When Should I File a Medical Malpractice Suit for Injuries?

Briefly, you should file a medical malpractice suit for injuries if you cannot pay the resulting medical bills and/or the doctor refuses to accept responsibility for the medical mistake that caused injury.

Medical mistakes often leave victims with permanent injuries. Hüftimplantate are a good example. If the doctor botches the surgery, hip infection usually follows. As a result, the device fails and patients lose what little mobility they had. A design or manufacturing flaw could also cause hip implant injuries.

These matters are extremely complex. Only the most experienced Anwalt für ärztliche Kunstfehler sollte sie behandeln.

Fürsorgepflicht des Arztes

In New York and most other states, doctors have a Treuepflicht. Doctors, lawyers, accountants, and other licensed professionals must set aside all other priorities and only do what’s best for their patients or clients.

These other priorities include making money and work/life balance. Both priorities often conflict with effective patient care.

Assume Dr. X refuses to order an expensive liquid biopsy test for Jim, even though he served in the Navy before 1980 and was therefore probably exposed to asbestos. If another doctor determines that Jim has mesothelioma, a rare and aggressive form of lung cancer which asbestos exposure causes, Dr. X could be negligent for not performing the test.

Doctors have very little margin of error. Almost any medical mistake, however slight, is medical negligence, if that mistake causes injury.

Possible Medical Malpractice

Medical negligence can and does occur at every point in the physician-patient relationship, which, in most cases, lasts months or years.

Vor

We mentioned the failure to perform appropriate medical tests above. This failure is commonplace, not only because tests are expensive and doctors fear insurance companies won’t pay for them, but also because they want to avoid the dreaded “defensive medicine” label.

Doctors may over-delegate test result interpretation to patient care techs, nurses, or other less-qualified professionals. In other words, the doctor performs the test but may not properly review the results.

Overconfidence could be an issue as well, and red flags should not be ignored. For example, Dr. Y should not disregard Mary’s diabetes as a “borderline” condition and not treat it properly.

During

Anesthesia errors, surgical errors, and birth injury errors are among the worst, and most costly “during” medical mistakes.

Usually, anesthesiologists don’t have a direct relationship with patients. Therefore, they often make mistakes like giving a patient medicine that prompts a life-threatening anaphylactic reaction.

Surgical errors usually include the failure to properly sanitize instruments and leaving an instrument inside a patient.

Birth injuries, like other surgical errors, often have roots earlier in the process. If Mary the diabetic is pregnant, and Dr. Y doesn’t properly handle her diabetes, SD (shoulder dystocia) could be an issue during delivery. Essentially, the baby is too large to float down the mother’s birth canal.

In these situations, doctors often rely on dangerous mechanical birth aids, like a vacuum extractor. The doctor attaches a cap to the baby’s head and tries to literally suck the baby out of the mother with a surgical vacuum.

After

Hospitals are breeding grounds for bacterial infections and recovering patients don’t have the strength to combat these assaults. If the healthcare team lets its guard down for a moment, a dangerous bacterial infection could take root and spread quickly.

Incidentally, the doctor is responsible for all medical malpractice issues. Doctors cannot throw other professionals, such as nurses or physician assistants, under the bus.

Important Procedural Issues

When you file a medical malpractice suit for injuries, be mindful of the statute of limitations, which is usually two years in an injury case.

This two-year time limit is often an issue in medical malpractice cases. Birth injuries, in particular, often don’t become apparent until a child goes to school and is developmentally delayed.

Usually, the delayed discovery rule protects families in these situations, so they can still obtain the compensation they need. Generally, the two-year SOL clock begins ticking not at the time of the birth or surgical procedure, but at the time victims learn of their injuries.

You may still be able to file a medical malpractice suit for injuries if you signed a liability waiver. Frequently, these waivers are illegal take-it-or-leave-it contracts of adhesion. That’s especially true since, as mentioned above, doctors have all the power in physician-patient relationships.

Medical negligence causes serious injuries. For a free consultation with an erfahrener Anwalt für Arzthaftungsrecht, contact Napoli Shkolnik today.