Keywords
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17566/ciads.v6i1.362How to Cite
Abstract
Objective: Actions related to health professionals can end in death of the patient or impairment of his or her physical integrity and health, through misconduct (negligence, malpractice or recklessness). These actions can lead to civil liability towards compensating damages towards the patient or criminal liability actions towards criminal charges. Methods: This article performed a jurisprudential research with data collected from second instance judgments available on the TJDFT website throughout 2013 to 2015, using the terms "medical error" in the research field involving 204 cases. Results: From this analysis 97% of the cases were judged by the common justice and 3% by special courts; 1% dealt with material damage, 46% about moral damages and 53% on moral and material damages. Specialties with fewer participation in medical error lawsuits were endocrinology, dermatology, physiotherapy, pneumology, proctology and errors from the pharmacy, whereas lawsuits with most cases were gynecological-obstetrics, general and plastic surgery. We found actions whose defendant was the private sector in 51%, the public sector in 44% and individual in 5% of the analyzed cases. The sentences were dismissed in 57%, ruled in favor of the plaintiff 22% partially in favor 19% and extinguished in 2% of the lawsuits analyzed. Conclusion: The legal influence within medical practice shapes health attitudes and practices in medical services motivated by the legal repercussions and also by the economic management consequences as a reflection of a society in which rights affirmation and the idea of undergoing an indemnable injury is understood as the responsibility of a good professional or a good health service. Physicians should not be considered the sole responsible of the harmful event and all parties related should be involved in the changes that deserve to be performed and were once suggested by the world health organization.References
Fujita R, Santos I. Denúncias por erro médico em Goiás. Revista da Associação Médica Brasileira. 1992; vol. 55 n.3, p.283-289.
Carvalho M De, Vieira A a. Erro médico em pacientes hospitalizados. Jornal de Pediatria (Rio J) [Internet]. 2002; 78:261–8. Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bjorl.2015.12.002
Weingart SN, Wilson RM, Gibberd RW, Harrison B. Epidemiology of medical error. BMJ. 2000;320(7237):774–7.
Grober ED, Bohnen JMA. Defining medical error. Vol. 48, Canadian Journal of Surgery. 2005. p. 39–44.
Jornal o Estado de São Paulo. Em 4 anos o número de processos por erro médico cresce 160%. Available from: http://saude.estadao.com.br/noticias/geral,em-4-anos-numero-de-processos-por-erro-medico-cresce-140-no-stj-imp-,1655442.
Jornal A Tribuna. Processos Judiciais registram alta de 1.600%. Available from: http://www.tribunapr.com.br/noticias/parana/processos-judiciais-contra-medicos-registram-alta-de-1-600/.
Makary M, Daniel M. Medical Error - the third leading cause of death in the US. Br Med J. 2016;353:i2139.
Brasil. Lei N° 9.099, de 26 de Setembro de 1995 [Internet]. BRASIL; 1995. Available from: http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/leis/L9099.htm
Yamauti K, Zerbini T. A oftalmologia no tribunal: avaliação das sentenças judiciais no âmbito do Tribunal de Justiça do Estado de São Paulo. Saúde, Ética & Justiça [Internet]. 2014 Dec 5 [cited 2017 Feb 1];19(2):78. Available from: http://www.revistas.usp.br/sej/article/view/100095
Jena AB, Chandra A, Lakdawalla D, Seabury S, C K, FA S, et al. Outcomes of Medical Malpractice Litigation Against US Physicians. Arch Intern Med [Internet]. 2012 Jun 11 [cited 2017 Jan 12];172(11):3291–7. Available from: http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?doi=10.1001/archinternmed.2012.1416
Koeche LG, Censi I, Bortoluzzi MC B EL. Prevalência do erro médico entre as especialidades médicas nos processos julgados pelo Conselho Regional de Medicina do Estado de Santa Catarina. Arq Catarinenses Med [Internet]. 2013;42(4):45–53. Available from: http://www.acm.org.br/revista/pdf/artigos/1257.pdf
Mello, Celso Antônio Bandeira de. Curso de direito administrativo. 1150 p.
Svider PF, Vidal G-P, Zumba O, Mauro AC, Haser PB, Graham A, et al. Adverse events in carotid endarterectomy from a medicolegal perspective. Vasc Endovascular Surg. 2014;48(5-6):425–9.
Authors and coauthors retain copyright but license the right of first publication to the Iberoamerican Journal of Health Law.
The Journal has been using CC Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) since January 2023. This license allows the user to share and adapt the work, but they must give the appropriate credit to authors and coauthors and mention the Iberoamerican Journal of Health Law. The license Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International was used until 2022.