Common Causes of Malpractice Litigation

Malpractice litigation is a complex procedure. Whether or not the error constitutes malpractice depends on whether the patient is able to establish four legal elements that include a professional obligation; breach of this duty; injury resulted from the breach and tangible damages.

Plaintiffs must be able to prove the elements using evidence such as expert testimony and depositions.

Incorrect diagnosis and failure to diagnose

Failure to diagnose an injury or illness correctly can cause serious complications, or death. Many medical malpractice cases involve incorrect diagnosis. To prove negligence, the patient or their lawyer must demonstrate that a competent doctor under similar circumstances and working in the same area would not have misdiagnosed the condition.

Not every misdiagnosis is negligence, but. Even highly experienced and trained doctors can make mistakes. Therefore, any claim of malpractice has to be supported with other elements like breach, proximate cause and actual injury. If a doctor fails to sterilize his equipment prior to administering anesthesia, and the patient gets infected due to this, the doctor might be found to be negligent.

Lawsuits alleging malpractice are typically filed in state trial courts where the alleged error occurred. However, federal courts could be able to handle cases in certain circumstances. A claim may be filed before a federal court under certain circumstances. For example it could be a dispute about the statute of limitations or if the parties are of different nationalities. Additionally, some cases are settled through voluntary binding arbitration. This is a less formal process with professional decision makers. It is designed to reduce costs, expedite legal proceedings and reduce the possibility of excessively generous juries. However, arbitration isn't available for all claims of eastman malpractice lawsuit.

The wrong dosage of medication

Medication mistakes, also referred to as medication errors, are among the most common causes of medical malpractice lawsuits. These errors could be caused by a physician submitting a prescription in the wrong format, or giving the patient the incorrect dosage. These errors are generally preventable. According to the situation an individual pharmacy, hospital or other health care provider could be held accountable for the injuries resulting from a patient who received the wrong dose of a medication.

A doctor could prescribe wrong medication to a patient because of an inaccurate diagnosis or simply by misreading the prescription. A health care professional could also prescribe the wrong dose due to an inability to communicate like when nurses read the doctor's handwritten script in error or the pharmacist commits an error in filling the prescription. In other instances the doctor might delay delivering the correct medication, which can cause the patient's condition to getting worse.

A person who suffers from a medical fort valley malpractice lawsuit claim must prove, to be successful in a malpractice lawsuit that the medical professional violated their standards of practice and that their injuries were directly caused by the negligence. This requires medical experts to provide evidence. A medical river edge malpractice attorney case must prove the severity and severity of the victim's injuries. This includes the cost of treatment as well as any lost wages. Generally, the greater a person's losses are in the greater value of the claim will be.

Wrong Procedure

It may seem impossible that medical professionals would perform the incorrect procedure on a patient but this type of mishap is quite common. The surgeon who commits this kind of error could be held responsible for negligence. However patients who are injured by a surgical mistake can also be held accountable for any negligence that occurred the way to the procedure.

A medical professional accused of malpractice has to prove that the patient was injured as a result of the specific act or inability to act. To establish this, the legal team representing the patient must show: (1) that the doctor had a responsibility to provide care or treat the patient; (2) that he breached that duty; (3) that a causal connection exists between the breach and the injury and (4) the injuries result in damages that the legal system can address.

A breach of the duty of care has no significance unless it causes injury which is the reason medical malpractice claims are typically built on a legal concept known as "res ipsa loquitur." This law states that, in the majority of cases certain injuries are so obvious and evident that they can only be explained by negligent acts.

Depending on the facts the plaintiff (the person who filed the claim or their legal representative) or their lawyer could decide to file the claim in state or federal court. The majority of malpractice cases are filed in state court, but under certain circumstances, a medical malpractice case can be brought in federal district court.

Wrong Surgery

Wrong-site surgery is a rare error, but it can be considered medical malpractice when the procedure is carried out on the wrong portion of the body. This kind of error is often caused by miscommunications between members of the surgical team, or due to production pressures that result in surgeons being assigned multiple surgeries at once. In these instances, a surgeon is not solely responsible for an incorrect-site procedure due to a legal rule known as "res ipsa locquitur", which states that the result is a matter of fact and cannot be blamed on negligence.

If a patient gets injured by wrong-site surgery and is injured, they may require additional procedures to fix problems exacerbated by the mistake. Patients and their families are left with high medical bills. It is essential to take these costs into consideration when calculating the financial burden of medical malpractice lawsuits.

The majority of times surgeons are accountable for surgical mistakes. They are accountable in preparing the patient prior to the procedure, examining the medical record and chart of the patient, communicating with the rest of the medical personnel, and ensuring that the incision was placed at the right place. In certain instances an anesthesiologist or hospital may also be held responsible. Medical malpractice lawsuits are typically filed in state court, but may be transferred in certain circumstances to federal court.