Personal Injury Lawyer
Numerous medical procedures occur every day in the United States. Of those procedures, the majority go as planned and without incident. Unfortunately, there is a small portion that do not and the question of negligence is asked. When a case is investigated for negligence, very few claims are actually found to be malpractice on the part of the medical professional. It is imperative to be clear here that many cases are not negligence. The reality is that medical diagnoses and procedures can be quite complex. There are many instances that the doctor has to make a decision in the moment only to realize later that he or she should have done something differently. That does not necessarily constitute negligence. Since the medical field and procedures are often so complicated there are criteria in place in order for a claim to be viable and proceed to the courts. The following information discusses the criteria for medical malpractice claims and some common injuries that have resulted from negligence.
Necessary criteria for a medical malpractice case:
- There must be a professional relationship between the patient and the medical professional. There is no case when a person casually asks an acquaintance for his or her opinion and then claims negligence. Additionally, cases where the negligence occurred in a consult versus direct treatment are more difficult to prove.
- A violation to the standard of care occurred. Typically a medical witness, who specializes in the same or similar medical field, will first clarify what the standard of care should have been in the situation and then will explain how the medical professional was negligent and the standard was not upheld.
- An injury must have occurred. If there is no injury, there are no damages to recover.
- The injury is a result of the substandard of care. It will be necessary to explain how the injury was a direct result of the violation to the standard of care.
Common injuries as a result of medical negligence include but are not limited to:
- A delay in diagnosing the problem may lead to many unnecessary complications and could allow the issue to exacerbate. It is crucial to realize and treat illness and disease as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the delay of a diagnosis can cause irreparable damages to the patient.
- Incorrect diagnosis could potentially lead to unnecessary treatment including surgery and/or medication that bring a host of other issues including additional medical bills and stress on the individual’s physical and mental state.
- Erroneous interpretation of test results could possibly lead to the previously mentioned incorrect diagnosis. If a healthcare professional is negligent when reviewing test results and further treats the patient based on the mistake, the patient will likely suffer unnecessarily as a result.
- Incomplete collection of patient history may lead to the healthcare team misunderstanding the reported symptoms or conducting unnecessary procedures.
- Medication issues are an unfortunate occurrence in medical malpractice cases. There are a few common errors surrounding medication such as prescribing the wrong type or dosage, disregarding patient history and a contraindication was missed, and failure to warn the patient of serious side-effects.
Medical malpractice cases are complicated, time-consuming and expensive. It is highly recommended that anyone who wishes to pursue such a claim seek the advice of a medical malpractice lawyer Orlando, Florida relies on.
Thank you to our friends and contributors at Needle & Ellenberg, P.A. for their insight into medical malpractice claims and how to proceed.