Whenever a healthcare practitioner makes a mistake, and you end up suffering the consequences of their negligence, this can be considered a form of medical malpractice. Doctors, nurses, nurse aids, surgeons’ assistants, and other specialists are supposed to provide reliable medical services that help improve your condition. When they fail to do that, this can be incredibly harmful to your overall health and lead to serious damage. When you’ve experienced some form of medical malpractice, you can reach out to a personal injury lawyer who will investigate your claim against the healthcare organization. Your attorney will direct you to seek a settlement first before attempting to sue for medical malpractice. Here are the standard steps you will follow:
Organize Medical Bills For Damages
Because of your doctor or physician’s errors, you may be suffering damages so terrible that you rack up a large number of medical bills. Over time, this can cause an expensive deficit in your finances and create an economic burden for you. You should keep receipts for any treatments you received because of your medical malpractice injury, including lab tests, prescription medicine, imaging scans, surgery, follow-up visits, and other expenses. Your medical bills are proof of the damages you experienced.
Keep Physical Evidence
It is also a good idea to keep any physical evidence of malpractice. For example, if you were given the wrong dosage or type of medicine for your disease or illness, you should hold onto it and not tamper with the evidence. Your medical malpractice attorneys can include this piece of evidence in your medical malpractice claim.
Keep Receipts and Invoices
Your attorney will need to show that your injury was tied to your doctor’s activities. This can be done by showing when and where you got treated, which led up to how your injury occurred. You should keep any receipts, invoices, paperwork, and anything else that may describe or show how the personal injury occurred. This can help your attorney investigate what type of personal injury occurred and who can be held liable for your wounds. It may not have been the doctor, but instead, a nurse, depending on the circumstances.
Take Pictures Of Personal Injury
After you’ve suffered damages, you should take pictures of the personal injury and any other evidence that is necessary to show how severely you were harmed. You may have erupted in hives or blisters because of an allergic reaction that the doctor was aware of, for example, after you were given a medical ointment. Another example is keeping an x-ray of an object inside you after a surgeon left an instrument behind after your surgery. Taking pictures of your condition and showing how you were injured will support your case.
Speak To An Attorney On Negligence And Liability
When you have gathered enough evidence, you can receive guidance from an attorney to help direct you to the next steps. Your attorney has to prove that the other party was negligent in some way in order to hold them liable for your damages. This is done in the following ways:
Duty Of Care
Because you are receiving healthcare services from your doctor, they owe you a duty of care. They must uphold honesty and provide quality medical services so that you experience the best healthcare outcome.
Breach Of Duty
Doctors that fail to provide a duty of care end up breaching that duty. When there is a breach of duty, then this can lead to a case of medical malpractice.
Causation
The doctor’s actions have to be directly linked to your injury before you can hold them responsible for your injuries. If there is no causation between the doctor and your injury, you can’t hold them liable.
Harm
There has to be some kind of harm done to you or damages before you can file a medical malpractice claim. You would need to show how you were harmed before you can receive compensation for your damages.
Estimate Damages
Attorneys will next estimate how much you should receive in settlement money before they begin the negotiation process with the other party. They do this in two ways:
Estimating Non-Economic Damages
While you are recovering, you are likely going to experience pain and suffering because of the wounds you are struggling with. You may be depressed, suffering from anxiety, fatigued, have poor self-esteem, demotivated, dealing with grief, feeling shame or embarrassment, and other forms of distraught behavior. Your medical malpractice attorney needs to know about your pain and suffering because they use a multiplier to calculate how much this adds up to in damages with the help of an insurance adjuster.
Estimating Economic Damages
Your medical bills will make up most of your economic damages; however, you may also be suffering from wage loss because of your injuries. This is because your wounds may be so severe that you have to take off time from work to recover. When you are unable to perform normal tasks or daily functions, you may need weeks or months to heal. The amount of money you lost because of your inability to work or run a business will be included in your damages.
Attorney Negotiates Before Court
If the other party refuses to settle or their insurer isn’t willing to negotiate a fair settlement, your attorney will help you sue them for medical malpractice. They will file a petition at court on your behalf, help you through the mediation session, and, if no resolution is found, represent your case before the jury on the day of your trial.
How Do I Get Started On My Medical Malpractice Claims
If you have more questions, call a medical malpractice attorney now to get some clarity on your situation. You may be unsure of who should be held liable, the organization or the doctor, and how to go about collecting evidence. Leave it up to your attorney to help you get maximum compensation for all of your damages.