Medical malpractice action can be for injury or death against a licensed health care provider based upon negligence, misconduct, errors or omissions, or breach of contract in rendering medical services.
Basic elements of proof include that there was a duty, breach of that particular standard of care, proximate causation and damages.
Particularly important is proving that the licensed health care provider breached the applicable standard of care---meaning that the provider failed to exercise that degree of care, skill and learning expected of a reasonable, prudent health care provider of the same profession or class.
Types of Medical Malpractice
Each year, medical mistakes injure or kill almost 100,000 people in the U.S. Following are just a few examples of the kinds of situations that could qualify as medical malpractice:
• Surgical errors
• Medication errors
• Mistakes made during administration of anesthesia
• Following improper treatment or diagnosis protocol
• Not acting in a timely manner once a diagnosis has been made and treatment is necessary • Mistakes made when treating women and fetus during pregnancy and delivery (Cerebral palsy and Erb's palsy are birth injury cases where medical malpractice could have played a role in the condition development)
• Failure to diagnose or misdiagnosing a condition
• Failure to provide adequate healthcare at a nursing home
Medical Malpractice Compensation
Patients have a legal right to sound medical care.
When that fails to happen and an injury or death occurs, the victim or family of the victim may have grounds for a medical malpractice lawsuit. It is important to act quickly if you want to pursue legal compensation for medical malpractice. If too much times passes, there is a chance that the statute of limitations will prevent the case from moving forward.