Medical malpractice is more prevalent than most people would care to know. According to the Institute of Medicine, nearly 100,000 patients die each year because of medical malpractice. Another 1.5 million are injured as a result of a medical professional's negligence.
If you are injured or your health is compromised by a medical professional's negligence, your case may qualify as medical malpractice and you may be entitled to receive compensation for your medical expenses, time off work, future medical costs, pain and suffering, and more. An experienced attorney should review your case to see if it meets the legal requirements for medical malpractice.
Legal requirements
Duty of care
In order to show a deviation or violation in the way a doctor cared for you, you have to show that the doctor had a responsibility for your care-a "duty of care" for your health. If you gave your permission to a doctor or hospital to treat you and you received treatment, then the physician or hospital recognized your request for care and duty of care has been established.
Breach of duty
All doctors are held to a reasonable standard of care. Providing care that is less than that standard of care constitutes breach of duty. To prove it, your attorney must show that your doctor acted or failed to act as he or she should have under the circumstances. This often requires input from other medical professionals of similar specialty.
Injury to the patient requirement
If a doctor was negligent, but nothing happened to your health as a result of that negligence, you do not have a case to bring to trial. In order for malpractice to be present, there must be an injury or medical issue that was caused by the physician's actions or lack of action. Any injury lawyer will tell you: the more significant the injury, the stronger the malpractice case.
Causation tied to medical negligence
To complete the case, your lawyer must prove that the doctor's negligence directly caused or contributed to the injury or condition you now suffer. If negligent care does not exist or cannot be proven, it is not a strong malpractice case. Count on your attorney to formulate a strategy to prove causation in your malpractice case.
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