When you have experienced medical malpractice, you need to make sure that you know what to do after you have been injured. Doctors, nurses, and hospitals may simply believe that you have a new medical condition, your condition worsened, or you need different treatment. You should think carefully about how you have been provided medical care, and you should file a complaint, speak to a lawyer, and ensure that you are compensated for your pain and suffering.
How Did The Malpractice Occur?
Malpractice may have occurred during surgery, during an office visit, or when you received the wrong medication. You may have been misdiagnosed, or the facility may not have adequately provided equipment for your care. In extreme cases, doctors leave medical tools inside patients. Patients are told that they are not sick even though they are clearly unwell, or patients are knowingly given the wrong treatment.
If you suspect that malpractice has occurred, you must take these next steps to ensure that you can recover compensation and hold the doctor, nurse, or medical facility accountable.
Get A Second Opinion
You should go to another doctor who can likely diagnose the problem. In these cases, the doctor might even tell you that they believe malpractice has occurred. You should not complain to the doctor or medical facility. They are trying to stay in business, and they will do anything to stop you from suing. They might even offer you a small settlement to close the case right then and there.
File A Complaint
You should file a formal complaint with the state medical board for malpractice. Once the complaint has been filed, you should hire a lawyer who will investigate your case for you. The lawyer can tell you if you can recover compensation, and the lawyer will negotiate with the doctor or facility. You do not want to manage the case on your own, and you do not want to be in a position where you are taking calls from lawyers and medical administrators about the case. Your lawyer should talk to these people.
Can You Recover Compensation?
You can recover compensation for medical malpractice in the form of damages for pain and suffering, missed work hours, disability, and even punitive damages that are handed down by the state. You do not get to pick an arbitrary number. You must work with your lawyer to determine how much your pain and suffering is worth.
You can calculate how much your medical treatment costs, how much future treatment will cost, and the cost of any disability that arose because of medical malpractice. Your lawyer can ask the state to award punitive damages, but that is not always guaranteed. If you settle, you will get a lump sum amount that was agreed to during the negotiations.
What If Someone Dies Because Of Medical Malpractice?
If medical malpractice results in the death of a patient, the patient’s family has the right to file a lawsuit for wrongful death. These lawsuits are completely different from your lawsuit for damages. You are showing that your friend or loved one died because of malpractice, and you are trying to show that their burial costs, final expenses, and even future earnings should be paid. You can hire a lawyer for a suit like this, and you should turn over all the documents related to the case so that your lawyer can file the suit.
In most cases, the suit will be filed on behalf of the estate of the person who died.
Conclusion
Medical malpractice should be taken seriously by doctors, nurses, and medical facilities. If the appropriate steps were not taken to give you the medical care you need, you should ensure that anyone who is responsible is held accountable. File a formal complaint for malpractice, hire a lawyer, and ensure that you get a second opinion so that you can recover from your injuries.
