When it comes to personal injury law or tort law, medical malpractice has slowly become one of the most common types of cases across the country. If you ask any doctor in the United States, they will tell you that medical malpractice insurance is one of the most expensive and most vital costs you must incur as a physician – especially for more high-risk specialties and surgeons.
According to the Medical Malpractice Center, across the US there are nearly 20,000 medical malpractice lawsuits being filed against physicians each and every year, and combined those cases can reach into the billions in terms of dollar amounts. As one of the top personal injury attorneys in New York City, Mr. Louis Mangan, Esq. has been able to countless victims of medical malpractice negligence get compensatory damages, as well as the justice they deserve. If you are the victim of any negligent actions by your doctor or surgeon, it’s vital that you contact the Law Offices of Louis Mangan today, and find out if you are eligible for a medical malpractice claim.
What is Medical Malpractice?
Doctors are some of the most well respected individuals in our society. As one of the most difficult careers to get into, doctors go through years of medical training and education, and are rewarded with a very well-paying and rewarding career at the end. However, to match that high-level career, hospitals, doctors, and medical providers are expected to maintain a certain standard of care when treating patients.
In medicine, depending on your symptoms, doctors provide a diagnosis. And with each diagnosis, comes a certain standard of care and protocol that has been deemed to be a medically viable treatment for such a diagnosis. While doctors aren’t responsible for any harm that comes to a patient, medical malpractice comes into play when a patient experiences harm or injury, as a result of their doctor deviating from the medically accepted standard of care for a similar situation. In a legal sense, according to Mr. Mangan and his team, medical malpractice claims must involve a few different factors.
A Professional Duty was Owed to the Patient
This means that the patient was under the care of the doctor, and as a doctor, he owed a certain professional duty to that patient.
Failure to Provide a Proper Standard of Care
The law states that health care providers must adhere to a certain standard of care, and if they don’t meet that standard of care, their actions can be considered negligent.
Injury Occurs as a result of the Negligence
If the above factor is met, and the patient feels the doctor acted negligently, but they were not harmed or injured, then there is no claim. However, if the patient does suffer from some type of injury or harm, they must (with the help of their attorney) provide that their injury or harm was caused by those negligent actions. And if their doctor had not acted negligently they would not have been injured.
The Injury Caused Damages
The patient must then also be able to prove that as a result of the injury they suffered, it caused certain consequences to their life, that can be considered damages. These can be financial, emotional, physical and lead to some type of losses. These damages can include a lot of different things, but some of the most common include:
- Pain and Suffering
- Present and future hardships.
- Chronic physical pain issues.
- Loss of income, or inability to work.
- Present and future disability.
- Family issues.
Examples of Medical Malpractice
If the above criteria have been met, than the patient is eligible to file a medical malpractice claim against their doctor or surgeon. Some of the most common examples of malpractice include:
- Misdiagnosis or the inability to diagnose
- Unnecessary or incorrect surgery
- Prematurely discharging a patient
- Accidents or mistakes made during surgery, ie. Leaving things inside the patient’s body.
- Failure to follow up with a patient.
- Misinterpreting lab results or act on certain results.
- Incorrect dosages, or incorrect prescriptions.
- Lack of informed consent to some type of treatment or surgical procedure.
If you or your loved ones, might have been the victim of some form of medical malpractice, be sure to contact the Law Offices of Mangan Louis as soon as possible, and get the justice you deserve.