Wrongful Death/Medical Malpractice Lawsuit

Seeing your family or loved ones suffer from pain or injury brought about by medical malpractice can be traumatic. It is difficult to deal with knowing that your family member is suffering due to someone’s failure to follow the standard of care to prevent injury or fatality. Knowing your rights and protecting your family from harm by holding negligent health practitioners liable is very important and makes a big difference. Explore legal venues and make the responsible party accountable.

Medical Errors

Patients dying due to medical errors account for nearly ten percent of American deaths yearly. According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, medical error is the third-leading cause of death in the United States. The most common causes of medical errors include misdiagnosis where a health practitioner incorrectly diagnoses a certain illness or health condition leaving their actual medical issue untreated putting the patient's health at risk and harming their well-being. Another medical error is prescribing incorrect medication. If improper medication is given to patients, it may cause allergies or drug interaction put their lives in danger, and may lead to illness progression or adverse reactions. The most dangerous and serious medical error is surgical error. An error may result in unnecessary amputation of a body part, temporary or permanent disability, or wrongful death.

Medical Malpractice

Failure of a professional person to act under the prevailing professional standards, or failure to foresee consequences that a professional person, having the necessary skills and education, should foresee is defined as medical malpractice. NCBI  discussed that a simple mistake or error in diagnosis or error during a procedure is not enough to prove that medical malpractice exists. Causation, Breach of duty, duty of care, and damages must be clearly established.

Elements Of Medical Malpractice

In a lawsuit, a doctor-patient relationship must be established by the plaintiff. There is a breach of duty when a healthcare provider deviates from the accepted standard of care in the medical community. This breach might be an act of negligence, carelessness, or omission. Causation in medical malpractice involves establishing a direct causal link between the healthcare provider’s breach of duty and the patient’s harm. This element requires proving that the patient’s injury, worsening condition, or death was a direct result of the provider’s negligence and not due to other variables. To prove damages, you must establish that a patient suffered a verifiable injury that was not within the expected outcome and the injury was due to a healthcare provider’s negligence and has resulted in measurable losses.

What Makes a Good Case?

You cannot sue just because your doctor was not the best in his or her field or you did not get your desired result. To have a strong medical malpractice case, you must prove that the doctor did something wrong or a breach of the standard of care must occur and that the injury or death could have been prevented if not for the medical error made given the circumstances.

What’s Next?

Given that all these elements are present and that you sustained injury due to medical malpractice, you may need the services of a lawyer to help you with your potential medical error case. Medical malpractice cases are never simple and easy. They involve life-and-death situations, health limitations, temporary or permanent disability, and growing medical bills. If you or your loved ones suffered due to negligence of a medical professional your attorney will help you with your lawsuit as you go through the process of attaining the best results for your claim.

About the Author

Sean M. Cleary is an experienced personal injury attorney whose area of practice includes medical malpractice and wrongful death. His law firm, The Law Offices of Sean M. Cleary, is headquartered in Miami, Florida, and he has over 20 years of professional experience in providing quality assistance to surviving family members who intend to seek compensation for the wrongful death of a loved one.