What Is Considered Medical Malpractice?
Being in the hospital while you are sick or injured is scary by itself without the additional worry of whether your doctors or nurses will make a mistake that could cost your life or risk your health. When you are vulnerable in the hospital, the last thing you want to be worrying about is possible medical malpractice, but it is always a possibility.
If an unfortunate instance of malpractice happens to you or a loved one, review this guide to medical malpractice to learn how you can receive your due compensation.
What Is Medical Malpractice?
Medical malpractice is a departure from the applicable standard of care that causes injury. Medical malpractice can include:
- Preventable mistakes in surgery/unnecessary surgery
- Incorrect diagnoses
- Wrong dose or medication
- Failure to provide aftercare
- Failure to complete the needed tests
- Failure to recognize/ask for symptoms
- Premature discharge
- Failure to gather patient history
- Failure to get informed consent
Any of these negligent acts could result in a misdiagnosis or mistreatment of a patient. If your doctor or medical provider fails to provide you with proper care, it could lead to serious injury, illness, or even death.
Proving Medical Malpractice
Unfortunately, if you have experienced medical malpractice, it falls on you, and your lawyer, to prove that the malpractice took place. The healthcare provider who took part in the negligence only has to find ways to disprove you; the burden of proof falls in your lap.
There are a few requirements for a case for it to be considered a medical malpractice case:
- Improper care took place in the hands of the medical practitioner
- The improper care resulted in injury, illness, or some form of physical harm to the patient
- Damaging consequences resulted from the malpractice
If you are unable to prove that these things happened, you will not have a case to pursue.
Damaging Consequences
If you are trying to prove that your healthcare provider committed medical malpractice against you, you will need to prove that their negligence caused consequences in your life that otherwise would not have happened.
Some damaging consequences can include:
- Loss of income
- Disability
- Chronic pain
- Suffering
- Hardship
For example, if you can prove that your healthcare provider neglected an infection in your leg causing it to spread so severely that an amputation was needed to save your life, you should easily be able to prove the damaging consequences.
Let's say you are a construction worker. With an amputated leg, you would not be fit for the job anymore, which would result in you becoming unemployed and losing income. Additionally, because you are now disabled and relearning how to complete your daily activities, this injury could be considered a hardship.
Informed Consent
Informed consent is important in health care. Informed consent refers to your right as a patient to have all the information about a treatment or procedure that you have the option of partaking in. That includes any risks involved in those options.
For example, your healthcare provider could perform a procedure perfectly, with no complications, but if they neglected to tell you that there was a 50% chance that you could wake up paralyzed, they could still be held accountable. If your healthcare provider had told you every risk involved in the procedure, you may have decided not to risk it, but by not giving you that information, your healthcare provider took your informed consent away from you.
An exception to informed consent is when emergency life-saving measures are needed immediately. If you come into the emergency room on the verge of death, your healthcare provider does not have time to discuss the risks to you or your family before doing what they can to save your life.
If you have fallen victim to medical malpractice or had your informed consent taken away from you, contact us at Neimark Coffinas & Lapp, LLP, today for a free consultation. We will do everything in our power to get you the justice you deserve.
