The vast majority of medical interventions in the UK are successful. And of those that aren’t successful, only a minority amount to medical negligence. With that said, a vast number of patients are processed every year, and even a minority within a minority can be a large number.
Medical negligence isn’t just something that happens at the fringes, either: in some cases, the victims are famous faces, and the story is widely reported. Let’s take a look at a few famous cases of celebrities suffering from medical negligence.
Michael Jackson
Arguably the most famous and popular singer to ever take to the stage, Michael Jackson’s life was shrouded in controversy, and this extended to his death. Jackson’s personal physician, Conrad Murray, was found guilty of Jackson’s manslaughter. Jackson took eight lorazepam tablets, as well as a dose of propofol – a surgical anaesthetic which combined with the other drugs in his system to kill him.
Julie Andrews
Julie Andrews is best known for her incredible singing voice, which earned her enormous acclaim during the early part of her career. Unfortunately, this came to an end in 1997, when she underwent minor surgery on her vocal cords. The surgery was botched, and her professional singing career came to a screeching halt. She later said in an interview that the ordeal was enormously depressing, and that she felt as though she had lost her identity.
John Ritter
Two years before Ritter died of a huge tear in his aorta, he underwent a CT scan. This scan revealed the possibility that such a thing might happen – however, the medical professionals who assessed the images missed the symptoms. His wife brought a posthumous case against the professionals in question.
Dana Carvey
You might remember Dana Carvey as Garth from Wayne’s World. His career was derailed in the late nineties, when a surgeon performing a coronary artery bypass managed to bypass the wrong artery. He received $7.5 million in damages, thanks to the pain and suffering he endured from continuing angina pectoris. He donated his winnings to charity.
Hulk Hogan
One of professional wrestling’s most famous faces, Hulk Hogan (Terry Gene Bollea) filed a medical negligence suit against the Laser Spine Institute, which, he alleged, persuaded him to take six spinal operations, which only served to prolong and worsen his ongoing back troubles. To make matters even worse, the institute had also used his image to advertise its services without his permission.