Medical Malpractice occurs when a doctor, hospital, or other health care provider fails to provide treatment for an illness or injury as expected of someone in their field. The resulting harm or injury could have damaging consequences, such as permanent scarring, disfigurement, and in some cases even death. When malpractice occurs, a patient may be entitled to compensation from the healthcare provider for damages suffered.
In order for a patient to sue their health care provider for malpractice, they must prove that the physician or hospital did not act as another reasonably careful practitioner would under the same circumstances. The patient must also show that this breach of the standard of care caused their injury. This is called causation.
Proving that a physician or other health care provider failed to meet the standard of care can be challenging, particularly in medical malpractice lawsuits, where a plaintiff is often fighting for redress against highly trained and respected physicians. In addition, the burden of proof in a malpractice case can be extremely high due to the complexity and specialized nature of medical topics.
Several different types of negligence may be present in a LA Medical Malpractice case, including failing to treat, misdiagnosis, and improper operation. A failure to treat injury or illness might involve a doctor failing to prescribe or administer the correct medication or dosage or misinterpreting an existing prescription. For example, a doctor who prescribes blood thinners that are too strong can cause fatal bleeding.
Misdiagnosis involves the doctor failing to recognize and/or diagnose a condition, such as a heart attack or stroke. This type of error can include a delay in diagnosis or the doctor overlooking clinical symptoms and/or a patient’s prior medical history when making a diagnosis. It can also include misinterpretation of test results and/or other studies, such as a tumor or cancer.
Improper operations or surgical procedures can result in serious harm and damage to a patient, especially when a patient is injured during an operation that should have been done correctly. Injuries may include incorrect removal of a foreign object, wrongful death due to complications of surgery, or amputated limbs when a patient is given anesthesia without their informed consent.
While the majority of medical malpractice cases are resolved outside of court, there are some that do go to trial. During the course of a trial, attorneys for both parties take depositions, which are interviews of witnesses under oath about the case. The first attorney to question a witness is known as the “direct examiner.” Other attorneys may then ask questions, called cross-examination, of the direct examiner. The process of redirect and recross may repeat until all parties have asked all of their questions. This allows both sides to make their cases in detail and in full.