Medical professionals are often thought of as some of the most respectable people in our society. With years of medical education and training, most feel comfortable to blindly follow their doctor’s orders and advice. These are the people you turn to when you’re most in need of help. However, some don’t always act with the integrity that expected of them. Medical negligence occurs so frequently in America that it has become one of the top leading causes of death. When this happens, victims of medical negligence can be left impaired for the rest of their lives or families might suffer the loss of a loved one.
Medical professionals should never cause additional harm to their patients. Although medical negligence can be heartbreaking to go through, victims and their loved ones are not alone. The lawyers at Latona Law are prepared to help you fight against negligent medical professionals.
How is medical negligence determined?
Whether or not medical negligence occurred isn’t always clear to see. This often requires a team of medical negligence lawyers as well as doctors to help determine what happened that caused the injury or death of a patient. Of course, doctors and other medical professionals are only human, so there is always the chance that a mistake occurs. Just because a medical professional made a mistake, doesn’t necessarily mean that it was medical negligence. The lawyers at Latona Law will help to show that you or a loved one were a victim of medical negligence.
If medical negligence occurred, the following would need to be proven:
Doctor-patient relationship – Proving that you had a relationship with the medical professionals involved is the first thing that must be done. This means that you sought help from a medical professional and they agreed to take on the responsibility of treating you.
Duty of care – When medical professionals provide treatment to their patients, they’re legally obligated to treat them with a certain standard of care. This is the level of care that any other similar medical professional would give in the same situation.
Breach of duty – When medical negligence occurs, the medical professional fails to treat their patients with the standard of care they deserve.
Causation – If a patient wasn’t treated with the standard of care, it needs to be the cause of their problems. The poor treatment they received needs to be the direct cause of the harm they experienced.
Damages – Any harm a victim faces needs to result in some type of damage. This could be financial damages like medical bills, or noneconomic ones such as suffering.
Common types of medical negligence
Anytime a person is treated by a medical professional, there is always the chance that they might become the victim of medical negligence. This can occur even during treatments and procedures that seem minor. While this can happen at any time, there are some procedures where medical negligence occurs most commonly.
Some of the most common types of medical negligence include the following:
Anesthesia errors – Errors made when anesthesia is involved are some of the most dangerous. If too little anesthesia is given, a patient could wake up during their procedure and be forced to feel extreme amounts of pain. Contrarily, if too much is given, it can cause significant damage to the brain or organs. A person might also be harmed by damaged equipment or a dangerous mix of anesthesia and medication.
Diagnosis errors – Medical professionals can frequently make errors when diagnosing their patients that can put them at risk. This can happen when medical professionals don’t give their patients the attention they deserve or when they ignore a patient’s symptoms. When diagnosis errors occur, patients don’t receive the care they need and their condition can worsen. If they’re diagnosed with a different condition, it can force them to undergo unnecessary treatment.
Prescription errors – Mix-ups with a patient’s medication can sometimes be harmful to their health. Doctors might prescribe their patients with the wrong dosage or the wrong type of medication.
Surgical errors – If medical professionals aren’t paying attention, they could make serious mistakes during surgery. This can include leaving surgical objects behind in a patient’s body. Medical professionals might even operate on the wrong body part or perform surgery on the wrong patient.
Damages in a medical negligence case
Victims of medical negligence and their loved ones will face a variety of difficulties after the event occurs. If more treatment is required after, victims could be left with numerous expensive medical bills. This also comes at a time where they could be forced to miss work due to their condition and lose their source of income. Of course, many also have to deal with the pain and suffering that ensues. A medical negligence case can help you win the compensation that you deserve after being the victim of medical negligence.
Compensation for medical negligence could cover some of the following:
- Emotional pain and suffering
- Decreased quality of life
- Loss of a spouse, or parent for minors
- Lost wages from missing work due to injury
- Physical pain caused by a medical professional
- Medical bills from treating your injury
Medical negligence lawyers in Olyphant
Having a medical professional put you at risk can be difficult to recover from. Everyone deserves to feel that the doctors who treat them have their best interest at heart and wouldn’t cause additional harm. At Latona Law, we believe that medical professionals who act negligently need to be held accountable. Our lawyers specialize in medical negligence so that you have the knowledge and experience that you need to win your case.
If you or a loved one are a victim of medical negligence in Olyphant, contact us today for a free consultation.