What You Need to Know About Medical Malpractice

Medical malpractice errors are the third leading cause of death in the United States. While numbers as high as 44,000 to 98,000 yearly hospital deaths have been reported, many experts still believe them to be underestimated. Among these, errors made during patient diagnosis were the biggest reason behind malpractice claims, followed by surgical and procedural claims and medical management issues.

If you or someone you know has been suffering due to a healthcare provider’s negligence, you need to file a claim and get the compensation you deserve. In this article, we’ll take you through medical malpractice cases and the legalities of the process.

Given the plethora of cases hospitals have to treat, there are countless ways in which negligence can occur. We’ll list some specific ones here:

• Prescribing the wrong medicine to the patient that leads to the disease exacerbating or another complication will constitute malpractice. This will also hold if the doctor fails to enquire about your medical history and prescribes a drug that is dangerous for you
• The healthcare provider misdiagnoses an illness, resulting in inappropriate treatment
• You suffer due to surgical and procedural errors. These can include leaving objects inside a patient’s body, surgeries performed on an incorrect body part, and the patient experiencing severe pain after surgery
• As per The Tinker Law Firm PLLC, the consequences of failure to communicate test results will also come under malpractice
• Not acquiring informed consent from a patient before conducting treatment also comes under malpractice. In this case, keep in mind that you’ll have to prove that the treatment resulted in harm

In the U.S, the victim needs to prove that their healthcare provider showed negligence which resulted in injury. There are four legal elements to prove:

Whenever a doctor-patient relationship is built, this element is established. Note that this does not apply to social or informal settings where a healthcare provider simply advises a patient, as no professional relationship is established in such a case.

Here, the law acknowledges the professional standards that a patient expects from a healthcare provider. A breach of duty entails that the provider failed to meet this standard.

A valid medical malpractice claim must show that the injury resulted from negligence and would not have been sustained had the healthcare provider done their duty properly. Do note that there will be no case if the negligence does not cause any injury or if the damage would have occurred without negligence; there needs to be a causal relation.

Medical malpractice lawsuits are only feasible if the injury sustained is significant. This is because of the high cost and lengthy procedure involved. The optimal situations where to file a medical malpractice claim include cases where malpractice resulted in severe pain, loss of wages, disability, hardship, or hefty medical bills.

Human lives are fragile, and messing with the anatomy can result in catastrophic, heartbreaking consequences for an individual. This is especially true in medical malpractice cases as there is a breach of trust involved. If you suspect medical malpractice, hiring a malpractice lawyer is in your best interests. They’ll use their experience and get appropriate expert testimonies to get you the compensation you deserve.