Medical errors occur all the time in healthcare settings for a variety of reasons.
The reality is that not every medical injury counts as malpractice. Like any other professional doing their job day in and day out, doctors can sometimes make innocent mistakes. They may be overworked or fatigued. Meanwhile, certain procedures are inherently risky and some conditions have no reliable cure.
For a medical injury to be considered malpractice, you have to be able to prove a couple of things.
The first is that your doctor breached the standard of care that all doctors and other medical professionals are held to. When a doctor fails to provide a patient with the same level of care that another similarly skilled and educated provider would give, they are falling short of the standard of care. Negligence is usually the reason.
Some examples of not upholding the standard of care include failure to tell a patient about the risks associated with a procedure, failing or delaying to diagnose a condition, and failure to properly treat a medical condition even after a correct diagnosis.
In addition to proving your doctor or healthcare provider breached the standard of care, you must also be able to prove your injury or worsening condition is the direct result of this breach. If, for example, a doctor damages a nerve during surgery because they are taking shortcuts or not paying enough attention to the procedure, they could be found negligent and you would have a malpractice claim. On the other hand, if surgery is inherently risky and the doctor informs you of all the risks involved beforehand, a damaged nerve may not necessarily be considered malpractice.
Contact an experienced medical malpractice attorney like Ted Babbitt to discuss the details of your situation and to get an honest assessment.
Ted Babbitt is an award-winning attorney and a top West Palm Beach personal injury lawyer. Having served the entire state of Florida and parts of the U.S., he has a proven record of success that spans five decades, including a $10 million medical malpractice settlement for a 2-year-old girl from Central Florida who suffered a brain injury during heart surgery.
If you or your loved one has been the victim of a medical error, reach out today for a complimentary consultation to discuss your case at (561) 375-2841 or fill out this online contact form and one of Ted’s team members will be in touch.