How do I know if I have a medical malpractice case?

Personal injury law exists so people can get the compensation they deserve for injuries they suffered from due to someone else’s negligence, incompetence, or intent (however, personal injury cases are civil complaints rather than criminal cases). So if you have been injured or harmed in some way, then you will need a medical malpractice lawyer.

Types of Medical Malpractice Cases

Medical malpractice is broken up into many different types:

• Birth injuries: injuries related to prenatal obstetrics care or occurred during the birth of the newborn
• Delayed diagnosis: When a doctor fails to order the correct tests or scans and prolongs the suffering of the patient while they wait for answers
• Misdiagnosis: In these cases, a doctor has ordered the correct tests or scans but read them incorrectly and came to the wrong conclusion
• Failure to treat: Unlike the two situations described above, in these situations, the doctor has ordered the correct tests and came to the correct conclusion regarding what is ailing the patient, but they prescribed the wrong course of treatment
• Medical product liability: If you have suffered from poor design or manufacturing of a medical device. Also includes defective or dangerous medication such as Celebrex, Chantix, OxyContin and Yasmin
• Surgical errors: These can range from anesthesia errors to operating on the wrong body part, to leaving medical instruments within the patient after surgery

Building A Medical Malpractice Claim

Juries tend to be skeptical of patients and sympathetic of physicians and may have a bias based on hearing about fraudulent cases against doctors. This is why bringing in a credentialed medical expert to testify on your behalf, as well as thorough medical records, is vital to provide sufficient evidence. The best kind are your medical records that show what your condition was like before and after the treatment that injured you. These records can be from your family physician, specialists you’ve seen, or other medical records. Your attorney can advise you on which specific documents in your case that you should go ahead and request. You will also need to prove that a doctor-patient relationship was established. You may have medical records from just before the incident that gives vital information to help your cases, such as bloodwork or X-rays.

Why Hiring A Medical Malpractice Attorney Helps

There are some challenges that your attorney may face from the defendant’s legal team. One defense is that many conditions have similar symptoms, and very rare illnesses are harder to find. Or they can argue that as a patient undergoing surgery, you understood that there were certain risks being undertaken and that no surgeon can guarantee results or how a person will react after a surgery. It is true that any surgery exposes the patients to potential infection and risk, but there are things that surgeons can do to reduce medical malpractice, such as improving communication with patients. An experienced personal injury attorney has represented many clients before, knows what to anticipate from the defendant’s legal team, and has built a network of expert witnesses over their years in practice. This is incredibly compelling evidence and will help your case along with their years of experience. Hiring a personal injury attorney for your malpractice claim increases your chances of getting what you deserve.