Find Out If You Have Grounds For A Medical Malpractice Lawsuit

Medical Malpractice is defined as deviation from the accepted standards of medical practice such as rendering an experimental treatment to an individual or rendering a treatment incorrectly and creating a more damaging set of circumstances than those which previously were in existence.

Malpractice or poor practice of medicine can be provided by the physician, the hospital at large, a nurse or any other member of the health care team. No one at this point in time is unable to be sued for malpractice in their medical duties because they all have responsibilities to provide health care in a responsible and accurate manner.

To prove a case of medical malpractice, most attorneys and legal practices require that you should be able to prove several aspects of the case before they will consider filing for you. You must be able to prove:

1. That the hospital owed the duty which frankly will be the easier point to prove. Any hospital who accepts you as a patient owes you a legal duty when they undertake your care. They must provide accepted methods of care at acceptable standards.
   
   
2. That they breached or did not meet that standard of care. This is usually proven by the use of expert witnesses or testimony that will show in what way the provider failed to render adequate care, showing errors that were made and what should have been done instead. Standard care may also be shown by obvious errors that do not require an expert witness because the errors are so blatant as to fall under the doctrine of “res Ipsa Loguitor” or literally “the thing speaks for itself.”
   
   
3. The breach of care or poor standard of care caused an injury when it took place or that it was itself a cause of injury. For example, misreading an X-ray and letting the patient leave the hospital with a broken leg might have caused further tissue or tendon damage.
   
   
4. Damages such as loss of wages or loss of the use of a limb or perhaps financial damages caused by the act and thus, further treatment may be necessary. Whether or not it is negligent or poor care, there is very often no reason for a claim and many attorneys will not file it even if the care is proven to be sub-standard. Damages may be emotional or financial but they must have taken place for you to be liable for any awards.
   

Tags: adequate care, breach, broken leg, expert witness, expert witnesses, financial damages, medical malpractice, medical practice, nurse, point in time, tendon, wages, x ray