Hospital Accident Lawyers can Help with Medical Malpractice Caused by Negligence
Montgomery County, MD hospital accident lawyers can help with medical malpractice that occured in or out of a hospital setting in Maryland.
Many medical malpractice lawsuits are caused by the misdiagnosis of an illness, injury, or medical condition. When a diagnosis error made by a doctor calls for the wrong treatment, no treatment, or delayed treatment, their patient’s condition may worsen or they could die. While a misdiagnosis is a huge problem, a mistake in the diagnosis is not enough to file a medical malpractice lawsuit. To help you prove that negligence was involved in the medical malpractice you or a loved one suffered from in Montgomery County or anyplace else in MD, contact reputable hospital accident lawyers to learn how they may be able to protect your and your family’s rights.
Proving Medical Malpractice
Doctors are not held legally responsible by the law for all diagnostic errors. Patients will need to prove three things in order to win a medical malpractice lawsuit because of a misdiagnosis:
- The doctor did not provide treatment in a competent or reasonably skillful way, which is otherwise known as negligence.
- There was a doctor-patient relationship.
- Due to the doctor’s negligence, the patient suffered an injury
Most medical malpractice cases are based on whether the doctor was negligent, and if that negligence brought harm to the patient. If you think that you or someone you love has suffered because of this, it may be in your best interest to consult with Montgomery County MD hospital accident lawyers that have a track record of successfully defending medical malpractice victims and their families’ rights.
Was the Doctor Being Negligent?
Having a misdiagnosis or a delayed diagnosis is not enough evidence to prove negligence. Skilled and experienced doctors make diagnostic errors when they are providing reasonable care. The way to determine if the doctor was being negligent is by evaluating what the doctor did or did not do to decide on the diagnosis. The main way to determine the doctor’s method to decide on the diagnosis is by looking at their differential diagnosis. Differential diagnosis is a method that is used by doctors to identify a patient’s condition or disease systematically. The doctor makes a list of diagnoses in the order of their probability based on their preliminary evaluation of the patient. If you or someone you love is injured or unwell because a doctor did not do this, you may be able to seek compensation for the damage this caused from the help of Montgomery County, MD hospital accident lawyers.
Once he or she performs the differential diagnosis, the doctor will then further examine the patient to evaluate each possible diagnosis. Ideally, multiple potential diagnoses can be ruled out as the doctor investigates further, and the examination will be over when there is only one strong diagnosis left. However, medicine is not always that straightforward and when a doctor keeps investigating, they can also find more information which can add potential diagnoses to the list.
To prove that a doctor was being negligent, the patient will need to show that a different doctor with a comparable specialty and with similar circumstances, would not have incorrectly diagnosed the patient’s condition or illness. Many people find that this is easier to do with the help of experienced Montgomery County, MD hospital accident lawyers.
To prove medical malpractice and/or hospital negligence, the patient (often with the help of a lawyer) will need to show one of two things:
- A skilled and competent doctor in similar circumstances would have been able to include the correct diagnosis on their differential diagnosis list, while the patient’s doctor did not.
- The patient’s doctor added the correct diagnosis to their differential diagnosis list, but did not receive opinions from other specialists or perform the necessary tests to fully investigate the diagnosis.
Reputable hospital accident lawyers in Montgomery County, or the place in MD where your or your loved one’s injury occurred, may be able to help you prove your claim more efficiently than if you were to try to do this yourself.
Was their Harm to the Patient from the Misdiagnosis?
In addition to proving the doctor was negligent, the patient will also need to show that because the doctor was negligent in their diagnosis, there was harm to the patient. Harm to the patient means that had the patient been correctly diagnosed in a timely manner, the patient’s condition would not have worsened. If the patient is incorrectly diagnosed with an illness or condition they do not have, the patient could also prove that they were harmed in the form of stress, medical problems, expenses from unneeded treatment, and anxiety.
For highly rated Montgomery County, MD hospital accident lawyers that can help with medical malpractice claims, contact Cohen & Cohen for a free case evaluation with no obligations, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
