People seek medical assistance to improve their health or to lessen their pain and most of the time healthcare providers work hard to achieve those goals. However, sometimes a doctor or facility fails to provide a patient with a reasonable degree of care and the patient suffers an injury. The effects of medical malpractice can be egregious and include unnecessary pain, surgery, permanent disability and even death.
Medical malpractice occurs when a doctor or hospital:
- owes a patient a duty of care;
- breaches that duty of care by failing to provide reasonable care; and
- causes injury to the patient because of the failure to provide reasonable care.
Medical malpractice does not occur every time a medical mistake is made but only when negligence is established by proving the elements described above.
Medical malpractice can happen in any medical speciality but it is more common, and has more dire consequences, in some medical specialities than others. Birth injuries, for example, can result in a lifetime of disability for the baby and often could be prevented if the doctor used a reasonable degree of care in delivering the child. Surgical errors can also result in painful and lasting problems. Another common place for medical malpractice to occur is in the emergency room. Common types of negligence for doctors in these specialities include providing substandard care, failing to properly diagnose a patient and, failing to properly attend to a patient.
If you have suffered an injury due to medical malpractice then you may have the right to seek compensation.