Personal Injury Lawyer
What do you do when the person who you trust with your life lets you down? The carelessness or negligence of a medical professional can endanger your life or put you at risk of permanent physical damage to your body. If you or a loved one have suffered at the hands of an incompetent or careless doctor or another medical professional you need to take action. But when it comes to medical malpractice who’s responsible – the doctor or the hospital?
What is a Medical Malpractice Suit?
Doctors are held to a very high standard of professional code of conduct. They save thousands of lives every day. But if you’re unlucky enough to suffer poor treatment at the hands of a doctor, you don’t have to take it quietly.
If a medical professional breached their legal duty to you, their patient, it is a violation and you can sue them for medical malpractice. You can ask to recover damages for this breach resulting from their negligence.
Who Can You Hold Responsible?
If you’ve been let down in your treatment by anyone in the chain, you can hold them liable. That includes not just an individual doctor or surgeon but also dentists, nurses, doctor’s assistants, anesthesiologists, emergency room staff, medical technicians, chiropractors, and even pharmacists.
Hospitals too can be held liable in medical malpractice actions. This could be due to their own negligence where they are directly liable or due to the negligence of one or more of their employees, which is vicarious liability. That’s because ultimately the choice of the staff to hire – including doctors, is the hospital’s responsibility.
Medical Malpractice – What Kind of Errors Can You Sue For?
Some examples of medical malpractice include:
- Not taking informed consent of a patient
- Incorrect diagnosis
- Improper or incorrect treatment
- Improper use of medical devices
- Using defective devices
- Negligence leading to infection
- Not responding promptly to a patient in distress
- Failing to treat a patient
- Emergency room delays
- Issues with the delivery of a baby resulting in birth injuries for the baby or injury to the mother
- Errors during surgery
- Errors during outpatient procedures
- Anesthesia-related problems (stemming from improper administration)
- Prescribing dangerous drugs or those that are defective
- Premature release from the hospital
- Inattentiveness of staff
Filing A Claim
Once you have decided to take action, it is best to get the assistance of a medical malpractice attorney trusts to ensure your case doesn’t get tossed out and that you get your due. As per West Virginia law you’ll need to provide proof of the following:
- The existence of a doctor-patient relationship
- Proof of negligence of medical professional
- Show that a different doctor would have acted differently in the same scenario
- Show that their negligence was directly responsible for your injury and/or illness/trauma
- Show that the injury resulted in some specific damages that will have a permanent effect
Experienced medical practice lawyers will be able to help you easily organize this paperwork.
