Medical Malpractice lawsuits are complex and hard-fought battles. There are multiple factors which come into play in these cases. Medical malpractice can cause temporary as well as permanent damage, which could leave the patient disabled for their whole lives. If you or someone you know has been a victim of it, Medical Malpractice Lawyers Wagners will assess your case and help you fight for your right. For the medical malpractice case to be successful, you will have to prove the following three things to your lawyer:
- The standard of care was below the expectation of a reasonable doctor:
Doctors are human, so we cannot expect them to be perfect but we do expect them to proceed with care and caution and give their expertise. There are actions and decisions which in hindsight might turn out to be wrong but were well within the range of the steps any reasonable doctor would take in a particular situation. If the doctor takes any incorrect measures or fails to take the needs steps in the face of a particular situation, then they can be held accountable for having failed to meet standards of care.
- Failure to provide a standard of care which caused the injury:
A simple failure to meet up to the standards of care does not warrant a medical malpractice lawsuit. In order to file a lawsuit stating “medical causes” of injuries and complications, there are multi variants and there is hardly any distinction between cause and effect.
For instance, in a situation where there should’ve been a C section but wasn’t, the baby was seriously injured. In this case, the baby’s parents must gather more medical evidence in order to prove that the delayed delivery was the cause of the specific brain injury.
- What was the damage that was caused by the malpractice and how would it be compensated for?
Once the first two points have been proven successfully and satisfactorily, then the court turns to the damages that must be compensated for. There are some malpractice cases in which damages are all or nothing. In such cases, either the breach was the cause of damage or it was not. This typically holds true for birth injury cases.
In cases like delayed diagnosis, assessing the damages can be much harder. The patient is already sick and would still continue to suffer losses which are not preventable. For example, in the case of cancer if it has been misdiagnosed for a couple of months or even years, then what was the additional damage that has been done since the first diagnosis? It can be extremely difficult to determine that and the medical experts might disagree on it. Though one would assume that treatment would improve the outcome, one cannot truly be sure about it.
