Like many, you visit primary care physicians, ER doctors and other physicians because of your health. Whether you're hoping for disease screenings or actively feel ill, doctors can be the professionals that diagnose and treat you. You probably have a great deal of trust in their abilities, but mistakes can still take place. Even worse, malpractice, while uncommon, still happens. What needs to be known about medical malpractice if you suspect it?
Discovering Which Situations Count as Malpractice
Most people, when thinking about malpractice, remember sensational stories they've heard about surgical tools being left in someone's abdomen or other obvious surgical mistakes that shouldn't have happened. However problems in surgery aren't the only instances where malpractice can happen. For example, inaction can be as bad as action. If your doctor knows that you have symptoms for one condition but doesn't ever bother to test for it and then you come down with it, a lawsuit could be an option.
Another time when medical malpractice could arise is when people tasked with delivering medicine to patients either at hospitals or nursing homes. Honest medication mistakes can occur, but if nurses or techs aren't marking the computer medical records and cause double dosage or missed dosages, that's likely actionable.
Records mismanagement can also lead to malpractice claims. If a physician's office staff misfiled your EKG, blood test results and other records improperly, the doctor could misdiagnose your health problem and it can threaten your livelihood. This too could be reason to contact attorneys.
Understand What Must Be Proved
Realizing certain situations make malpractice possible and actionable doesn't mean that you'll automatically be awarded damages. Often, you have a real burden of proof to satisfy. For instance, you must set out by proving that the physician had a responsibility that they failed with. For example, if your neighbor is a doctor and they informally suggest treatments for what they think your health problem is, it's not malpractice for them to do so because they aren't acting in the role of your physician at that time. You and your lawyer will also need to show that any mistakes, whether intentional or not, directly impacted your health for the worse.
Doctors are human like everyone outside the medical profession. However, if they're negligent or malicious, taking action could improve both your life and those of others in the community. Malpractice attorneys, such as from Lee Eadon Isgett Popwell & Owens, can provide the legal information which dictates whether you can successfully pursue a physician for their deeds.
Share22 January 2019
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