Malpractice

Medical Malpractice is a part of personal injury law that deals with injuries suffered because a doctor, hospital or other health care provider was careless or negligent in treatment. Malpractice describes a situation where a doctor, hospital or other health care provider did not provide treatment consistent with customary and acceptable practices. Generally, a court will look at four elements to determine whether there is a case of medical malpractice.

 

-The physician or health care provider was responsible for providing treatment;
-The physician or health care provider did not provide the treatment required;
-A person was injured; and
-The injury was caused by the failure of the physician or health care provider to provide the treatment required.

If medical malpractice is proven, an injured person is usually entitled to damages. Damages are awarded in the form of money to compensate the injured person for the injuries caused by the malpractice.

Most medical malpractice cases arise from one of the following complaints:

-The doctor or health care provider did not follow the standard procedure that everyone is supposed to follow for that type of situation; or
-The doctor or health care provider did not diagnose or tell a patient that cancer or some other terminal illness was present; or
-The doctor or health care provider did not test for or diagnose birth injuries such as cerebral palsy or spina bifida.

Depending on the nature of the injury, a person injured from medical malpractice may be able to bring several types of claims against a doctor or other health care provider. These claims are generally:

-Failure to Follow Accepted Procedures (Substandard Care)
-Failure to Diagnose Cancer
-Failure to Follow Accepted Procedures (Substandard Care)

 

An injured person can claim in a lawsuit that the doctor or health care provider did not follow the accepted procedures for providing treatment or care. In any industry, including the medical profession, certain procedures are recognized to be standard in the handling of a specific task. Likewise, in the medical profession, there are generally accepted procedures that are standard for diagnosing and treating certain conditions or illnesses. If a doctor or health care provider does not follow these accepted procedures in diagnoses or treatment, the person injured as a result can make this claim in a lawsuit for medical malpractice.

 

Failure to Diagnose Cancer

 

A person not properly diagnosed as having cancer can claim in a lawsuit that the doctor or health care provider failed to diagnose cancer. This is a relatively new area of medical malpractice law that is usually associated with a failure to diagnose lung cancer.

 

Failure to diagnose lung cancer can include the following types of claims:

A doctor did not prescribe tests to diagnose cancer when a patient's background and symptoms show that cancer may be a possibility; or
A doctor misinterprets an x-ray or other diagnostic test; or
A doctor did not prescribe additional, more specific diagnostic tests, such as CT Scans or MRIs, when x-rays indicated the possibility of cancer.