What is Medical Malpractice?
“What is medical malpractice?” “Is there a medical malpractice attorney out there that can help with my case?” these questions might have crossed your mind.
Learn More:
How To Find A Good Medical Malpractice Attorney (And How To Choose The Right One)
What are “Damages” in Medical Malpractice?
Failure to Diagnose Lawsuit Settlements
Video Transcript
Timestamps
0:00 Intro
0:27 Medical Malpractice 101
1:04 Other Factors
2:17 Failure to Recognize Abnormalities
My name is Kenneth Chessick, MD, JD. I’m both a medical doctor, a board-certified general surgeon, and an experienced trial lawyer who has limited my practice to medical malpractice litigation since 1984.
0:27 Medical Malpractice 101
Now what is medical malpractice is a question that every potential client has. In order to prove a case of medical malpractice, you’ve got to show that the doctor or the nurse, or the healthcare practitioner breached what’s called the standard of care. And that means that he or she did not act like a recently careful doctor, a nurse practitioner would do in the same or similar circumstances.
1:04 Other Factors
But in addition to showing what he did wrong or she did wrong or didn’t do things they should have done. You’ve also got to show that the individual was harmed and suffered damages. And the third thing needs to show is that there was a what’s called proximate cause that the breach and the negligence, breach in the standard of care, caused and contributed to the damages suffered by the innocent patients. It’s a broad overview of what medical negligence litigation involves.
A classic case is one involving a pregnant woman who goes into labor, and the doctors and the nurses in the hospital are monitoring the lady and watching her what are called fetal monitor strips to see if the baby’s contractions on the heartbeat is normal. And when it shows a substantial abnormality, that has to be investigated and if necessary, labor-induced, or cesarean section done to prevent the occurrence of lack of blood flow and oxygen to the brain of that baby inside the mom. The baby’s got to come out.
2:17 Failure to Recognize Abnormalities
A failure to recognize those abnormalities on the fetal monitor strips and recognize what’s called fetal distress is a breaching standard of care. And if the lack of blood flow to the baby’s brain is prolonged and severe enough, it can cause brain damage, and that baby will be born with brain damage that will last his or her entire lives. So that’s an example of the breaching of standard care is the failure to monitor, the failure to understand the abnormalities and the monitor strips when they occur, and then to act on those prompt and way to get the baby out before the baby’s deprived of oxygen and suffers catastrophic damages.
So that’s breaching the standard of care has damages and proximate cause the negligent acts and omissions resulted in the baby’s brain damage. That’s an example of elements of medical negligence.
In all of these cases, by the way, you assume that the doctor or nurse has a duty to the patient, and when the patient submits to care by that doctor or nurse, that duty arises to act in a reasonably careful fashion.
That’s a general outline of one example of medical negligence that occurs in other circumstances as well. If you have any questions regarding these issues, in particularly if they affect how you and yours, feel free to contact our team of medical malpractice attorney. We’ll be more than happy to talk to you and discuss the care that was delivered to you.