In the process of natural death, organs will fail due to disease or degradation as a result of aging. When organ failure occurs during any other instance, it is an immediate medical concern that must be addressed—otherwise, the patient is at risk for long-term health issues, if not death. If you have a loved one that experienced organ failure in Hilo as a result of a medical professional failing to adequately treat a medical situation, Jed Kurzban, Esq. would like to hear from you.
Simply put, organ failure occurs when an organ (such as the brain or heart) fails to function normally: The heart fails to pump blood, the kidneys fail to remove toxins, or the lungs fail to oxygenate the body. Organ failure is a degree of organ dysfunction—in that the organ does not operate as expected—in which the organ cannot maintain regular function without medical intervention.
Health issues or complications such as sepsis, blood loss, poisoning, trauma, and a series of other issues can result in organ failure. A person can experience the failure of one organ or can experience multiple organ failure. Prompt diagnosis is crucial in instances of organ failure. Each organ presents varying symptoms during failure, and the inability to properly identify these symptoms puts a patient at greater risk for prolonged health issues.
Symptoms of major organ failures include:
- Liver—fatigue, yellowed skin, easy bruising, loss of appetite, liver cancer
- Kidney—chest pain, fatigue, anemia, ankle/feet swelling, shortness of breath
- Lung—muscle weakness, lung disease, air path obstruction, troubled breathing
- Heart—fatigue, appetite loss, increased heart rate, shortness of breath
- Brain—memory loss, reduction of focus, increase stressed, difficulty driving, inability to process events
As soon as medical staff diagnoses organ failure, they must treat the patient immediately. Letting the failure of one organ go on for too long can result in the failure of other organs. For instance, heart failure will affect multiple organs; the kidneys are next in line to fail, as heart failure causes pressure to build up inside the kidneys.
As mentioned, organ failure is often caused by a variety of health issues. But when the organ failure is proven to be the result of medical malpractice—either caused by a medical professional or caused as a result of a failure to treat an issue—the possibility of a lawsuit exists.
For instance, sepsis develops when harmful bacteria and bacterial toxins enter tissues through infected wounds. If medical staff fails to properly clean and dress a wound and a patient develops sepsis, this is an instance of medical malpractice. Another example is when a patient experiences excessive blood loss due to medical professionals failing to properly close a wound or stop blood loss during surgery.
Do you have a loved one that experienced an organ failure attorney in Hilo? Call today for a free consultation with Jed Kurzban, Esq., who, with over 25 years of experience in this field, can advise you in your situation. It’s time to stop paying for other people’s mistakes.