Medical Negligence

Have You Been Injured Due to Medical Negligence?

Attorneys Offer Free Legal Advice About Medical Negligence

Medical malpractice resulting from medical negligence kills or injures millions of patients each year. Medical neglect occurs whenever a healthcare professional fails to safely take care of a patient. There are many kinds of medical negligence, such as surgical negligence and medication negligence, which includes prescribing the wrong medication or the wrong dosage, dental negligence, nurse negligence, and healthcare facility negligence, such as in an emergency room. Medical negligence often results in permanent injuries, death, loss of wages, disabilities, and pain and suffering.

Medical negligence and medical malpractice are often used interchangeably, but in reality medical negligence is a required legal element that must be proven in a medical malpractice claim. Medical professionals are required to provide treatment meeting the medical standard of care, which essentially means that any medical professional should be providing a level of competency in their care that another skilled medical professional with a similar background would provide. When a medical professional fails to meet this standard, they are considered negligent.

What are the Statistics on Medical Negligence?

Medical negligence/malpractice occurs when a healthcare professional such as a doctor, nurse, surgeon, or medical facility, such as a clinic, hospital, or emergency room, does not exercise a proper standard of care, which results in the serious injury or death of a patient. Due to the extensive training that medical professionals receive and the fact that a patient’s health and life are dependent on the provider’s care, we hold these professionals to a high standard.

Four elements must be proven in order for malpractice to be established. These are known as the “four Ds”, and include duty, dereliction (AKA negligence or deviation from standard care practices), damages, and direct cause. Each of the four Ds must be present in a case and able to be proven for negligence to be established.

Let’s go over some important medical negligence statistics:

• On average, 225,000 people die every year due to medical negligence (Johns Hopkins University)
• Types of medical negligence/malpractice include incorrect dosages, surgical errors, misdiagnoses, delayed diagnoses, failure to treat, birth injuries, and medical product liability.
• Medical negligence/malpractice is the third most common cause of death in the United States (Johns Hopkins University)
• Medication negligence is the most common type of medical malpractice according to the Journal of the American Medical Association with on average 1.5 million people injured due to medication negligence every year.

Who is Responsible for Medical Negligence?

Medical negligence can be perpetrated by any type of doctor, surgeon, or healthcare professional. Due to the number and variety of medical professionals involved in any one procedure, there could be multiple parties guilty of medical negligence.

If this describes the circumstance surrounding your injury, there may be several negligent parties involved in your case. These may include:

• Individual providers: Healthcare professionals including anesthesiologists, cardiologists, dermatologist, gastroenterologist, gynecologist, neonatologist neurologists, neurosurgeons, nurses, obstetricians, oncologists, ophthalmologists, orthopedic surgeons, pediatricians, pharmacologists, pharmacists, physicians assistants, plastic surgeons, radiologists, urogynecologist, urologist, vascular surgeons, and more may be held liable for damages incurred as a result of medical negligence. More than one healthcare professional may be guilty of negligence and held liable as a result.
• Hospitals. A hospital may be held liable due to its own negligence or the negligence of its employees. When a hospital hires medical staff, they are responsible for making sure they only hire applicants with sufficient training and experience. They are also required to ensure full-staffing and fair treatment of their staff to reduce the amount of exhaustion-related mistakes which might otherwise occur. To fail to do so is negligent and can result in harm for their patients. Additionally, if a hospital refuses to admit or treat a patient based on race, color, religion, or another qualifying factor, the hospital could be liable for any damages which occur as a result.
• Health maintenance organizations. Health maintenance organizations (HMOs) are a kind of alternative to traditional health insurance which may offer a lower monthly premium and has its own specific network of medical providers. If an HMO is accused of including or retaining an unqualified/proven-to-be negligent healthcare professional in their network, they may be liable for any medical negligence which occurs as a result.

Do You Have a Claim for Medical Negligence?

Depending on the nature of you or your family member’s injuries due to medical negligence, your personal injury lawyer may identify possible claims for:

• Medical expenses. Common injuries resulting from medical negligence include: childbirth injuries; injuries due to incorrect dosage; injuries due to anesthesia errors; internal bleeding/organ punctures; paralysis; infections; other traumatic injuries; and, in the worst case scenario, death.
• Lost wages (or impairment of earning capacity) as a result of extended hospital stay-time, or, for the loved one of a medical negligence victim, the necessity to temporarily or permanently extricate themselves from work in order to provide care.
• Lifecare expenses, such as life support or ongoing medical expenses for chronic injuries.
• Vocational rehabilitation.
• Pain and suffering, for both emotional and physical distress.
• Wrongful death.
• Funeral expenses.

If you were injured by medical negligence or if a loved one was killed due to a medical professional’s neglect, you need a personal injury attorney that understands the emotional and physical toll this negligence can take. An experienced attorney will be aggressive in seeking the compensation that you deserve.