Healthcare negligence may warrant medical malpractice lawsuit

May 18, 2013 (Press-News.org) Healthcare negligence may warrant medical malpractice lawsuit

Article provided by Gregg W. Luther
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When most people go to the doctor, be it for a routine examination or for major surgery, they trust that they will be in good hands. While this trust is usually well-founded, mistakes do happen.

In fact, medical errors occur much more often than most people might realize. According to a report cited in the Wall Street Journal, surgeons in the United States operate on the incorrect body part as many as 40 times per week. All told, according to the same report, approximately 25 percent of all hospitalized patients will fall victim to a medical error at some point during their stay.

Of course, medical errors don't happen exclusively in hospitals. Missed or incorrect diagnoses, medication errors and other mistakes can happen in any medical setting.

Many errors are nothing more than honest mistakes. Others, though, can be traced back to negligence on the part of a doctor, nurse or other professional. When this happens, injured patients have a right to pursue medical malpractice lawsuits.

Medical malpractice by the numbers

Examples of negligence in the medical field can be found everywhere. According to data from the Kaiser Family Foundation, there were 9,497 paid medical malpractice claims in the United States in 2011. The state of Oklahoma was home to 126 of these paid claims.

While these numbers may not seem too substantial at first, it is important to remember that each one of these paid claims represents a person who was seriously injured or killed at the hands of someone who was supposed to care for them and help them get healthier. When viewed in that context, it becomes apparent just how serious the problem of medical errors really is.

Filing a medical malpractice lawsuit

Not every mistake rises to the level of malpractice. In order to show that malpractice was committed, the patient has to prove that the standard of care was violated. Essentially, this means that the defendant did not meet the standard of acceptable medical treatment that should have been offered under the same or similar circumstances.

The patient must also show that his or her injuries would not have occurred but for the negligence of the medical professional in question. In addition, the patient must show that his or her injuries were severe. Because medical malpractice cases tend to be expensive to litigate, it is often not worth suing if there are only very minor injuries.

Most medical malpractice lawsuits require significant investigation and expert testimony. As such, it is important for injured patients to consult with an experienced medical malpractice attorney if they feel they have been injured by a doctor's negligence. An experienced attorney will have the knowledge and resources needed to fully advocate on the patient's behalf.