Every year in the US, approximately 40 million lawsuits are filed.
A large chunk of those lawsuits falls under personal injury law. This area of law allows individuals to make claims for injury and related damages. But only those that are the result of someone else’s negligence.
When the person being sued is your very own doctor, these are known as medical malpractice cases.
If you think you might be the victim of medical malpractice, you should know what evidence you need to prove your case. These cases are rather difficult to prove, so the sooner you know what to prepare, the better.
Read on to start learning all those details and more right away.
Proving Negligence in Medical Malpractice Cases
Doctors can’t be expected to fix every ailment and cure every disease. But we can expect them to do their best in attempting those things. Medical malpractice is when a doctor is negligent, and their patient(s) are injured as a result.
Rules about filing and proving medical malpractice cases differ between states. But there are some general guidelines that apply to most cases.
Generally speaking, you must prove that the doctor was negligent in your treatment and that you suffered harm as a result of that negligence. But there are a few things you’ll need to prove this. Each of these is detailed in more depth below.
Proving Doctor-Patient Relationship
The doctor can only be considered negligent if they were the doctor treating you. In other words, you must be able to prove that a doctor-patient relationship existed between you and the health care professional in question.
This is likely the easiest element to prove in medical malpractice cases. As long as the doctor agreed to treat or diagnose you, there was a relationship.
Establishing Standard of Care
The standard of care refers to whether or not your doctor performed your treatment with professionalism and proficiency. To establish this, the treatment or diagnosis your doctor provided is compared to what another, similarily-trained health care professional would have done in the same context.
This is one of the most important aspects of medical malpractice cases, and it can be difficult to prove. Luckily, lawyers like those at louthianlaw.com have ample experience with medical malpractice and proving standard of care.
To demonstrate what the doctor should have done, the plaintiff and their medical malpractice attorney must provide testimony from another health care professional who is similarly trained. That doctor should describe what level of care is most commonly provided under the same circumstances. Then, the plaintiff must show how that level of care wasn’t met in your case.
Connecting Injury to Standard of Care
It’s not enough to show that your doctor didn’t perform to the standard they should have. The plaintiff in a medical malpractice case must also demonstrate how that deviation from the standard led to your injuries.
This can mean showing how the doctor’s actions are directly connected to your injury. But it might also mean showing how their failure to act led to your injuries.
You may not have suffered injuries as a result of your doctor’s negligence but an existing condition might have gotten worse. This also falls under medical malpractice but is more difficult to prove. In these cases, the plaintiff has to prove that their worsening condition is a result of the doctor and not just the nature of their condition.
Quantifying Damages
“Damages” refers to the actual harm you suffered as a result of the doctor’s negligence. At the very least, damages include your medical treatment costs. But, in most cases, the plaintiff can also ask for emotional damages, pain and suffering, and things such as lost wages.
Common Types of Medical Malpractice
The range of potential malpractice claims is wide and varied, but there are a few common types of medical malpractice. These are improper treatment, failure to diagnose, negligent prescriptions, and failure to warn a patient of the risks.
Improper Treatment
This is the most basic form of medical malpractice, as described above. In these medical malpractice cases, a doctor treats their patient in a way that no other competent health professional would under the same circumstances. It can also include cases where a doctor chose the appropriate treatment but did not perform it correctly.
Failure to Diagnose
These types of medical malpractice cases involve a doctor failing to discover an illness or making the wrong diagnosis. If a doctor of the same qualification would have discovered the illness or made a different diagnosis, this might be medical malpractice.
Negligent Prescriptions
A negligent prescription medical malpractice suit is when a doctor negligently prescribes a medication or medical device. The negligence, in this case, refers to a failure to read manufactures instructions or prescribing an incorrect dosage. When this results in injury to the patient, the doctor may be held liable for the resulting damages.
Failure to Warn of Known Risks
A failure to warn a patient of the known risks is related to the duty of informed consent. This is a doctor’s duty to tell a patient about the potential risks of a procedure or treatment so that they can make an informed decision as to whether to go through with the treatment.
Medical Malpractice Lawyers Know How To Prove Malpractice
Medical malpractice cases fall under personal injury law, but where the plaintiff was harmed by their health care professional. In order to prove medical malpractice, a plaintiff must prove that their doctor was negligent.
This involves proving four items: the existence of a patient-doctor relationship, failure to provide the standard of care, how that failure caused the injury, and how that injury has led to damages (emotional, physical, financial, and otherwise). While that seems black and white, medical malpractice cases aren’t always so easy to prove.
For more advice and information like this, .
