It is alarming that about 98,000 people die every year due to medical malpractice. Doctors are not the only ones involved in these cases. They also involve nurses, dentists, therapists, and other medical practitioners. These kind of malpractice like legal malpractice involves negligence. The former specifically refers to improper and negligent performance of the doctor or any other medical professional in the diagnosis, care, and treatment. This takes on various forms including surgical errors, prescription mistakes, late or wrong diagnosis, failure to diagnose a certain disease, injuries during childbirth, errors in the administration of anesthesia and many more. Almost 100,000 people could have been saved if these errors were prevented. But death isn't the only result; injuries, disabilities, and trauma can also arise from mistakes committed in the medical facility.
Filing Medical Malpractice Complaint
The legal remedy for such event is to file a medical malpractice lawsuit against the doctor, hospital or medical practitioner involved. Since these are known for being difficult and expensive, it's a must to have a reliable and competent medical malpractice lawyer at your side. Most attorneys give free initial consultation and advice regarding what to do about the matter. Since there is what you call a statute of limitation for these complaints to be filed, it's necessary to file it as soon as possible. The statute of limitation means that there's only a specified duration of time that the complaint can be filed. If filed after this, the complaint will not be accepted by the court and the plaintiff will not receive any monetary compensation even if the complaint is valid and has strong evidence.
Legal Requirements for the Medical Malpractice Complaint
In order for a medical malpractice complaint to be valid, it should have these three elements: negligence, damages (injury) and causation. Having all these elements are necessary to build a strong case. Negligence refers to the error of the doctor or deviation from the standard medical procedures. For every given medical treatment, a standard procedure of care is provided for the diagnosis and treatment of the patient. If the doctor fails to follow that whether intentionally or unintentionally, negligence is present. For example, if a 60-year-old woman goes to a hospital due to chest pains, the doctor must have her undergo standard tests to check for heart diseases and other possible health problems. If not, this can be considered as negligence in the part of the doctor and hospital.
In medical malpractice, damages include medical expenses, lost income, lost future earnings, future medical bills, pain and suffering and other personal damages. Finally, there should be a causation or a link between the two elements mentioned above. The negligence must have caused damages that are enumerated above for the claim to be considered valid as a medical malpractice complaint. This is the element that is the hardest to prove in cases like this. But with a good lawyer to help you prove that the medical professional's negligence did indeed cause you damages then you would be able to make a claim for monetary compensation.
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