Medical Mistake Puts Hundreds of New Mexicans At Risk

According to KOAT.com, Albuquerque News, dozens – if not thousands – of patients could be at risk for contracting a disease. As part of a physician assistants program, students from the University of New Mexico School of Medicine provided free blood glucose tests to attendees of the American Indian Week Pueblo Days. Over 1600 individuals from around the world were in attendance. KOBTV4 reports that it’s likely those who conducted the tests were untrained and used the wrong type of device to do the tests, consistently using the same needle over and over.

Because no records were kept, it is unclear just how many people were affected by this medical mistake. As a result of the failure to change the needles on the devices, those who received the test may be at risk for Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, and even HIV.

Studies show that preventable medical errors kill four times as many people as the lack of health insurance. The eye-opening Hearst Investigation, “Dead by Mistake”, previously published on Chron.com, found that close to 200,000 people per year die from medical errors and infections in the United States. Medical malpractice is a national epidemic, one that affects patients of every state, age, and income level, with nearly 2 million Americans dying needlessly of preventable medical mistakes. It’s not just the untrained who commit these errors, it happens at prestigious hospitals, at clinics, at doctors’ offices.

As New Mexico medical malpractice attorneys, we believe it’s crucial to address the problem of preventable medical errors. If you or a loved one received a faulty blood glucose test, we urge you to contact us or a medical professional at once for more information.