Healthcare professionals are trusted members of society. They take oaths to protect the patients and provide certain standards of medical care. When they fail to uphold that duty and cause injuries to a patient, the errors can constitute medical malpractice. Those who suffer injuries at the hands of healthcare workers have a right to seek compensation.
What Are the Grounds for Medical Malpractice Suits?
Failure To Treat
Failure to treat a patient can lead to a medical malpractice claim if certain conditions are met. Healthcare workers must provide care to patients; if they fail, they can be held accountable. Also, a doctor is at fault if they fail to perform the required tests, refer the patient to a specialist, or let the patient know about available treatment for their condition. If a doctor fails to treat you, get a personal injury lawyer for legal help and seek compensation.
Misdiagnosis
Failure to diagnose can have serious consequences for the patient. If a disease is not diagnosed, it cannot be treated properly, worsening the condition or even causing death. If a doctor misdiagnoses a disease, they may recommend inappropriate procedures and treatments. A delayed diagnosis can cause pain and suffering and lead to financial losses. For the plaintiff to win, an attorney should demonstrate that the doctor breached their duty to diagnose the patient’s condition, which was the major cause of the patient’s injuries.
Childbirth Injuries
Birth injuries are medical malpractice when caused by a healthcare professional’s negligence and under certain circumstances. You can sue a healthcare worker for failing to monitor the baby’s heartbeat and detect fetal distress, depriving the baby of oxygen. It’s also medical malpractice if a doctor fails to perform a cesarean section if vaginal delivery is unsafe. Failure to properly diagnose and treat complications after birth, which may lead to serious infections, and exerting too much force during delivery, are also grounds for medical malpractice.
Surgical Errors
Over the decades, medical technologies have reduced the problems associated with surgeries. However, technology cannot intervene when a surgeon makes mistakes. The common surgical errors that can lead to malpractice claims are: performing surgery on the wrong body part or the incorrect procedure, damaging organs, and blood vessels during surgery, and leaving surgical instruments and other foreign objects inside a patient’s body. You can also sue a doctor for failing to obtain informed consent when the patient wasn’t aware of the risks.
Defective Medical Equipment
If the equipment’s defect caused injuries to a patient, you can file a medical malpractice suit. To prove that, the plaintiff must show that the healthcare professional breached the duty of care by failing to inspect or maintain the equipment or warn the patient of the associated risks. The manufacturer can also be held accountable if the defect was present in the manufacture or labeling of the equipment. Your lawyer should prove that the injury would have been prevented if the equipment had not been defective.
Medication Errors
Medication errors can occur if a physician administers the wrong medication. This can occur if the health worker misreads the prescription or dispenses the wrong medication. Also, it’s medical malpractice if a healthcare provider administers the wrong dose of medicine or gives medication to the wrong person. This can occur if the patient’s name is not labeled correctly. In addition, failure by a physician to monitor the patient’s response to medication, leading to suffering, can make a patient file a malpractice suit.
Navigating a medical malpractice case is hard, considering that healthcare professionals have legal protection. Find an experienced malpractice lawyer with legal skills who can push your case against doctors and other healthcare workers who have caused you harm. An attorney should, therefore, prove all the elements of medical malpractice, such as duty of care, breach of duty, and damages, to get fair compensation.
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