How To Know If You’re A Victim Of Medical Negligence

Generally speaking, medicine is a huge industry. Given the field’s intricate parts and systems, it takes several years for someone to study and become a doctor. But despite those years of study and training, doctors may still commit mistakes in their duty. Unfortunately, this mistake or error can result in a medical negligence case.

By definition, medical negligence, or commonly known as medical malpractice, is a legal action that occurs when a doctor or other medical professionals fails to meet the reasonable standard of care to a patient. This means that the medical professional made an error to the extent that they deviated from the accepted standard of care, which in turn caused an injury to the patient.

However, as a patient, you may be wondering how you can determine if your doctor has committed medical negligence. Here’s how to know if you’re a victim of this unfortunate situation:

1. When The Diagnosis Is Incorrect

One of the common types of medical negligence cases is the failure to diagnose the proper diagnosis. It usually happens when a competent doctor failed to discover the correct illness of the patient, which resulted in the latter not receiving the treatments they should have, had they made the correct diagnosis.

Because of this, it’s important to check if your doctor has diagnosed you with the correct illness. That’s because if they treat you for an illness, you don’t have, your health may continue to deteriorate, thereby causing injuries to yourself over time. When this happens, you may be entitled to file a medical negligence case against the doctor for being a victim of their negligent acts.

Luckily, you can find experienced medical negligence lawyers who can help you navigate this situation. They know how to prove the elements of medical negligence in your case which can increase your chances of receiving fair compensation for all your losses.

2. When The Surgery Didn’t Go Well

If you just underwent a surgical procedure, it’s also essential to watch out for any errors that may occur in order to become a victim of medical negligence. Typically, most surgeries come with a lot of risks. But there are instances wherein the surgeon and other healthcare professionals are guilty of neglect, making them liable for the injury you suffered as a result of a surgical mistake.

In most cases, some surgical errors that you should be wary of can include:

• Complications due to infections caused by failure to properly sterilize the tools
• Going through the wrong surgical procedure
• Leaving a surgical tool inside the body
• Administering excessive or too little medication, including anesthesia
• Operating on the wrong part of the body

As you can see, there are many types of surgical errors that can be a ground for a medical malpractice case. Thus, if you think your surgeon or other medical professional has committed one of these, then it may be time to protect your rights by filing a claim against the at-fault party.

3. When The Medical Professional Failed to Explain the Risks of Any Procedure or Treatment

As mentioned, most surgical procedures and other treatment methods have their own set of risks and complications. Because of this, it’s your doctor’s responsibility to inform and make you understand matters before performing the procedure or treatment.

But in case they failed to make an explanation, or if they had explained them and you didn’t agree to it, but they pushed through anyway, you may consider filing a medical malpractice case against the healthcare professional involved on the ground of lack of informed consent. This means that the doctor performed a procedure or prescribed a treatment that you didn’t understand or agree to.

In such a case, it’s best to hire a skilled lawyer to help you prove negligence on the part of the doctor and guide you throughout the legal process.

4. When The Doctor Failed to Provide You with Adequate Medical Attention

In addition to correct diagnosis and treatment, it’s also your doctor’s duty to provide you with adequate medical attention. Hence, in the event they’re not following up with your concerns or not giving you sufficient information about your medical situation, then you may consider yourself a victim of medical negligence.

As a medical practitioner, your doctor or any other healthcare professional should always be serious in taking your concerns by discussing your illness along with the prescribed treatment plans in detail. Their failure to do so may give you the right to initiate a medical negligence case against them to recover damages for all the harm done to you.

The Bottom Line

Indeed, the medical negligence law is comprised of a complicated body of rules, processes, and requirements. That being said, it’s important that you know if you’ve been victimized by the negligent acts of a doctor or any other medical professionals.

Therefore, by considering the information mentioned above, you’ll become more confident about your decision to run after the healthcare provider and recover a certain amount of compensation for your injury. By doing this, you can maximize your physical and financial recovery in no time.