What legal actions can I do against hospital maltreatment?

Can not tell from your facts?

It depends in part on what harm you suffered. How was the IV "messed up"? What effect did the morphine have on you? Did the effects wear off after the expected timeframe? Did you contract a disease from the IV administration?

Do you have an expert that says it was malpractice.

No.

For your initial question (What legal actions can I do against hospital maltreatment?) you can, if you cannot reach a settlement with the hospital or its insurer, sue the hospital. I cannot answer whether you have a case against the hospital for the improper placement of your IV as I do not have enough information. Generally, to establish medical malpractice you must prove each of the following: (1) the generally recognized medical standard of care; (2) a deviation from that standard by the doctor; (3) that the deviation was the proximate cause of your alleged injuries; and (4) the nature and extent of your injuries and damages. More simply, you have to prove that the nurse or medical person who put in the IV did, or did not do, something that nurses or personel would have differently under the same circumstances. In most cases, a doctor must establish (usually through his or her testimony) these items. You also do not indicate what harm you sustained as a result of the incident. This goes to items #3 and #4 and, in many cases, usually deals more with the value of a case. However, you do have to show you were "injured" by the IV being placed wrong. Another item you should be aware of is the statute of limitation, which is the period of time in which you have to either have a case settled or a lawsuit filed. If you do not do these items before the statute of limitations expires you lose all rights to collect money. In general, the statute of limitations for medical malpractice is two years from the date of the injury. However, if the hospital was operated by a city, county, state, a political subdivision or the federal government, there is a different procedure you must follow to be able to pursue your case as well as different time limits. You should talk to an attorney as soon as possible to find out, at the minimum, how much time you have to make a claim, as well as whether you have a case.

Yes, but I do not think it is worth a medical malpractice claim!

I need more facts, what are your damages?

No you don't have a case; at least not based on the facts you've described.

For what? Malpractice is when the care is substandard. Having an unpleasant result is not malpractice.

If you do, it will not be of enough significance to file suit.

Possibly. Contact a local MED MAL attorney to discuss your particulars.

More facts are needed before a medical malpractice action should be brought by you. However, first you should at least consult with a medical malpractice lawyer for specific legal advice and direction regarding your medical problems and the treatment received by you.

Perhaps I am not understanding it all, but the facts you describe do not indicate any particular long-lasting damage or injury. While the IV may have been messed up, what damages did you suffer from that? While you may have a claim, I seriously doubt any medical malpractice attorney would take your case because the damages, if any, would be nominal and not worth the hassle, time and effort of a full blown lawsuit.

Doesn't sound like much of a claim. You need a doctor to state whether there is malpractice involved, and you need to have significant injury The hospital will defend and your lawyer will spend maybe 20000 or more dollars fighting them for a couple years. To what end? For what? What do you expect to get? No lawyer would likely take such a case and you cant get there without a lawyer in this type case.

In order to pursue a claim, you need permanent damages or no lawyer will consider the case.

In order to prove a medical malpractice case, a claimant must prove a failure to conform to accepted practice, resulting in an injury. A bad result is not enough. You will need to get copies of all of your medical records and have a doctor review them; if he/she is willing to testify that the hospital failed to conform to accepted practice, then you have a case. But even then, you have to prove how much worse you are as a result of the malpractice. These cases are difficult and expensive to prove and they do not settle out of court. So unless you have catastrophic injuries, it does not make financial sense to go forward even if malpractice was committed.

Depending on your damages, you might have a cause of action if another similar practioner were willing to testify that the actions did not meet the standard of care and you had significant damages which made the claim worth making. Generally, especially in ER's, things do not go perfectly due to the circumstances which require on the spot decisions and actions.

When I got a kidney stone years ago, they gave me a shot of morphine for the pain, so that's probably standard operating procedure.