COMMON EXAMPLES OF MEDICAL MALPRACTICE

Medical malpractice is a cause of action under negligence that gives rise to a patient to sue a medical practitioner or health care providing facility for any negligent acts that must have resulted in an injury. With the help of a medical malpractice lawyer, a victim of medical practice will be able to seek redress in a court of law.

Under the law, certain conditions must be present in a case for it to be regarded as a medical malpractice case. Only with these stipulations affirmed can a plaintiff sue effectively for the claim of medical malpractice. They are;

1. The defendant owed the plaintiff a duty of care;
2. That duty of care was breached;
3. This violation resulted in an injury;
4. The injury was a direct or proximate cause of an injury to the plaintiff.

Only on these grounds can a plaintiff make a prima facie case against the defendant.

Since the inception of the concept of negligence in law, there have been countless cases of individuals seeking redress for medical malpractice in the law court. There have been a series of cases, and while some appear quite rarely, there are others that have become commonplace. `

We must know these famous cases of medical malpractice so that we are not unfairly and consequently forced to waive our rights as a result of ignorance. Some of these regularly encountered cases of negligence include;

• Undiagnosed symptoms: When we visit the doctor’s office to complain about certain things, we expect that the doctor diagnoses us of our symptoms because that is their duty. However, if a person sought medical help for the diagnosing of specific signs and the doctor knowingly or mistakenly overlooked such which led to an injury for the patient, they have breached their duty of care. Doctors have to test and diagnose their patients exactly what is wrong with them; if they fail to do this for one reason or the other when they have been consulted, it a breach of their duty of care to the patient.
• Wrong diagnosis: The wrong diagnosis is another typical case of medical malpractice that is usually encountered in the courts. This is a situation when a patient has been misdiagnosed by their medical practitioner for an illness that they are not suffering from, which led to bodily harm for the patient. It is part of the duty of care owed to patients by doctors for them to carefully make their diagnosis to avoid any mistakes that might cause injuries or harm to their patients.
• Wrong medication: Health care services and medical practitioners are expected to very careful and in the prescription of drugs because this concerns the lives and wellbeing of their patients who trust in them. When such trust has been breached, and such action resulted in bodily harm or injuries for the patients who are entitled under the law to seek redress in a court of law.
• Unnecessary surgery: This is when a doctor books a patient for surgery when the process is not needed, and such ailments can be cured by other means, in which case the action led to bodily injury for the patient. A lot of times, medical practitioners do this as a means to charge higher fees and make more profit. Seeing that this is at the risk of the patient’s life and the bodily injury was caused, the patient has a right to seek redress in a court of law.
• Surgical errors: It is considered as a case of medical malpractice under the law if due to surgical mistakes performed by a medical practitioner, a patient is left with bodily injuries. Situations like this one are very commonly brought to the court of law, and justice meted to each of the parties.

Kindly note that in all of these situations, all the criteria required for the case t be certified medical negligence must be satisfied. Without that, there is no case for the plaintiff, and it very likely such a case be dismissed.