Malpractice accidents are surprisingly common in the medical field, and sadly, most are entirely preventable. Victims of medical malpractice are often left with permanent conditions that can affect their health, comfort, and ability to work.
If you believe that you’re a medical malpractice victim, you don’t have to just idly accept the consequences. Long, Jean & Weschler, P.A. helps med mal victims fight back. We work on a contingency basis, so you do not have to pay out of pocket for our professional legal services. Call today for a free, no-obligation consultation.
How to Report a Medical Malpractice Accident
One of the problems with medical malpractice is that many patients don’t even know when it occurred. Consider this example. You go to the hospital because you have acute pain in your lower abdomen. The medical staff correctly diagnoses your condition as appendicitis and recommends an emergency appendectomy. However, during the operation, the surgical team leaves a needle or scissors inside your abdomen and seals them inside. Months go by, and you develop a different type of pain in the surgical region. You eventually go see an internal medicine doctor, and they discover the implement.
Not all medical malpractice cases involve a surgeon carelessly leaving an implement behind. Other types of malpractice cases involve misdiagnosis, improper treatment, prescribing drugs with adverse interactions, recommending ill-advised treatments, and providing medical advice against the standards of the medical industry.
The Importance of Reporting Your Medical Injuries
If you discover an injury or condition as a result of medical malpractice, your first order of business should be to correct the error. Nothing is more important than your health. However, it’s also essential that you report the condition to recover damages. For all personal injury cases, but for medical malpractice in particular, proper documentation is essential.
Even if the doctor who erred offers to immediately correct their mistake — they often do out of concern for the patient’s wellbeing and to protect themselves from further liability — you should report the malpractice. Another thing you need to consider is the statute of limitations for medical malpractice lawsuits in Florida. For most medical malpractice cases, the statute of limitations is two years from the date of the accident. This may be extended to four years if the injury wasn’t immediately discovered.
To report a medical malpractice case, contact a med mal lawyer in your area. If you’re in Broward or Palm Beach counties, contact Long, Jean & Weschler, P.A. for immediate council. Your attorney can contact the Florida Board of Medicine, the healthcare facility, the responsible insurance providers, and any other interested parties.
Identifying Medical Malpractice
Unfortunately, there is no tried and true way of identifying medical malpractice. In some cases, the mistake will be immediately apparent. For example, there have even been reported cases of doctors confusing patients and performing the wrong surgery. You might immediately know your doctor made a mistake if your incision is in the wrong part of your body.
But it also may not be obvious. For instance, the doctor misdiagnoses you and treats a condition that you don’t have. You might believe that the procedure just failed because you don’t have the training or knowledge to spot the mistake.
Here is a list of questions you should ask yourself if you suspect your healthcare provider committed malpractice:
Did Your Medical Condition Improve?
If your condition has failed to improve, it doesn’t necessarily mean that malpractice occurred, but it could be an indicator that your healthcare provider misidentified your condition or the treatment.
Do you Have a System That Wasn’t Present Before the Treatment?
Again, this may not be a “smoking gun” that medical malpractice occurred, but it could indicate that the treatment aggravated your condition.
Did You Receive Conflicting Information from the Same Doctor?
Think about what the doctor told you before they began your treatment. Has the information changed? For example, the doctor tells you that you should recover from surgery within a couple of weeks, but now they’re saying two or three months.
Have You Sought a Second Opinion?
Doctors have a vested interest in covering their mistakes. Seek a second opinion from a doctor in the same field that works independently of your physician.
Proving Medical Malpractice
As you might imagine, medical malpractice cases can be extremely complicated and require the expert testimony of multiple professional witnesses. There are four elements that a medical malpractice attorney must prove in order to receive damages: duty of care, breach of duty, causation, and damages.
Consider a situation where a doctor performs bariatric surgery but leaves a scalpel inside the patient. The surgical implement perforates an organ and causes internal bleeding. This is clearly an example of medical malpractice on the part of the surgical team, but the plaintiff’s attorney must prove the following four elements:
1. Duty of Care
All medical providers have a duty of care to their patients. This means that they must provide professional advice and provide treatments consistent with the standards of the medical field. In our example, the doctor-patient relationship demonstrates the physician’s duty of care. The patient is entrusting the successful outcome of the surgery to the medical team.
2. Breach of Duty
As the name of the element implies, the defendant must somehow breach their duty of car. The surgical team is responsible for keeping track of their surgical instruments. The patient is entirely reliant on his doctors and their assistants to perform the surgery without this type of gross error.
3. Causation
Did the breach of duty cause the accident in question? In this case, the perforated organ was due to the scalpel left inside the patient. Proving causation would require the testimony of medical experts who could explain how the trauma occurred. A medical malpractice attorney will be familiar with doctors who could analyze the mistake and the subsequent damage.
4. Damages
In a case like this, damages would include additional medical bills, compensation for time off work, and pain and suffering. Damages in medical malpractice cases may be substantial.
During your initial consultation at LJW Law, our attorneys will review your case to determine if all four elements exist. If they find that they do, we can begin representing you immediately.
Frequently Asked Questions in Medical Malpractice Cases
Medical malpractice cases can be confusing for the victim. You’re bound to have many questions about your case. Schedule a free consultation at LJW immediately. We can even start the process over the phone. In the meantime, these are some of the most common questions we hear from our clients.
What Constitutes Medical Malpractice?
There are many types of medical malpractice. Some common types of medical malpractice include:
- Misdiagnosis or failure to identify a condition.
- Improper prescription
- Performing the wrong surgery
- Implement left inside
- Anesthesia errors
- Birth injuries
- Premature discharge from the hospital
- Infection
- Not providing aftercare instructions
If you believe that your medical injury constitutes malpractice, contact our law office. A lawyer will help you with medical malpractice filing and reporting.
Who Should I Report Medical Malpractice To?
Your first step should be to seek additional medical help to correct the accident. However, in order to pursue damages, you should contact a malpractice attorney. They can then notify the medical facility, appropriate insurance company, and the state medical board to file an official complaint.
What Evidence is Needed to Support a Report?
You will want to document all visits and treatments you received. As a patient, you have the right to copies of your medical records. If you believe there are errors or omissions, let your attorney know. Additionally, you’ll want to keep a journal of all changes in your condition, including a daily report of your health. As your case progresses, you will need to see additional doctors who can assess your condition for later testimony.
How Long Do I Have to File a Malpractice Incident Report?
While the statute of limitations in Florida is two years for most medical malpractice cases, it takes time to build a case. You should begin your pursuit of damages as early as possible, particularly if you didn’t immediately discover the accident.
What are the Potential Outcomes of Reporting Medical Malpractice?
The answer to this question depends on multiple factors, such as the history of the responsible medical practitioner or the facility, the severity of the damage caused by the negligence, and the degree of negligence. The medical board will review the case to determine whether or not a penalty is appropriate. These factors also affect the damages you can receive. The more significant your injury, the greater the amount of damages you can receive. Our attorneys will calculate your medical bills, lost wages, and other financial damages. In addition, we can calculate your pain and suffering. We’ll present these damages to the responsible party in a demand letter and negotiate for a full settlement. If we can’t agree to a settlement amount with the other party, we will litigate the case in court.
Pompano Beach Medical Malpractice Lawyers
Do not delay reporting a medical malpractice incident. Contact the Pompano Beach personal injury law firm of Long, Jean & Weschler, P.A. for a free consultation today!
