Medical malpractice refers to a situation where a patient is harmed by any medical professional or doctor who fails to perform their medical duties fairly. Medical malpractices are often serious and alter the life of the patient significantly. Therefore, there are some rules set against medical malpractices. If found guilty, a medical practitioner has to compensate the patient.
The rules are somewhat different for every state, so you must consult a lawyer of that state. For instance, if you or someone close toyou has suffered because of the doctor’s fault in Miami, you must hire a Miami medical malpractice lawyer to help win your case.
Basic Requirements for a Claim
To prove that a patient has suffered medical malpractice, they must show these things:
Existence of the doctor-patient relationship
You must show that you have had a physician-patient relationship with the medical professional you want to sue. This implies that you had hired the services of the medical practitioner and they have agreed to be hired.
For instance, you cannot sue a doctor whom you met at a party. To prove that the physician-patient relationship existed, the doctor must be treating you. Questions regarding whether such relationship existed arise where the consulting doctor was not treating you directly.
The medical professional was negligent
Just because you are not satisfied with your result or treatment does not mean the medical professional is liable for medical malpractice. Your doctor must be negligent in connection with your treatment or diagnosis. To sue for medical malpractice, you should be able to prove that the medical professional caused you to suffer in a way that another medical professional would not have under similar circumstances.
The medical professional’s care is not needed to be the best possible but reasonably careful and skillful. Whether the medical professional was reasonably careful and skillful is often at the middle of a medical malpractice claim. Almost every state demands that the patient bring an expert in medicine to discuss the suitable medical standard of care as well as display how the defendant digressed from the standard.
The medical professional’s negligence caused the injury
Many malpractice cases concern patients who were already injured or sick. As a result, it is often a question whether the doctor’s negligence has caused the harm. For instance, if a patient has lung cancer and dies after the treatment, even if the doctor did something negligent, it would be hard to prove that it was the medical professional’s negligence that caused the death and not cancer.
The patient must prove that it is the doctor’s incompetence that led to the injury. Additionally, the patient should get a medical expert to testify that the injury was caused due to doctor’s negligence.
The injury led to damages
Even though it is clear that the medical professional performed poorly than their expected standards, the patient cannot sue the doctor if they did not suffer any harm. A patient can sue for:
- Mental anguish
- Physical pain
- Lost earning capacity
- Additional medical bills
Leave a Reply