How to File a Medical Malpractice Case
Medical malpractice cases can be a bit complicated. Fortunately, an experienced lawyer can help you understand your legal rights and navigate the complicated process.
You must prove that the doctor or other healthcare professional violated their duty to care toward you to make a claim for malpractice. This breach resulted in a negative legal outcome for example, a medical diagnosis that was not satisfactory or an economic loss.
Birth defects
The excitement parents feel at the birth of their baby is unmatched. Unfortunately, it’s also a time when medical concerns may arise. These could be related to birth defects, including lips with clefts and missing limbs or congenital heart disease, as well as muscular dystrophy. If negligence by a doctor during pregnancy or delivery caused these conditions, you could have a valid malpractice claim.
Birth defects can be caused by various reasons, including exposure to prescription drugs or toxic chemicals, environmental factors and prenatal care issues. The duty of a doctor to ensure the health of the mother and her fetus involves conducting appropriate screening tests and detecting and treating any abnormalities during pregnancy.
Medical experts must determine if negligence by a doctor caused serious injury or death due to failing to diagnose or treat the condition. To establish negligence, an expert has to review the standards of care a doctor would have followed in similar circumstances, and prove that the doctor deviated from that standard and, as a result, caused injury or death.
It is crucial to speak to any witnesses and gather evidence at the scene of the accident. This can include witnesses at the hospital, other patients or their families, nurses, and more. Also, you must take photographs of the injuries your child sustained to show how severe they are.
Maternal deaths
Every year around 700 to 900 women die each year as a result of complications caused by pregnancy or childbirth. This is a staggering number especially for a first-world country like the United States. A recent investigation by USA Today suggests many of those deaths could have easily been prevented by better hospital care.
Some of the reasons for maternal deaths are obstetric emergency which include bleeding severe during delivery or a hemorrhage afterwards or pre-existing conditions such as obesity and diabetes that impact the childbirth process and pregnancy. However, doctors also have the responsibility to observe and treat warning signs, such as high blood pressure, which can cause the dangerous condition known as preeclampsia. Preeclampsia can cause premature separation of the placenta from the uterus and seizures. It could also lead to an extremely dangerous condition called HELLP Syndrome.
Medical malpractice claims which involve gynecology or obstetrics are some of the most popular types of lawsuits filed in the United States. In a Catasauqua malpractice law Firm suit the plaintiff has to prove that a healthcare provider violated a recognized standard of care that caused the plaintiff to be injured or die. The legal community determines the standard of care, and it varies between states. Despite the number of malpractice cases, most are resolved prior to trial. Settlements are typically reached through direct negotiations between the parties and typically requires the assistance of an impartial third party such as a mediator (often retired judges or lawyers). Medical malpractice suits aren’t a quick way to remove a physician from practice, neither is it a quick way to remove a physician from practice.
Injuries from surgery
Even though medical advancements have drastically reduced the likelihood of adverse results, they can occur. If they do happen, they can cause serious injuries. In addition to being uncomfortable and painful These injuries can cause costly corrective surgery as well as a high amount of medical expenses, prolonged recovery time, or even death.
Some surgical errors are not negligence. To prove a case, it must be shown that a healthcare provider did not follow the standards of care during an operation and this failure resulted in injury. Medical malpractice can include:
A wrong-site procedure, where the surgeon works on another body part than intended leaving a scalpel, sponge, or other item inside the body of a patient puncturing or nicking an organ or nerve; infections result from improperly cleaned or sanitized equipment, and more.
A lawsuit arising from a surgical error may be a complex issue which is why it is crucial to seek out the advice of an attorney who has experience in medical malpractice. It’s also important to note any injuries you sustain including photographs, and take note of any information you believe might be relevant to your case. A lawsuit based on a surgical error could take years to resolve, however it’s worth it if you believe your doctor made a error that caused you to be injured. This is particularly true in cases where you suffered severe injuries that significantly hinder your life quality.
Wrongful death
It can be a traumatic experience to lose a loved one, especially when the death was caused by someone else’s negligence. In the event of a state-specific law it could be possible to bring a claim against the party to recover damages for the loss.
A wrongful death case is different from a medical malpractice case because it concerns a person’s life rather than their health. Therefore, the requirement for proof is higher that it has to be proven beyond any reasonable doubt that your loved one’s death was caused by an individual’s negligence.
For example, Joan’s husband passed away due to lung cancer that was not detected on an x-ray. The cause of his death was an uninformed doctor who did not follow his patient’s symptoms and to perform an MRI when the patient was experiencing difficulty breathing. The delay in treatment allowed the tumor to grow and cause irreparable damage.
In this situation the family of the patient could file a wrongful death claim against the doctor and the hospital. The type of damages you can claim is contingent on the laws in your state, just like a medical shoreview malpractice attorney case. They can cover both economic and non-economic losses including funeral expenses, loss of consortium and pain and suffering prior to the death of the victim. The punitive damages can be claimed in wrongful death cases. This amount isn’t covered in all cases, but it is an option if the death of the victim was particularly severe or the result of multiple mistakes.