November 29, 2012
A hospital fire earlier this month in Durham, North Carolina, was responsible for claiming the life of one patient and injuring three employees of the facility. The Huffington Post stated the incident happened at around 2:15 a.m. on Tuesday, November 6, at the Durham Regional Hospital’s Select Specialty Facility.
A Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson, Jim Jones, explained the fire broke out when staff attempted to revive a terminal ill patient. As the nurses attempted to use a defibrillator on the patient, a spark ignited a fire that caused the nurses to suffer burn injuries.
Chief of Operations at Durham Regional, Katie Galbraith, stated officials are looking into the exact cause of the fire, where it began, and if it could have been prevented.
Experts say that as many as 195,000 patients per year die as a result of hospital errors each year and thousands more are injured or killed by defective medical devices. Data also shows these types of accidents are often the result of sheer negligence on the part of hospitals and their staff.
That is why the North Carolina Personal Injury Lawyers with HensonFuerst Injury Lawyers believe medical professionals should be held to the standards of care established by the law and are here to help you in any way possible if you have suffered an injury while under the care of a physician.