Red Flags For Medical Malpractice
It goes without saying that most people put complete trust in their doctors. When something doesn’t go as planned, it may be tempting to give your doctor the benefit of the doubt. However, not one person is without some degree of error, and when that error causes a patient to suffer injury, it is worth considering whether taking legal action is necessary. Victims of medical malpractice deserve compensation for what they have endured.
To better understand whether your situation qualifies for a medical malpractice claim, consider whether the following applies:
A Patient-Doctor Relationship Existed
A doctor cannot be sued for medical malpractice unless a doctor-patient relationship was established. Deciding if this is true for your situation is fairly simple; if a nurse or doctor provided you with care face-to-face, then it is reasonable to conclude that this relationship existed. Where the lines of the patient-doctor relationship can get blurry is if the doctor did not perform an in-person examination, or gave advice to another doctor.
The Doctor Did Not Provide a Standard of Care
With help from a lawyer, you must show how the doctor failed to provide you with a certain standard of care. In fact, there are expectations in the medical community for how doctors treat their patients. If another doctor with alike experience and in similar circumstances would not have made the same decision as to the initial doctor, and injuries resulted, then there may be grounds for medical malpractice. When your lawyer is assessing your case, they will be looking for several factors, including:
- The doctor’s medical expertise/specialty
- The doctor’s training and qualifications
- Other influencing factors
Injury and Damages Resulted
A violation in providing a good standard of care may not automatically qualify you for filing a medical malpractice lawsuit. What must have happened is as the patient you suffered a new injury, worsened condition, or other adverse effects to your well-being and/or finances. The resulting damages must be quantifiable.
If this information resonates with a situation you or a loved one are currently in, we advise speaking with a lawyer as soon as possible, such as a Philadelphia medical malpractice lawyer from Wieand Law Firm, LLC.