Common Legal Claims Against Doctors
Healthcare providers are vital in safeguarding and improving health and wellness. However, they are humans and bound to make errors, despite their experience and dedication to service. Depending on the severity, medical malpractices can lead to adverse outcomes, including death. If such occurs, victims can seek legal action for compensation. Common legal claims against medical professionals range from negligence and misconduct to malpractice. Below are the most common legal suits doctors face.
1. Surgical Errors
Surgical procedures are common in the medical realm. While they help improve patients’ health and well-being, they can cause physical harm, emotional distress, and other consequences that form the basis of legal claims against surgeons. Surgical errors include:
- Wrong site surgery: Doctors can be sued if they perform a procedure on the wrong body part. This can surprisingly occur due to a communication breakdown between the surgical team or if surgeons overlook the preoperative verification process.
- Complications from anesthesia: Patients should be anesthetized during operations. Unfortunately, errors can occur due to allergic reactions or incorrect dosages.
- Unnecessary surgery: Not all medical conditions require an operation. An unnecessary surgery may occur due to misdiagnosis or poor communication among healthcare professionals.
- Surgeon fatigue: Demanding schedules and long operation hours leads to surgeon fatigue. Fatigued surgeons are inattentive. It also impairs their judgment, making them prone to mistakes.
While patients entrust their health and well-being to doctors, such unexpected errors can occur. If you or your loved one suffered infections or other complications due to a botched surgery, medical malpractice lawyers from The Tinker Law Firm PLLC can help.
2. Misdiagnosis or Delayed Diagnosis
Misdiagnosis has significant effects on the patient’s health and well-being. These errors occur when medical professionals make inaccurate diagnoses, primarily due to incomplete medical history or testing procedures. Patients can sue doctors who prescribe treatments that don’t address their health issues.
On the other hand, delayed diagnosis occurs when medical professionals miss an opportunity to make early interventions, allowing the disease to progress. Unfortunately, proving liability for misdiagnosis and delayed diagnosis is difficult. You should hire an expert witness who can demonstrate that they would have timely and correctly diagnosed your condition.
3. Medical Negligence
You can also sue doctors for medical negligence. As the name suggests, this means medical professionals fail to provide the expected standard of care. These legal suits occur when the doctor’s actions deviate from the accepted standards, causing harm or injury to the patients. You should have the following to prove medical negligence:
- Duty of care: You should prove that the doctor owed the patient a reasonable duty of care.
- Breach of duty: Victims should prove the doctor breached the established duty of care.
- Causation: You should link the doctor’s action to the harm or injury suffered.
- Damages: Proving the patient suffered damages due to the doctor’s actions or inactions.
Endnote
Medical professionals are highly regarded because of their importance to society. While most medics provide competent care, mistakes can occur. Victims who suffer health problems and other consequences from doctors’ mistakes can file medical malpractice claims. However, proving liability in these cases is an uphill task. Affected patients should work closely with reputable medical malpractice lawyers to prove their claims.
