Medical malpractice cases all have one thing in common: they are complicated. A medical malpractice case is a personal injury lawsuit brought against a hospital and/or health care professional(s). Before a medical malpractice suit is successful, it must be determined that the case contains four essential elements.
Duty of Care
The hospital, nursing home or health care provider must have had a duty to provide competent medical care for the injured person. This would seem to be obvious, but is not always so. Hospitals have a broad area of responsibility, as they must care for anyone who has been admitted as well as anyone who comes needing emergency care, regardless of their ability to pay. This element is normally easy to prove, but not always so. Good Samaritan laws provide some level of protection to doctors offering emergency care to strangers. Expert witnesses establish what level of care should be provided.
Breach of Duty
This means that the health care professional did not do what they could have been reasonably expected to do. This can cover a wide range of actions, including improper care or neglect, misdiagnosis, no diagnosis, medication errors or providing an unclean environment.
Harm Caused by Breach of Duty
Causation can be the most difficult element to prove. The plaintiff must show that the injury would not have happened except for the negligence. A doctor’s defense might claim that although the patient’s cancer diagnosis was late or initially wrong, the patient would have died anyway as it was a very deadly cancer.
Damages
This is the last element that must be proved. Customary damages would cover past, current and future medical bills caused by necessary treatment for the injury. Lost wages cover not only work lost while injured but also future lost wages. Other damages could be emotional distress, pain and suffering, wrongful death and, in some cases, punitive damages.
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