Common Causes of Malpractice Litigation
Malpractice litigation is a complicated procedure. If a patient is able to prove four elements, it will determine whether or not the error is malpractice. These are the following: a professional obligation or breach of that duty; an injury resulting from this breach; and measurable damage.
Plaintiffs must also prove these elements with evidence like expert testimony, depositions and discovery.
Misdiagnosis and Failure to Diagnose
Inability to recognize an injury or illness in a timely manner can lead to serious complications, or even death. Misdiagnosis is a common reason for medical negligence. To prove negligence, the patient or their lawyer must demonstrate that a competent doctor under similar circumstances and working in the same specialty would not have missed the diagnosis.
There are many misdiagnosis that could be considered malpractice, however. Even highly trained and experienced doctors make mistakes, so the claim of malpractice must be supported by other elements such as breach, proximate causality and actual injury. If a doctor fails to sterilize his equipment prior to administering anesthesia and the patient develops an infection as a result of this, he could be liable.
Lawsuits alleging malpractice are typically filed in state trial courts, where the alleged malpractice took place. Federal courts could be able to handle the case in certain circumstances. For instance, a case could be filed in federal court if it is an issue regarding the time limit for filing a claim or when there is a substantial difference in citizenship among those involved in the dispute. Certain claims are settled through binding voluntary arbitration. This is a less formal procedure involving professional decision makers that is designed to cut costs, speed up legal proceedings and eliminate the possibility of excessively generous juries. Arbitration is not available in all instances of malpractice.
Dosage for a drug that is not correct
Medication errors--also called medication mistakes--are one of the most frequent causes of medical malpractice lawsuits. These errors can be caused by a doctor writing a prescription in the wrong format or giving the patient the incorrect dosage. These errors are usually avoidable. Based on the circumstances the pharmacy, hospital or other health care providers could be held responsible for the harm caused by a patient who received the wrong dose of a drug.
A doctor might prescribe the wrong medication to a patient because of an inaccurate diagnosis or simply because he/she misreads the prescription. A health professional could also administer the wrong dosage due to a breakdown in communication for example, when a nurse reads the doctor's handwritten prescription incorrectly or the pharmacist is mistaken in filling out the prescription. In other instances, the physician may delay the administration of the correct medication, which could result in the patient's health getting worse.
A victim must prove, in order to win a
malpractice lawyer lawsuit that the medical professional violated their professional standards and that their injuries were directly attributed to the negligence. This requires medical experts to be able to testify. A medical malpractice case must prove the extent and damages of the victim's injuries. This includes the cost of treatment and any lost wages. The more the loss, the higher the value of the claim.
Incorrect Procedure
This type of incident is not unusual. It may seem impossible for medical professionals to perform the wrong procedure on patients, however, it happens. A surgeon who commits this mistake can be held accountable for negligence. A patient who suffers injury due to a surgical error may be held responsible for any error that occurred during the procedure.
A health care professional accused of malpractice must prove that the patient was injured because of an action or inability to take action. To establish this, the patient's legal team must prove that: (1) the doctor was bound by a duty to provide care or treatment; (2) that the doctor breached this duty; (3) that there is a direct causal connection between the breach and the injury and (4) that the injury causes damages that the legal system could resolve.
A breach of the duty of care has no significance unless it causes injury, which is why medical malpractice claims are usually built on a legal concept called "res ipsa loquitur." This law says that, in a majority of cases certain injuries are obvious and evident that they cannot be explained except by negligent acts.
Based on the facts the plaintiff (the person who filed the claim or their legal representative) or their lawyer may decide to file the claim in either state or federal court. The majority of malpractice cases are filed with state courts, but in certain circumstances, a medical negligence lawsuit can be filed in federal district court.
Wrong Surgery
The wrong-site surgery isn't common, but can be considered medical
Malpractice Lawyer when the procedure is done in the wrong location of your body. This type of error is usually caused by miscommunications between members of the surgical team, or production pressures that lead to surgeons having several surgeries to perform at the same time. In these cases the surgeon is not solely accountable for a mistaken-site operation because of a legal principle known as "res ipsa locquitur" which states that the result is a matter of fact and cannot be blamed on negligence.
When a patient is injured by wrong-site surgery, he or she may require additional procedures to correct problems that are aggravated by the surgical error. Patients and their families are left with expensive medical bills. It is crucial to take these costs into account when calculating the financial costs of medical malpractice lawsuits.
Surgeons are most often accountable for surgical errors because they are the ones who are responsible for getting ready for the procedure by double-checking patient's chart and medical records, communicating effectively with other members of the medical team and making sure that the incision has been made on the correct site. However, in some instances a hospital or anesthesiologist may also be held responsible. Medical malpractice lawsuits are typically filed in state courts, but may be transferred in certain circumstances to federal court.