroke warning signs is told it is a migraine or vertigo
- Someone with a dangerous infection is discharged as if they simply had a virus
- A patient with the “worst headache of my life” is sent home without a CT scan, and an intracranial bleed is missed
- Postoperative patients show clear signs of infection or a surgical leak, yet no one acts on the red flags
In each of these, the harm does not come from the disease alone. It comes from the delay and from not doing the testing and monitoring that should have been done.
Why These Errors Matter Legally
From a malpractice standpoint, we are always looking at two questions:
- Did the hospital staff deviate from what a reasonably careful provider would have done in that same situation?
- Did that deviation actually change the patient’s outcome in a meaningful way?
You can have sloppy care that does not change the outcome, and legally that is usually not a case. You can also have a terrible outcome with no negligence. The intersection of a preventable error and a changed outcome is where malpractice lives.
Case Example: How a Missed Ultrasound Led to the Loss of a Testicle
One of my more recent cases involved a young man in his twenties who worked for a cable company. He fell from a ladder while wiring a home. As he slipped, his belt caught the rung and gave him what I often describe as the worst wedgie of his life. One of his testicles was trapped between his underwear and pants, and he went to the emergency department with significant testicular pain.
In that situation, the gold standard is very clear. Any patient who presents with testicular pain should have a scrotal ultrasound to assess blood flow to the testicle. Conditions like torsion and serious trauma are emergencies. There is only a short window to relieve pressure and save the testicle.
The ER physician did not order the ultrasound. Instead, she ordered imaging of his abdomen and pelvis that did not answer the critical question. She discharged him.
Over the next 48 hours, his pain worsened. When he returned, the hospital finally ordered the ultrasound. It showed no blood flow to his right testicle. He was rushed to surgery, but by then it was too late, and the testicle had to be removed.
This is a classic example of a hospital error:
- The right test was not ordered when it mattered
- A simple, noninvasive study was skipped
- That delay directly changed the outcome
For a young, unmarried man, that loss is not just cosmetic. Fertility, future relationships, and the emotional impact all become part of the damages analysis.
That is what a real, preventable medical error in a hospital looks like from my side of the table.
