When you don’t feel well, you trust your doctors to properly diagnose and treat whatever condition you’re suffering from. But what happens if you don’t receive an accurate diagnosis, or if you’re given the wrong course of treatment? When your doctor fails to properly diagnose you or prescribes an improper treatment and you suffer harm as a result, you may want to consider a medical malpractice claim. If this happens, there are a few basic things you will need to show in order to better establish your claim.
First, did you have a doctor-patient relationship with the doctor you’re claiming medical malpractice against? This is normally not a difficult requirement to meet, as it’s very likely that you went to see your doctor for diagnosis and treatment, which he or she then provided to you, but it’s an issue that may come up if the physician you’re suing consulted on your case but didn’t treat you directly.
You will also have to prove that the doctor was negligent, and that his or her negligence was the cause of the injuries you suffered. In order to show negligence, you have to show that your doctor didn’t act like a competent doctor – that is, that your doctor failed to act with reasonable skill and care – when he or she diagnosed or treated you. And even if your doctor is shown to be negligent, you must also show that it was this negligence which caused harm to you, rather than the medical condition for which you were being treated.
Additionally, you must be able to show that you did suffer harm as a result of your doctor’s negligent conduct. If a doctor acted negligently, but you didn’t suffer any harm as a result, you will not have a valid medical malpractice claim. The types of harm for which you can be compensated in a medical malpractice claim can include harm such as physical and mental pain and anguish, medical expenses and the loss of your future earnings because of an inability to work.
There will be other factors to be considered in the context of a medical malpractice claim, but these are the basic requirements which must be met in order to help you establish your claim.
If you or a loved one has been injured as a result of medical malpractice and are seeking a qualified medical malpractice attorney, contact Los Angeles doctor-turned-lawyer Bradley I. Kramer for a free consultation today.