Not all medical errors result in medical malpractice. However, knowing what qualifies as a medical error is pertinent to filing a malpractice insurance claim or lawsuit. If you sustained injuries or experienced the loss of a loved one due to a medical error, you'll want to schedule a free consultation with a Winder malpractice attorney. You may be entitled to substantial compensation.
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What Qualifies as a Medical Error?
The National Library of Medicine defines a medical error as using the wrong plan to achieve an aim, failing to complete a planned action as intended, or an unintended act that fails to achieve its intended outcome. Medical errors are deviations from the medical community's accepted standard of care that may or may not cause harm to the patient. When they inflict harm and injury on a patient, they qualify as medical malpractice.
Types of Qualifying Medical Errors Constituting Malpractice
Medical errors are preventable adverse events occurring in all areas of healthcare. They often have severe consequences, such as injury and wrongful death. Standard examples of medical errors that malpractice attorneys pursue compensation for include diagnostic, surgical, birth injury, and medication errors. Failure to treat or inform also constitutes malpractice.
Diagnostic Errors
Diagnostic errors are a leading cause of malpractice. They occur when a diagnosis is missed, delayed, or inaccurate. They also involve failing to offer a timely and accurate explanation of the patient's health problems or communicate the explanation to the patient.
Surgical Errors
Surgical errors are unintentional and can cause preventable injuries during the perioperative period. These types of medical errors can significantly impact a patient's health and include:
- Using non-sterile or the wrong surgical instruments (causing infections that can be fatal)
- Nerve damages caused by accidental pokes or cuts to nerves (causing temporary or permanent loss of feeling, movement, or function)
- Accidental incisions (causing unnecessary cuts)
- Anesthesia errors (causing loss of oxygen or blood, pain, and other life-threatening conditions)
- Retained foreign bodies (leaving an object, like a surgical tool or sponge, inside of a patient)
- Failing to monitor the surgery patient for signs of distress
Performing the wrong surgery or surgery on the wrong site or patient is a terrifying medical error that is rare but does happen. These serious errors are called wrong-site, wrong-procedure, and wrong-patient surgery errors.
Birth Injuries
Birth injuries are physical injuries occurring to babies or mothers during the birthing process. A birth injury can injure a mother's pelvic floor or perineal area or lead to Cesarean section wounds. Common birth injuries for the baby include facial paralysis, clavicle fracture, brachial plexus injuries, and cephalohematoma.
Medication Errors
Medication errors are another leading cause of medical errors. Common medication errors leading to injury include administering the wrong medication, providing the wrong dosage of medication, or administering too little or too much medication to a patient, such as anesthesia during surgical procedures.
Failure to Treat
Failure to treat can occur when a patient is misdiagnosed, but it may also happen even with a proper diagnosis. Failure to treat refers to a medical professional's failure to take the appropriate steps to remedy a condition, such as ordering tests, diagnostics, and imaging, leading to a worsening of injury, further complications, or wrongful death.
Failure to Inform
Informed consent is an important factor in a doctor-patient relationship. Medical professionals must obtain patient consent before providing treatment and advise the patient about the potential risks before performing it. Failure to inform a patient of procedure risks qualifies as a medical error.
How a Medical Malpractice Lawyer Can Help
If you sustained injuries due to medical error, a good malpractice attorney can seek compensation for your financial losses and pain and suffering. Malpractice lawyers will protect you from liable insurers, investigate your claim, comprehensively value damages, negotiate fair settlements, and litigate malpractice lawsuits.
Protect You From Liable Insurers
Medical malpractice claims and lawsuits usually involve multiple liable parties, meaning multiple insurance companies calling and hounding you for information. Insurance claim adjusters are dedicated to getting you to say anything they can claim you are admitting to liability. They want you to say anything they can use to deny your claim. A medical malpractice lawyer will prevent all further contact with insurers by handling all communications moving forward.
Thoroughly Investigate Your Claim
A thorough investigation into your medical error involves gathering malpractice evidence, such as detailed medical records with diagnoses, treatments, and doctor's notes. It also entails interviewing witnesses and consulting medical experts to establish the extent of your injuries and damages.
Comprehensively Value Damages
Your medical malpractice claim or lawsuit damages are economic (monetary losses) and non-economic (non-monetary) damages, such as pain and suffering, incurred from the medical error. Your attorney will value damages, including:
- Medical bills
- Rehabilitation costs
- Income losses from missing work
- Pain and suffering
- Loss of society and companionship
- Disability and disfigurement
- Wrongful death
Keep financial records of all monetary losses caused by your medical error. These documents will help your malpractice attorney prove a need to compensate for them. Keep detailed and consistent journal entries documenting your pain and suffering to recover compensation for those damages.
Negotiating Fair Settlements
Medical malpractice cases usually involve multiple liable parties and multiple rounds of negotiations. In the event of multiple liability, the process can take longer because insurers shift blame onto each other. Your attorney will demand a reasonable settlement for your medical malpractice or file a civil lawsuit to secure compensation.
Litigating Malpractice Lawsuits
Though usually unnecessary, if all parties cannot agree, they move forward with litigation. Litigation involves completing the discovery phase, pre-trial motions, and further negotiations to settle outside court. This stage will resolve most claims. However, if it does not, your lawyer will proceed with a trial where a jury decides to award or deny compensation.
Consult a Medical Malpractice Attorney
No one should attempt to pursue a medical malpractice case without legal representation. The at-fault healthcare professionals have a team of experienced attorneys; you need one, too. Schedule a free case evaluation with a Winder personal injury attorney to get started on your case today.