I was talking to my son and his girlfriend about medical errors and he asked me to define them. Here are some more cases we have handled.

* the oncology patient who suffered from a large extravasation of a chemotherapeutic drug;
* the patient who fell off the operating room table because the nurse did not apply safety straps;
* the patient whose swollen leg was not reported to the physician on the day of discharge, and who died of a pulmonary embolism shortly after discharge
* the man who jumped through a window because the nurse did not recognize the need to start one to one supervision
* the surgical patient diagnosed with a retained sponge despite the “correct” sponge count;
* the nursing home patient scalded in a bathtub;
* the psychiatric patient who had a history of suicidal ideation and attempts, who was unmonitored, left the hospital, and hung himself in the nearby woods;
* the pediatric patient who went into respiratory distress and whose home care nurse asked his father to come home instead of following directions to call 911;
* the nursing home patient who fractured two hips after being dropped out of a hydraulic lift by a nursing assistant, who did not report the incident;
* the postoperative woman who experienced intra-abdominal hemorrhage and subsequent shock that went undetected by the Post Anesthesia Care Unit nurse.
* untold numbers of pressure sore cases