Posted in Wisconsin Workers Compensation Related News
Personal Injury Lawyer
An attorney has seen how medical malpractice can happen in many ways, and in a variety of health care environments. Anyone who wonders whether they have grounds for a medical malpractice lawsuit, can get the clarity they need from a member of our legal team. Many people may not realize that what they are going through is considered medical malpractice in legal terms. And for others, they may feel that something went wrong, but their situation doesn’t actually qualify for legal action.
Rest assured, as confusing and complex as this may be, we can evaluate your circumstances and recommend a course of action.
What Constitutes as Medical Malpractice:
Negligence
Negligence happens if a doctor provides a level of medical care that is sub-par from what is expected within the medical community. In other words, a patient may have a case for medical malpractice negligence if the doctor failed to offer care that another doctor would have given in very similar circumstances. An attorney can meet with you to find out more about your specific situation, to assess whether negligence has happened to you.
Recklessness
While more-so rare, it is possible for a doctor’s actions when caring for a patient to be viewed as reckless. For instance, a doctor who performed a surgery or other procedure on a patient but was under the influence of a substance at the time, may face a lawsuit for medical malpractice recklessness. Recklessness cases are often treated as a very extreme form of negligence, where the doctor’s behavior was so far from being adequate that serious risk of harm or suffering was present.
What is Not Categorized as Medical Malpractice:
An Untreatable Diagnosis
Unwanted health news can be devastating, particularly since not every illness is treatable. A doctor who correctly diagnosed a complication and showed sound decision making in creating a care plan for what patient can do next, is not likely to have committed medical malpractice. As an attorney may tell you during a consultation, medical malpractice laws are not for situations where a patient gets bad news about their health — instead, these laws are set in place as a way for patient’s to be protected and get compensation if their doctor falls below standards of medical care.
Patient Condition Gets Worse
If a patient’s condition began to worsen during the course of treatment, this doesn’t automatically mean that medical malpractice occurred. A doctor may have provided great quality of care along with a prompt and correct diagnosis, but this doesn’t guarantee that the patient’s health will get better. A doctor cannot be sued for medical malpractice simply because they were unable to cure the patient’s health.
If you have a suspicion that your doctor committed medical malpractice in regards to your health, do not file a report with the hospital.
