It’s the thing everyone dreaded in school: the pop quiz. The good folks at PopTorts.com recently unveiled a new quiz on medical malpractice, so we thought we would help you relive memories of childhood while hopefully broadening your understanding of this complex area of law, all at the same time.
The first question is straightforward: What percentage of new tort cases are medical malpractice cases? Is it:
A. more than 50 percent
B. between 25 percent and 50 percent or
C. between 10 percent and 25 percent
D. under 10 percent
If you guessed D, you are correct. In fact, the exact answer is that only 3 percent of new torts are medical malpractice cases.
Readers were also asked about robots that assist with minimally invasive surgeries. Which of the following is among the problems commonly reported with the robotic surgery assistants?
A. burnt or broken surgical tools falling into patients
B. electrical sparking (sometimes fatal to patients)
C. unintended robot movements (also sometimes fatal to patients)
D. all of the above
Sadly, the answer is D. According to a study earlier this year, the robots were involved in 144 patient fatalities and 1,391 injuries to patients between 2000 and 2013. The devices had 8,061 malfunctions in that period, including all of the above-listed problems. In fact, C (unintended robot movements) alone resulted in 52 injuries and two deaths.
You can read the rest of the quiz here.
If you have questions of your own about physician negligence or hospital negligence, you can get answers from a personal injury attorney experienced in medical malpractice like those at TLF: The Medical Injury Law Firm.