What is Medical Malpractice?
Medical malpractice is an umbrella term that refers to the various ways in which a health care professional can make an error that injures the patient. Almost unbelievably, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that these medical errors are so common that they now represent the country’s third leading cause of death. In the event that you are injured, you may wish to contact one of the best medical malpractice attorney PG County.
Medical Malpractice Examples
A medical malpractice claim can arise from any number of occurrences. Some of the most common include the following:
- Failing to obtain a proper patient history
- Failing to order the proper diagnostic tests
- Misreading or discounting test results
- Failing to take a patient’s complaints seriously
- Failing to recognize a patient’s symptoms for what they are
- Failing to correctly diagnose a patient’s condition
- Failing to obtain a patient’s valid informed consent to treatment(s) or procedures
- Performing an unnecessary surgery
- Performing surgery on the wrong body part
- Leaving a sponge or other foreign object inside the patient
- Prescribing the wrong medication(s) or wrong dosage(s)
- Failing to adequately explain a drug’s side effects
- Discharging a patient too soon
- Failing to provide adequate after care
How to Know if You’ve Been Victimized
The surest way to tell if you’ve been the victim of medical practice is if you become sicker after seeking treatment than you were before. Other red flags include the following:
- Your physician discourages you from obtaining a second opinion from another physician.
- No one on your health care team adequately answers your questions.
- They seem to be evasive.
- They always seem rushed and unwilling to spend adequate time with you.
- They tend to discount your own research into your symptoms.
Proving Medical Malpractice
Virtually all medical malpractice cases are based on the theory of negligence. In other words, you’re not claiming that anyone on your health care team deliberately injured you. Rather, you’re claiming that one or more members of the team made a mistake that resulted in your injuries.
While precise elements of medical malpractice may vary from state to state, in general, you and your medical malpractice lawyer (ideally, one of the best medical malpractice attorney PG County) should be prepared to offer clear and convincing evidence of the following when your case against your physician goes to trial:
- A valid doctor-patient relationship existed between you and your doctor.
- Based on this relationship, your doctor owed you a specific duty of care.
- He or she breached that duty by providing you with substandard care.
- Due to that breach, you suffered injuries.
- The breach was the proximate, i.e., direct, cause of your injuries.
- Those injuries caused you to sustain compensatory monetary damages.
If you win your case, the court will issue a judgment requiring the defendant(s) to pay you sufficient money to cover your medical bills and other economic and noneconomic losses.
We cannot say that Cohen & Cohen is the best medical malpractice attorney PG County, but, since our inception in 1993, have settled 10,000 cases in personal injury law. Contact us today for a free case evaluation.
It’s impossible to say who is the best medical malpractice attorney PG County, but we strongly believe our credentials speak for themself. If you’ve been injured due to negligence, contact us immediately at (202) 955-4529.
