What Is Medical Malpractice?

Posted on: 12 May 2018

Share

If you have had some kind of injury due to a medical professional, you may have a medical malpractice suit. But, what makes up medical malpractice?

Medical Malpractice

Medical malpractice is a form of personal injury law. Your doctor has a standard of care that they are supposed to adhere to; that's basically defined as being what any other competent and skilled doctor would do in the exact same situation. There are a few more things that go into it, but that's the basic gist of it. In other words, if you break your leg, the standard of care would be to x-ray your leg to evaluate the damage, set your leg, and splint or cast it. If your doctor didn't splint or cast your leg and you walked on it and the break got worse or you incurred more damage, your doctor may have violated that standard of care. In order to have a valid suit, you have to prove that your doctor was negligent. If you have suffered some kind of injury due to the negligence of your doctor or other medical professional, then you should go see a lawyer who specializes in this kind of law. They will be able to help you figure out what's going on and if you have a case. 

Attorney

When you go see a personal injury attorney who specializes in medical malpractice, then there are some things that you are going to need to do when you first go in. One of them is that you are going to want to make sure that you have all your medical records. You want to have everything from prior to your injury and then everything afterward. You want to be able to show the effect that the negligence had on you and your life. You can request all your medical records from your doctors as well as any hospital involved. You may have to pay a few for them to copy all the records and give them to you, depending on how long they are, but you should have no problem with getting them. After the lawyer has decided that it looks like you have a case, which may take a few days so that they can review all the records, they will likely want you to go see another doctor. They will want to have the opinion of another medical professional so that the doctor can say if what your doctor did was against the standard of care of not. 

If you have some kind of injury because of a medical professional, then you may have a good case for medical malpractice. An attorney should be able to help you. Click here to find out more.