Do Not Get Sick on the Weekend

An alarming number of the medical
malpractice cases handled by Pajcic & Pajcic
throughout Florida and other southern states
have involved negligent medical care on the
weekend and holidays. Many cases involve
patients sent home from the emergency room
after a failure to appreciate and diagnose a
serious illness. Several other
cases have involved on-call
physicians who have
either failed to
respond promptly or elected to defer urgent
surgery until after the weekend. Still other
cases have involved hospital staff that have
been inattentive to a patient’s deteriorating
condition during a weekend or holiday stay
in the hospital. Perhaps the most egregious
cases have involved attending surgeons who
have abandoned their patients on Friday
afternoon. Some rules we have learned:
first, try not to get sick on the weekend. If
you must, second, call your personal physician
instead of relying on an on-call physician.
Third, stay with your loved ones if they
must be in the hospital over the weekend
or a holiday and be assertive with
medical personnel if you
suspect anything
is going wrong.