Case Study Of Barb's Unborn Child

Barb Daily had been seeing her general practitioner for prenatal examinations, but repeated urine pregnancy tests were coming back negative. Barb’s practitioner thought about sending her to get an ultrasound, but he decided against it as it would be quite expensive and burdensome for Barb. The general practitioner is convinced by the repeated negative pregnancy tests and concludes that Barb had a missed abortion. During the dilation and curettage to clean out the uterus, the practitioner noticed a lot more blood than expected. The body parts being expelled were large and there was no decomposing tissue. The practitioner quickly realized that the urine pregnancy tests were wrong and he had aborted Barb’s living baby (1). The practitioner has made a medical error and faced the dilemma to disclose this information to Barb or not. Revealing this mistake to Barb may make her so upset that she sues the practitioner, but it would also be the right thing to do in order to preserve the provider-patient relationship; Barb may appreciate the honesty. Remaining silent would avoid being put at fault for killing Barb’s unborn child, …show more content…
The Institute of Medicine defines a medical error/mistake as “the failure of a planned action to be completed as intended or the use of a wrong plan to achieve an aim” (2). It has been reported that more than one million healthcare related medical errors occur every year in hospitals throughout the United States (2). This number could be thought to be underreported as many preventable medical mistakes are likely undisclosed to patients and go unreported. Because medical errors are so common, almost every provider will face the dilemma of whether they should disclose this information to their patient. Unfortunately, providers are not trained in a way that bolsters talking about