How Do I Know If I Have a Medical Malpractice Suit?
When you seek care from a medical professional, you expect to be treated with the appropriate level and skills commiserate with their training and education. Sometimes patients who seek treatment are harmed in the process. However, not all bad outcomes or injuries that you sustain while receiving medical treatment are actually your healthcare provider’s fault or a cause for a
medical malpractice lawsuit. A Dayton Ohio medical malpractice attorney can explain what you must be able to prove in order to have a valid medical malpractice suit.
Standard of Care
Doctors, nurses, dentists and other medical professionals are expected to exercise the appropriate care expected of their profession. There are medically accepted standards that they must adhere to. These standards are what other healthcare professionals in the same medical field with the same skill would do under the same or similar circumstances. The first thing that you must prove in a medical malpractice case is the appropriate standard of care. You must show what another doctor would have done in the situation that led to your harm. This is usually accomplished by having a medical expert testify about the standard of care.
Breach of the Standard of Care
Next, you must point to some action or lack of action from your healthcare provider that deviated from the appropriate standard of care that would have reasonably been expected from this type of healthcare professional. Deviations may include:
Misdiagnosis of a condition
Failing to order certain tests
Delayed diagnosis of a condition
Surgical errors
Anesthesia errors
Medication errors
Failing to sterilize equipment
Providing treatment without informed consent
Your medical malpractice lawyer will have to conduct a thorough investigation and obtain your medical records. Your medical expert witness will review this information and provide an opinion about the particular way or ways that your healthcare provider deviated from the standard of care.
Causation
Next, you must establish the link between the breach of the standard of care and your injuries. Even if your healthcare provider made a mistake, you will not have a valid claim unless you can show how this mistake caused your injury. Your medical expert can also testify on this matter.
Damages
Last, you must show that the deviation from the standard of care caused you to suffer damages. Because of your doctor’s mistake, you may have required additional medical services and owe medical bills. You may have had a longer recovery time and lost wages. Your doctor’s mistake may have paralyzed you, resulting in your disability and lost earning capacity.
As you can see, medical malpractice cases are complex and require that you, as the plaintiff, be able to prove several challenging elements. An experienced Dayton Ohio medical malpractice attorney can conduct an investigation into your claim and determine whether your healthcare provider committed medical malpractice. Contact Sam Caras to schedule a free and confidential consultation to discuss your claim and determine your legal options.
Dayton Ohio Medical Malpractice Attorney
www.caraslaw.com
