An introduction to the basics of medical malpractice – When can a lawyer help you?
Whenever a patient is harmed by a doctor because the latter was incompetent in performing his medical duties, it is a case of medical malpractice. This occurs when a medical care professional neglects his duties of offering proper treatment and fails to take immediate action to protect the patient from being harmed.
Generally, negligence or malpractice comprise a medical mistake. This mistake can be in the diagnosis process, medicine dosage, treatment, health management, or post-operative care. Thanks to the medical malpractice law that patients are now able to recoup the compensation amount from the damages caused to the patient due to below-average treatment. Not only that, you can even seek the help of a medical malpractice attorney in Winchester VA if you want to have expert legal interference.
As per the Medical Malpractice Center, in the US, there are more than 19,000 malpractice lawsuits against health professionals every year. However, the laws and rules for medical malpractice might be different between various states.
Medical malpractice – What is it?
Any health care professional, hospital or doctor is liable to offer a basic standard of care to their patients. However, the professional is not responsible for all the damages that a patient goes through during treatment. Only when the patient faces any injury or harm due to the negligence of the health care provider, this is called medical malpractice.
If you have to go according to the US laws for medical malpractices, there are a few factors that have to be considered. Check them out:
Incapability of offering a basic standard of care: As per US medical malpractices law, the health care professionals need to abide by the standards or face an allegation of medical negligence.
A bruise that happens due to negligence: In case a patient tells that his health care provider was negligent but there was no harm or injury caused, there is no personal injury claim. In order to claim, the patient is supposed to give an evidence of injury caused by negligence. The patient also has to prove that the wound or injury would not have happened without that negligence.
The injury should have deterimental results: The patient should also prove that the harm or injury that was caused as a result of medical neglicence has also led to havoc damage to the patient.
Damage may have been caused in the form of:
- Long term hardship
- Suffering
- Noteworthy loss of income
- Continuous pain
- Any kind of disability
Different types of medical malpractice examples
If you’re not sure about the cases which can classify as medical malpractice lawsuits, here are few examples that you may bear in mind:
- Wrong diagnosis or error while diagnosis
- Untimely discharge from the hospital
- Incorrect or unrequired surgery
- Not constantly following up post surgery
- Inability to order the right tests or act instantly on results
- Prescribing a wrong medicine
- Doing an operation on an incorrect body part
- Leave things within the body of the patient after the surgery
- The patient is in constant pain post surgery
- Bedsores or pressure ulcers
- Fatal infections contracted during hospital stay
A group of researchers from the Illinois Univeristy reported that blood thinners constitute nearly 8% of all medical mistakes among hospitalized patients. While it is true that blood thinners reduce the occurence of heart attack and stroke by barring clots in arteries and veins, at the same time, it is also true that when blood thinners are used in high doses, this increases bleeding.
Medical malpractice law is monitored by a complicated body of rules that vary from one state to another. Hence, it is imperative to be represented by a medical malpractice lawyer.
