You go to the hospital because you are in need of medical care to heal you. Unfortunately, sometimes the doctors who are expected to provide you with care through diagnosis, medication, or surgery, end up causing you more harm from negligence. This is called medical malpractice because the doctor or other medical professional did not follow the standard of care that is intended to ensure that they provide every person with treatment that helps them rather than harms them.
Going up against a doctor or hospital in a legal claim can be hard. You might feel hesitant to file a medical malpractice claim, but with the support of a Carbondale medical malpractice attorney from Prince Law Firm, you can have peace of mind knowing that you have an experienced team behind you. We will fully investigate what happened to you and ensure that you are compensated for the medical negligence that led to your injury.
Common Types of Medical Malpractice
You might be wondering if your situation qualifies as medical malpractice. There are four key factors that must be present in order to solidify that you have a med claim, and they all have to do with the standard of care. The standard of care in the medical field is what a medical professional would reasonably do in a situation where their peers would likely do the same. Although this is a vague definition, we would support your claims by bringing in an expert in the medical field to verify the expected standard of care as a reference for what happened to you.
When proving malpractice, you will have to show that the doctor breached the standard of care through their negligence. Here are the four elements you’ll have to prove:
- There was a duty of care contract between you and the medical professional.
- That contract was breached.
- That breach of contract directly resulted in injury to you.
- Those injuries caused damage to you.
That breach can happen many different ways in the medical field. Here are some of the ways that a doctor can breach the standard of care to cause you injury:
- Misdiagnosis. When a doctor does not diagnose you properly, they could end up treating you for an illness or disease that you do not have. That treatment could cause further harm to your health, depending on the methods of treatment.
- Failure to diagnose. When your medical complaints are not fully heard by your doctor, sometimes they fail to diagnose you properly. When this happens, it could cause greater harm to you because they do not catch your illness in time. Sometimes failing to diagnose you can cost you precious time needed to treat your illness before it’s too late, like what can happen with cancer.
- Medication error. Administering improper medication or the incorrect amount of medication can be extremely harmful and even deadly. This can also be the result of a misdiagnosis.
- Anesthesia error. When you go in for a surgery that requires anesthesia, it is imperative that the anesthesiologist administers the proper amount of anesthesia. If they give you too little, you could wake up during surgery. If they give you too much, you could die.
- Surgical error. When you need surgery, you are trusting your surgeons to make the right decisions to help you. When a surgeon is negligent during your surgery, they might operate on the wrong body part, damage a healthy organ, or leave medical supplies inside your body after you are sewn back up. These errors can lead to further complications or even death.
There are other ways that a doctor or another person on a medical team could harm their patient through negligence, but these are some of the most prominent occurrences. This means that you could still have a medical malpractice case even if you don’t see what happened to you in that list. If you suspect that your doctor was negligent and that you might have a case on your hands, the experienced med mal lawyers at Prince Law Firm could answer your questions and discuss your potential claim.
Who Is At Fault?
Above we discussed how fault is determined in med mal cases, now let’s look at who might be at fault more specifically. In our investigation of your claim, our personal injury lawyers will look into the party who was responsible for your medical malpractice injury. You might be up against an individual, like a doctor, nurse, surgeon, or other medical professional whose negligence directly caused your injury. You might be up against a hospital who didn’t have proper procedures in place that led to the negligence you experienced. You might also be up against a medical device manufacturer whose negligence caused a defect in the medical equipment used in your procedure or otherwise.
Our Carbondale Medical Malpractice Lawyer Will Investigate Your Claim
Med mal claims are based on a breach of contract that can take a physical toll on your health, but they also involve a breach of trust that can cause an emotional toll on you. That’s why at Prince Law Firm, we will use our experience as medical malpractice lawyers to build your case and show you that you can trust us to fight for you. We will take care of the legal side of things so you can keep your attention focused where you need it most—healing physically and emotionally. Contact us today so we can discuss your case and how we believe will be the best way for you to take action against the negligent party who caused your injuries.
