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All You Should Know About Medical Negligence
Medical malpractice or medical negligence refers to medical treatment failure to perform expected medical procedures and standards. If a patient is injured due to medical malpractice, that person may file a medical malpractice lawsuit. Medical negligence can vary from any range of medical fields. This issue is a serious issue that every healthcare professional needs to always avoid. Here are what you should know about medical negligence.
Overview of Medical Negligence
The most common type of medical malpractice involves surgery, but it can occur with any nurse, doctor, medical technician, or medical center. The different types of medical malpractice are almost endless. They include damage to an adjacent organ due to surgery, misidentification that contributes to the disease not being treated, or improper treatment of the disease. It can also occur when a doctor telling a patient they are fine, leading to a delay in treatment that ultimately contributes to an injury. This is especially serious if it is a new disease, such as cancer.
Medical malpractice can also be caused by a doctor whose negligent treatment causes a person to lose teeth. Another example is by giving the wrong medication or prescribing a drug in a harmful dose. Additionally, it can be caused by unnecessary surgery that causes the individual to be unable to have children. Most importantly, it can be caused by a birth defect that contributes to the death of the child or irreversible damage to the child, such as brain damage. Cerebral palsy is often caused by this type of medical neglect.
The Importance of the Standard of Care
For a patient to receive a medical malpractice claim, he or she must prove that the medical professional had a responsibility to provide a standard of care and that, if not, the patient suffered an accident or injury resulting from the alleged medical negligence. What is exactly the standard of care? Some laws limit the standard to physicians in the same area of the country, while others extend it to physicians across the country. If they had acted differently than most heart surgeons in similar circumstances, that surgeon could be considered clinically negligent. The health care provider may argue that the treatment did not cause the injury, but was caused by the patient’s condition. Psychologists and psychiatrists can also be sued for medical malpractice, although these types of cases are much more difficult to prove because not only are the injuries not physical, but causation is very complicated.
How to Cope With This Issue
In some nations, the settlement may consist of compensation for pain and suffering, which is not an award, but a payment for the mental stress caused by the accident. The amount allowed for these damages is usually limited. In the California case, for example, no more than $250,000 can be awarded for non-economic damages. In any case, attorneys hired by the medical malpractice insurance company will likely try to argue that the injury was not due to medical malpractice. In cases of gross …
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