Medical Malpractice
Doctors make mistakes, like the rest of us. But when a doctor makes a mistake, oftentimes someone ends up seriously injured. For the past 25 years, we have been committed to holding doctors, in all fields of medicine, accountable for the injuries they cause as a result of medical errors. Our attorneys are knowledgeable in all areas of Medical Malpractice and would welcome the opportunity to discuss your potential case.
What is Medical Malpractice?
What is Not Considered Medical Malpractice?
Errors in Diagnosis
Testing Errors
Errors in Treatment
What is Medical Malpractice?
Medical Malpractice is a failure on the doctor’s part to follow the customary standards of care in the treatment of a particular patient, thereby causing injury to that patient. It is the same as medical negligence, which is the failure to use reasonable care under the circumstances, or the failure to have the requisite knowledge and skill to provide adequate care. In other words, we have to prove that your doctor did not provide the same care another competent doctor would have provided and as a result, you were hurt.
The issue is seldom an easy question because the “customary standard of care” depends on many different factors unique to each person’s circumstance. In some instances, there may be two or more acceptable standards of care. Medical Malpractice cases are very complicated, expensive and require a high level of expertise. We know how to investigate a potential claim.
What is Not Considered Medical Malpractice?
Because medical malpractice means a failure to follow the customary standards of care, the plaintiff has the burden to prove medical negligence.
You do not have a claim if:
- A doctor who was rude to you
- Your new doctor tells you that your previous doctor did something “wrong” or failed to do something
- Your outcome was due to a known risk, and you were told about it
- You are not definitively injured
- You had surgery that did not come out as expected
- Your attorney will have an outside surgeon evaluate your claim to determine the outcome was in fact due to negligence.
Doctors cannot guarantee a perfect outcome, and in fact warn about possible risks with any procedure. One exception to this is with emergencies. An Emergency Department is given some leeway due to the need for immediate action. However, if your doctor was not as skillful and knowledgeable as the average doctor, or your doctor behaved unreasonably under the circumstances, you may have a case.
Errors in Diagnosis
This common type of medical malpractice lawsuit claims either a failure to diagnose a condition which exists, or a diagnosis of a condition which does not exist. Errors of diagnosis are most frequently encountered in the context of cancer. A delay in the diagnosis of cancer can result in the loss of chance for cure or the need for more aggressive, costly and painful treatment.
The patient must have reported signs and symptoms which were documented in the medical records, and which would lead a skillful practitioner to test for a particular disease. Failure to do so might constitute malpractice.
Often a failure to diagnose a disease results in only a short delay before the genuine problem is known. Again, this calls for an evaluation of the harm caused by the missed diagnosis, or any treatment related to the misdiagnosis.
Testing Errors
Occasionally a claim for malpractice originates from an error by either a laboratory or diagnostic facility. Unfortunately, testing errors present another problem of proof and frequently the original evidence has been destroyed.
These claims require an expert in the particular diagnostic area to evaluate whether the standard of care was met in the testing and/or interpretation. They also require an expert witness, just as other claims. The question is whether the average diagnostic practitioner would have correctly identified the disease or injury from the available material.
Sometimes the error is on the report, not the testing itself. For example the testing results are issued under another patient’s name, or a typographical error distorts the meaning. To take this one step further, the report may be inadvertently filed in the patient’s chart before the doctor has had the chance to read it and make appropriate follow-up.
These errors are called “administrative” and are the basis of claims of negligence, not Medical Malpractice and are also handled by Medical Malpractice attorneys.
Errors in Treatment
Technically errors in treatment represent the greatest number of malpractice complaints. Once a diagnosis is correctly made, a plan of treatment must be established. This plan must conform to the customary standards of care. Many error in treatment cases develop from the use of obsolete treatment plans. Others are based upon the use of unapproved drugs or treatments, or experimental treatments. Of course, the more dangerous the illness, the more tolerance we have for treatment outside the norm.
Please contact us if you or a loved one has experienced a form of medical malpractice.
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