Medical negligence occurs when a doctor or a medical practitioner causes harm to a patient under their observation. This can be an act of negligence or failure.
For example, if a medical procedure is performed without taking the patient’s consent and if the patient is unhappy with the outcome, they can claim medical negligence compensation. Even in cases of misdiagnosis, the patient is eligible to claim compensation.
If you have faced medical negligence and the treatment has given your pain rather than relief, you may consider a Personal Injury Attorney in Rockford. Personal injury lawyers can help you compensate for your claim and guide you in the right direction.
Steps in a medical negligence claim.
If you think your doctor has committed a mistake or he has failed to inform you of all the risks involved in a particular medical procedure, then you can file a medical malpractice claim.
Steps involved:
- Investigation: for the first step, you need a medical malpractice lawyer. The lawyer collects the medical records, your statements, and statements from the witnesses. The lawyer also takes the opinion of medical experts.
- To prove a doctor-patient relationship: this helps a lot, as the doctor owes a duty to provide competent care. This is confirmed with the help of documents the patient completed when he meets the doctor for the first time.
- Proving the doctor broke medical standards of care: involves a medical expert who provides testimony explaining what level of medical health care must be provided in such cases. Then the medical expert examines the medical records and the measures of the doctor to determine whether the doctor failed to give the accurate medical standard of care.
- Proving the harm: this step involves establishing damage caused due to medical negligence. If the patient fails to verify this, then it is impossible to prove negligence. Medical experts are also involved here to explain how medical negligence occurred.
- Providing evidence of harm: this step proves that injury caused due to medical negligence was sustained. For example, medical expenses, lost wages, pain, emotional suffering, or a permanent disability.
- Proving the claim: all the evidence collected has to be taken, and it requires an experienced malpractice lawyer who can investigate, build a case and cover up all the loopholes. The lawyer can prove that the doctor was negligent and the negligence led to the injuries.
Once the claim has been proven, the doctor has to compensate for the negligent action. If the patient has been injured severely, the court can suspend the doctor’s medical license for a few years or permanently.
