What Is The Medical Standard of Care In A Malpractice Case?

You need to understand the medical standards from a legal standpoint that are used to determine if malpractice has occurred in medical cases, if you want to win your case either in or out of court.

If you have ever been the victim of a medical mistake that was the doctor’s fault, you likely felt very angry and wanted to craft a medical malpractice suit against the doctor. However, it is one thing to build this type of case against your doctor. It is a totally different issue when trying to win this type of case either in or out of court. Since medical malpractice cases are very complex, you’ll need to hire a personal injury lawyer in Lincoln.

How the law defines medical malpractice

Your personal injury lawyer will tell you that specific criteria and conditions have to occur for the doctor or hospital to be considered guilty of medical malpractice. Just any mistake that the hospital or doctor makes is not enough to be considered medical malpractice. An occurrence is considered to be medical malpractice only if it has fallen below a certain expected standard of care. Additionally, you have to have sustained serious medical harm or bodily injuries because of this breach of duty of care. You essentially don’t have a medical malpractice case if both of these conditions are not met. There is also no malpractice case if you were not harmed even though your doctor breached his or her duty of care towards you.

What is the ‘Medical standard of care?”

According to a personal injury lawyer,‘medical standard of care’ is defined as, “the type and level of care that an ordinary and prudent health care professional with the same training and experience would provide to the same community under similar circumstances!” If you can’t answer, “Yes” to this question: would a similarly skilled health professional have provided me with the same treatment under the same or similar circumstances, you don’t have a malpractice case. Keep in mind that you may have a malpractice case even if you can’t say, “yes” to this question if the doctor’s level of care caused you significant bodily injury or illness.

How does the law define ‘Medical standard of care?’

You will probably be calling at least one medical expert to the stand in your malpractice case. This doctor will be trained and experienced in the same specialty that your attending doctor treated you belongs to. The medical expert must establish the following for a medical malpractice case to exist:

● What the standard of care is
● Explain why your treatment was below this standard
● Provide an exact and detailed description of how you were harmed

Some states require you to sign an affidavit which asserts that your case is valid from the standpoint of the expert who signs it. All the affidavit has to state is that your case was reviewed by an expert who believes it will stand up in court.

Medical malpractice examples

Some of the most common examples of medical malpractice are:

● Sub-standard trauma care provided immediately after a severe accident
● Mistakes in monitoring anesthetic levels
● Mistakes in monitoring the unborn baby’s heartbeat and rate during childbirth
● Amputating the wrong part of the body
● Losing sponges and equipment during surgery
● Giving medicines with known fatal allergies
● Failing to regularly turn bedridden patients – this results in painful bed sores
● Not lifting patients properly and dropping them as a result
● Not diagnosing a medical condition during an exam

The potential damages you can recover

You can recover the following damages from a valid malpractice case:

● Medical bills – they are limited to the ones you would not have had if it were not for the medical malpractice case
● Lost earnings – you can recover any wages or income lost during your recovery time
● Lost earning capacity – if you can’t work at your regular capacity, you can receive compensation for this
● Pain and suffering – it is based on how bad it is because of your medical malpractice

Winning a medical malpractice case is entirely possible. You can indeed win your medical malpractice case either in or out of court, if you know the information, and if you hire a good personal injury lawyer.