General Medical Negligence

Medical negligence is a form of medical malpractice. In fact, the terms can often be used interchangeably for certain medical errors by healthcare professionals.

Any instance where a medical practitioner makes an error or ignores standard practices qualifies as a form of general medical negligence. This could occur at any stage of care, from diagnosis to treatment to pain management.

Thousands of Americans suffer at the hands of negligent doctors every year. They may sustain long-term injuries as a result of the doctor’s negligence or even face an early death due to a missed diagnosis.

Medical malpractice laws allow victims to penalize negligent healthcare professionals. They can recover compensation for their expenses as well as additional damages for their emotional suffering.

Examples of General Medical Negligence

Many people assume that medical negligence must involve surgical errors to qualify for compensation. However, this is not the case. Most general medical negligence claims are due to incidents before or after surgical treatment.

Patients who are misdiagnosed or not diagnosed properly, especially if the proper procedure was not followed, are able to file a claim for damages. Similarly, patients who are discharged too early or who were not followed up with can file a claim if they have suffered an injury.

Medication dosages are easily mixed up when administrators do paperwork. However, it can have life-threatening consequences. Unfortunately, many doctors do provide the wrong medication or the wrong dosage of medication to clients.

Negligent treatment in hospitals is also applicable. When patients are not properly checked on, they can develop bedsores or fatal infections. In busy hospitals, this may occur when they are understaffed.

Surgical errors also qualify for medical negligence lawsuits. Doctors who operate on the wrong patient, operate on the wrong body part, leave something inside a patient, do unnecessary surgery, or who cause significant unwarranted damage to a patient during surgery can be sued.

Informed Consent

Doctors are required to obtain informed consent for medical procedures. This does not just entail signing a liability waiver. In fact, if a patient has signed this waiver without speaking with their doctor, they have not given informed consent.

Informed consent can only be given when a healthcare professional takes the time to discuss the risks with their patient. The patient must be made aware of the risks and be able to ask any questions that they have before receiving the treatment.

If a doctor performs surgery without having the informed consent of the patient, they are liable for any harm or injury that they cause during the surgery.

Proving Medical Negligence

To win a medical negligence lawsuit, the plaintiff will need to prove negligence. To prove negligence in a civil court case, the plaintiff must first prove that the healthcare professional had a duty of care. This is easy in medical malpractice cases, as doctors and hospitals have an obvious duty of care: to treat their injured patients and not do additional harm.

If a doctor breaches this duty of care, either by knowingly causing harm, not following practices in place to maintain the safety and health of their patients, or by practicing medicine while impaired, then they have failed to uphold their duty.

The plaintiff will have to prove that the doctor’s duty of care breach is what caused their injury. For example, a patient who had the wrong kidney removed can prove that they would not otherwise have suffered the loss of this kidney.

Once the plaintiff’s team has proven the negligence of the defendant, then they can file their request for damages in court.