Doctors, and other healthcare professionals, are human, just like the rest of us. As such, they make mistakes just like the rest of us. Sometimes those mistakes are relatively harmless; however, in other cases a medical error can amount to medical negligence and may cause serious, even fatal, injuries to a patient. When that is the case, the patient, or surviving family members, may have the basis of a medical malpractice lawsuit. Because of the complex nature of medical negligence cases it is always best to consult with an experienced Michigan medical malpractice attorney immediately if you suspect that you are the victim of medical negligence.

 

Medical negligence is defined as “professional negligence by act or omission by a health care provider in which the treatment provided falls below the accepted standard of practice in the medical community and causes injury or death to the patient, with most cases involving medical error.” Common examples of medical negligence include:

• Misdiagnosis
• Failure to diagnose a condition
• Delay in treatment
• Surgical error
• Anesthetic error
• Prescription medication errors

 

As a general rule, if you received care from a healthcare professional and that care resulted in injury, caused your condition to worsen, caused unnecessary or unexpected complications, or required additional medical treatment, you may be the victim of medical negligence. Medical negligence is not limited to physicians, as any licensed health care professional can be held responsible for negligence, including dentists, nursing homes, hospitals, nurses, and pharmacists.

 

If you believe you are the victim of medical negligence it is crucial that you consult with an experienced medical malpractice attorney immediately. In Michigan, the professional malpractice statute of limitations is two years, meaning your lawsuit may be barred if you do not commence legal action before the end of the applicable statute of limitations. According to the law, actions must be filed within the two year statute of limitations period OR within six months of discovery, up to a maximum of six years following the date of the act or omission that brought about the injury. If the negligence was not immediately recognizable though, the “discovery rule” may provide additional time after the injury is discovered to proceed with legal action. Furthermore, if the child was a minor, there are yet more laws in place to protect their right to suit.

 

If you need additional information, or have specific questions or concerns, contact an experienced Michigan malpractice attorney as soon as possible.

 

Are you the victim of a medical error? Instead of making a medical problem better, did a medical professional make it worse or create a secondary problem? In short, if you are experiencing adverse effects from the care received, a medical error may have occurred. It is natural to wonder what happened, why it happened, and what can be done about it; however, doctors rarely admit they made a mistake. A qualified medical malpractice attorney will be able to evaluate the facts and circumstances surrounding the potential medical error and inform you whether you have a case or not. In the meantime, some basic information about medical errors may be helpful.

According to a 2002 Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality report, medical errors affect one in ten patients worldwide, and one in five Americans claim that they or a family member have experienced a medical error to some degree. A medical error, simply put, is a mistake made in the treatment or care of a patient by a healthcare professional. Medical errors may include – but are not limited to — delayed diagnosis or misdiagnosis, incorrect administration of medication, surgery on an incorrect site or surgical instruments left behind, incorrect blood type error, or poor record-keeping that results in incorrect care. Other situations may include subpar care, or unnecessary procedures. Of course, there are many reason given why events like these occur, including human error and system breakdowns, and not all medical errors result in medical malpractice.

More often than most people realize, however, a medical error does rise to the level of medical malpractice. Healthcare professionals are not expected to be perfect. Instead, they are held to a standard of care that requires them to provide the same care that anther healthcare professional in the same situation would provide. In other words, doctors are compared to other doctors when determining if negligence has occurred. Because of the complex nature of medical malpractice lawsuits, only an experienced medical malpractice attorney can evaluate the specifics of your case and determine if you have the basis for a lawsuit.

 

It is important to note that there are statute of limitations that could bar your from pursuing a lawsuit if you wait too long. In Michigan, the professional malpractice statute of limitations is two years. According to the law, actions must be filed within that two-year period, or within six months of discovery to a maximum of six years following the date of the act or omission that brought about the injury. And if the adverse affects were not immediately recognizable, the “discovery rule” allows a suit to be filed within a timeframe after the injury is discovered. Furthermore, if the child was a minor, there are yet more laws in place to protect their right to suit.

 

If you need additional information, or have specific questions or concerns, contact an experienced Michigan malpractice attorney as soon as possible.

 

Healthcare professionals are capable of making mistakes just like the rest of us. Unfortunately, those mistakes can have serious, even deadly, consequences. If you believe that you are the victim of one of these mistakes you have the basis of a medical malpractice lawsuit. First, however, you must determine if the mistakes rises to the level of “medical negligence”. For an error made by a healthcare professional to be compensable you must first prove medical negligence.

The number of medical errors committed by doctors and other healthcare professionals each year in the United States is difficult to determine; yet, the number is thought to be staggering. Studies estimate that anywhere from 100,000 to half a million (500,000) people die as a result of medical errors each year in the United States. Not all mistakes made by healthcare professionals, however, amount to medical negligence. For a mistake to be considered negligence, the act or omission by the health care provider must have fallen below the accepted standard of practice in the medical community and caused injury or death to the patient. In other words, would another doctor (nurse, hospital etc.) have done the same thing under the same circumstances?

Because medical negligence is determined by looking at what a reasonable professional would have done, or not have done, under the same circumstances, proving medical negligence always require expert testimony by a healthcare provider –usually another physician or specialist. For example, if the error committed was failure to diagnose cancer by an oncologist, you will likely need another oncologist to testify that the defendant should have made the proper diagnosis given all the information available regarding the patient at the time of the failure to diagnose.

Although medical malpractice lawsuits are similar in concept to any other type of personal injury lawsuit, in practice they are often very different. For example, many states require the victim to submit the proposed claim to a medical board before moving forward with the lawsuit. In addition, many states require the victim to have an expert who is prepared to testify that the defendant’s acts or omissions were negligent.

Because of the inherent complexity of a medical malpractice lawsuit, and the difficulty in proving medical negligence, it is imperative that you consult with an experienced Michigan medical malpractice attorney early on in the process.

 

You undoubtedly visit your doctor or other healthcare professional with the expectation that they will provide you with medical care and treatment to alleviate your suffering and/or prevent further suffering.  Sometimes, however, a healthcare professional actually causes suffering instead of alleviating it. When this occurs, you may have the basis for a medical malpractice lawsuit; however, not all errors committed by a healthcare professional are actionable. For a victim to be entitled to compensation the medical error committed by the doctor (or other healthcare professional) must rise to the level of negligence. When determining if an error was the result of negligence the law looks to the standard of care to which healthcare professionals are bound.

Medical malpractice is a highly specialized area of tort law. Tort law addresses injuries to persons and property. All personal injury lawsuits fall under the purview of tort law. Medical malpractice, therefore, is essentially a very specialized type of personal injury. For a healthcare professional to be held liable for damages a victim must first prove that the healthcare professional was negligent. Negligence, in legal terms, requires four basic elements:

• Duty of care
• Breach of the duty of care
• Causation
• Damages

When the defendant is a doctor, dentist, hospital, or other medical provider, the duty of care owed to the victim is evaluated differently than when the defendant is not in the healthcare profession. The standard of care that applies when a doctor commits a medical error compares the doctor’s duty to that of other doctors. Therefore, medical malpractice is frequently defined as “failure to do something which a physician in the same specialty, of ordinary learning, judgment or skill, would do, or would not do, under the same or similar circumstances that existed in a particular case.”  In other words, how would other doctors, practicing in the same field of medicine, have acted under the same set of circumstances? If the defendant’s action, or omissions, fell below the standard of care the victim may be entitled to damages for the injuries caused by those actions or omissions.

In order to prove what the standard of care is in a medical malpractice lawsuit, as well as that the defendant’s actions or omissions fell below the standard of care, expert testimony is required. Typically, this requires the testimony of a doctor (or healthcare professional) that practices in the same field of medicine as the defendant.

If you have been injured by what you believe to be medical malpractice, or you have lost a loved one because of a medical error, consult with an experienced Michigan medical malpractice attorney right away. The law provides a method by which you may be compensated for your injuries or your loss; however, the law also limits the amount of time within which you have to pursue that compensation.

When you seek treatment from a doctor or other healthcare provider you likely have to sign a seemingly endless number of forms before the provider will move forward with your treatment. If you are like most people, you pay very little attention to what the forms actually say. Furthermore, few providers take the time to explain the forms in detail or to ask if you have any questions or concerns relating to the forms. This is unfortunate as one of the forms may be an “informed consent”. As a patient, “informed consent” is intended to protect you by ensuring that you fully understanding any medical treatment or procedure undertaken and, specifically, that you understand the risks involved. If a treatment provider fails to obtain your informed consent, and you are injured or become ill as a result of the procedure or treatment, the provider may be liable for those injuries.

Informed consent is a legal concept applied to medicine that is intended to ensure that individuals do not undergo treatment, procedures, or surgery without being fully informed so the patient can make a choice to accept or decline the proposed treatment, procedure, or surgery. For a patient to have given his or her informed consent, the law typically looks at whether the following elements were discussed with the patient prior to giving that consent:

• The nature of the decision/procedure
• Reasonable alternatives to the proposed intervention
• The relevant risks, benefits, and uncertainties related to each alternative
• Assessment of patient understanding
• The acceptance of the intervention by the patient

A patient’s consent to treatment of any kind is only considered valid, in the eyes of the law, if the patient gave his or her informed consent to the treatment. The extent to which a doctor is required to discuss the treatment with the patient for informed consent to be given is very fact specific; however, simply handing a patient a stack of forms and telling the patient to sign them is not likely to qualify as informed consent.

If you believe you are the victim of a medical error, and you also feel that you did not give your informed consent to the treatment that resulted in the medical error, you may have the basis for a medical malpractice lawsuit. Because each case is unique, it is imperative that you consult with the experienced attorneys at Slusky & Walt, P.C. as soon as possible to discuss your legal options.