Do You Have a Medical Malpractice Case?

Medical malpractice is a term used to describe an action for damages against a health care professional. Medical malpractice is a form of negligence. As with any negligence case, the elements are duty, breach, causation, and damages. "Causation" includes both cause in fact and proximate cause. Each of these elements is described further below.

Though the terms "doctor" and "physician" are used throughout this chapter, keep in mind that a medical malpractice action can involve any type of medical professional, including nurses, physician's assistants, and any other person or entity involved in providing medical care to patients.

Medical Malpractice is the common term for when a medical provider, whether a doctor, nurse or other similar professional, acts in a way that fails to conform with the "standard of care." The standard of care is the level of care that a medical provider must act in accordance with in order to meet his or her obligation to the patient. A doctor (for our purposes we will use "doctor" to refer to all medical professionals) who does something he should not have done or does not do something he should have done may constitute medical malpractice.

So How Do You Know?

In most cases, a patient or a patient's family may "have a feeling" that something just wasn't done right. In other cases, the mistake may be much more obvious. Past occurrences of medical malpractice have included such obvious things as amputating the wrong limp or removing the wrong organ. These are very obvious examples of medical malpractice. Most cases, however, are much less clear. Add to this the fact that the doctor or other health professionals who are responsible often try to hide what they have done or cover it up in one way or another. And even when the facts come out, it is common for the doctor's lawyer or hospital representative to "close ranks" and not disclose any information to the client they harmed.

In many cases, it takes an experienced lawyer to investigate the case, have the medical records reviewed by other medical doctors, and to look at the applicable law to determine if there is a legitimate case or not. When an injured patient, or that patient's family come to a malpractice lawyer, the first thing the lawyer usually does is to have the treating doctor's care reviewed by another doctor in the same field of medicine. In Maryland, a separate doctor must "sign off" on a case in order for a patient to move forward with a medical malpractice claim. If the doctor reviewing the records determined that the treating doctor committed malpractice, the lawyer will likely move forward with the case. There are other factors to be considered, but in terms of the basic quality of the actual medical treatment, this is usually how the matter proceeds.

There are specific factors that must be determined before a potential medical malpractice matter can proceed. The first element to look at is the duty owed by the doctor or other medical professional to his or her patient.

Duty

A doctor's duty to his or her patient is to meet the applicable "standard of care," which we have briefly discussed above. The specific duty owed to a patient by his or her doctor can depend on the specific circumstances surrounding the event in question. The thing to remember is that, in order to have a medical malpractice case against a doctor, that doctor must have had a specific duty to the patient.

Breach of Duty

A medical professional has breached his or her duty to their patient if their medical care did not meet the degree of skill that has been accepted as appropriate in that doctor's area of practice. Simply put, the doctor's treatment is measured against the treatment of other similar doctors in that same area. A doctor does not have to be the best or better than all other doctors, rather, he need only meet the minimum skill that is accepted by other similar doctors as appropriate. This is determined by looking at other doctors in the same area of medicine and in the same geographic area. Recent cases are expanding the inquiry to doctors in other geographic areas, as well.

Cause in Fact & Proximate Cause

For there to be a case of medical malpractice, the patient's injury must be causally related to the doctor's breach of duty. This means that the injury or harm suffered by the patient must be related to the actions of the doctor. In most cases, the harm must be directly related to the doctor's mistake(s). One way to determine this is to find out if the harm would have occurred even if the doctor did not make the mistake(s) in question. If it would have occured anyway, it is likely not medical malpractice.

Even if you can show the above connection between the doctor's actions and the patient's harm, a court may decide that the harm was so unforeseeable to the doctor that the doctor should not be held accountable. Because this can be a difficult question, it is always a good idea to seek the advice of a qualified medical malpractice lawyer who will help you determine if your case meets these requirements.

Damages

Finally, a patient must prove that he or she has actually suffered damages in order to recover for medical malpractice. Damages often include medical costs, pain and suffering, disability, and loss of income due to being unable to return to work. A patient can recover damage sin these area for what has already happened as well as what may likely happen in the future. Again, in order to best determine what can be recovered, consulting an experienced lawyer is highly recommended.

These cases are often very complex, and almost impossible to handle without an experienced Maryland Medical Malpractice Attorney. Our office offers free consultations for medical malpractice claims. If you feel you have been injured due to the negligence of a medical professional call our office at (410) 656-9LAW (9529) to schedule a free consultation.