When you go to the doctor or hospital with an illness or injury, you are trusting medical professionals with your health and well-being. Doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and other medical workers owe a duty of care to their patients. When that duty is breached, it can be considered medical malpractice. If you believe a healthcare professional’s actions caused you harm, you may be entitled to compensation. Consult with a Bergen County medical malpractice lawyer to learn more about your legal rights and options today.
What is Considered Medical Malpractice?
There is a variety of actions and inactions that can be considered malpractice in the medical world. Malpractice happens when a healthcare provider’s behavior deviates from the industry’s standards and causes injury or harm to a patient.
There are four elements that must be present and true for a situation to be considered medical malpractice.
- Duty of care: There is an established relationship between the medical professional and the patient, and they had a responsibility to provide care and treatment.
- Breach of duty: The healthcare provider breached the duty of care by acting in a way that did not meet the expected and accepted medical standards.
- Causation: The breach of duty directly resulted in the patient suffering harm or injury.
- Damages: The patient suffered damages as a result, including a physical injury, mental distress, financial losses, death, etc.
Any situation that meets the above elements can be considered medical malpractice. Examples of situations where a healthcare provider failed to meet medical standards and caused a patient harm can include the following.
- A doctor fails to diagnose a disease despite being informed of the relevant symptoms and performing tests that showed results pointing to the ailment.
- A surgeon performs an unnecessary surgical procedure as a result of an improper diagnosis or to turn a bigger profit from the patient’s treatment.
- A surgeon is intoxicated during a procedure and makes a mistake like puncturing an organ or leaving a foreign object in the patient’s body.
- A pharmacist misreads a prescription from a doctor and distributes the wrong medication to a patient.
- A nurse administers the wrong dose of medication to a patient in a hospital.
Can You Recover Compensation After Medical Malpractice?
If you experienced medical malpractice, you may be able to file a claim or lawsuit against the negligent party. If you can prove that the healthcare provider’s actions or inaction meets the four elements of negligence discussed above and provide evidence of the losses and damages you sustained as a result, you may be able to recover compensation including:
- Medical expenses
- Lost wages
- Physical pain and suffering
- Emotional distress
- Punitive damages
In order to win your case and be awarded compensation, you must be able to demonstrate that the medical professional was negligent. For help collecting and presenting evidence, reach out to a skilled attorney at Feitlin, Youngman, Karas & Gerson, LLC today.
