As a patient, the services, procedures, or drugs prescribed to you could cause you more harm or injury in the process of treatment. When you suffer injuries out of a medical practitioner’s error, negligence, or omission, this amounts to medical malpractice.
Such errors could occur during diagnosis, while on treatment, during prescription, or during drug dispensation. It could also occur during aftercare management of your health condition.
When you suffer injuries out of medical malpractice, you deserve to be compensated for your pain and suffering. This is not to mention that some injuries may even cause disabling effects. Some may keep you away from work, which translates into income loss.
More often than not, however, you may have to take your case to court to sue the facility or medical practitioner that caused the injuries. But how do you win a medical malpractice case considering the complexity of these cases?
1. Get an Expert Medical Malpractice Attorney
If you think or suspect that your injuries were caused by treatment, prescription, or service you received from a certain hospital, doctor, or pharmacist, you may have a medical malpractice case. The legal team from www.blg-dc.com says that while money can’t change the past or reverse some of the effects caused by medical errors, a fair recovery could help mold your future.
When pursuing a medical malpractice case, the first and most important thing to do is to hire an experienced attorney in this area of law. They will guide you legally and help represent you in court to prove that indeed your injuries were caused by the said doctor or facility.
2. Prove Relationship
Pursuing a medical malpractice case is not a child’s play; it’s often complex and complicated. To win your case, a good malpractice lawyer will tell you that you’ll need to provide proof of the relationship. You will need to prove that you actually visited the doctor’s clinic, and he treated you, for him to be held accountable.
You cannot win a case just by alleging verbally that he treated you. If the doctor gave you a prescription over the phone, you might want to have the recorded phone conversations or text messages, which may act as viable evidence in court proceedings. You will need to produce the treatment records, the prescription, or evidence from a witness who accompanied you.
3. Prove the Negligence
Proving a doctor’s negligence is one of the most arduous but the pivotal component towards success in any malpractice suit. First and foremost, you must prove how the doctor failed to provide you with treatment according to the laid down acceptable standards. For instance, if the doctor made errors by giving you the wrong prescription, ensure you provide the written prescription with his stamp, date, and signature.
4. Causation
The next step will be to prove that a breach actually occurred during the treatment, which resulted in an injury. For instance, if the doctor performed an operation that resulted in an infectious wound that required more serious procedure, this can prove causation and negligence.
5. Prove the Damages
Any proven damage by a doctor out of malpractice always has a price tag. Doctors tend to make mistakes either out of ignorance or simply negligence. Regardless, you have the right to be compensated from the injuries inflicted out of his negligent behavior.
All you will need to do is to provide before the jury the evidence of damages and the loss you have suffered. For example, you must show how the pain and suffering inflicted has contributed to the loss of a job, amputation, spinal injuries, and the like, these qualify as damages. You may also need to provide also the medical bills incurred during the treatment, pictures of injuries, etcetera. An expert attorney will guide you when it comes to presenting the damages in your case.
6. Breach of Standard Care
Doctors have a set of standards that guide them in their line of duty, and which they must employ to offer the required level of care to their patients. To win your medical malpractice case, you may also need to prove how the doctor treated you below the set standards, which another doctor with the same experience would have given you. If your doctor deviated from these standards either by mistake or intentionally, then he is liable to a breach.
On a parting shot, nobody likes hospital visits, but sadly, they are inevitable when you don’t feel well. We find ourselves putting our precious lives in the hands of health care providers. Sometimes the threads get loose, and the same treatment backfires on us out of negligence.
Every day, thousands of people visit doctors for treatment and professional help. Medical negligence is one of the common causes of death around the globe. Due to the complexity involved in such cases, you will require the right art of war.
Start by hiring a seasoned attorney who is well specialized in malpractice healthcare. Trying to handle or settle a malpractice case on your own without an attorney is a remedy for failure. Hiring an attorney will give you a good head start towards success in the lawsuit.