MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE
Medical Negligence
Medical negligence occurs when a medical professional fails to properly treat or diagnose a patient, resulting in physical injury or damage to the patient. If you have medical injuries, you may be entitled to a settlement. At Alford Law Group, we can help you receive compensation for current and future medical costs, lost wages, pain and suffering, and more.
In order to have a viable medical malpractice case, a patient must be able to prove the following:
- The existence of a doctor-patient relationship
(that this medical professional was responsible for the subject’s treatment and safety) - That the doctor’s actions deviated from standard medical procedure (In other words, that medical negligence occurred)
- That the doctor’s medical negligence caused specific harm to the patient as a result
If you have medical injuries you may be entitled to a settlement.
Common Cases of Medical Malpractice:
Surgical Errors: By far the most common type of medical malpractice case, surgical errors account for roughly 2/3 of all medical malpractice lawsuits. Often, these cases involve organ or nerve damage, surgery performed on the wrong site or the wrong patient, or the use of unsanitary instruments.
Misdiagnosis: Another common medical malpractice case involves misdiagnosis of a patient, when a physician misidentifies a medical ailment, often due to shared symptoms. Common types of misdiagnosis include cancer, asthma, heart attack, stroke, staph infection, and lymph node inflammation.
Failure to Diagnose: When a physician fails to connect a patient’s symptoms to a medical condition resulting in a lack of treatment, failure to diagnose occurs. When a patient fails to get the proper treatment they need, their condition can become more serious, occasionally even resulting in death.
Anesthetic Errors: Many patients suffer from issues with anesthesia. Oftentimes, these errors can be even more deadly than surgical errors, as anesthesia can react to the body in a number of ways. Common cases involve defective equipment, anesthesia overdose, failure to educate the patient about dietary restrictions succeeding or prior to treatment.
Medication Error: Prescription drug error can also count as a case of medical malpractice, and can include administration of incorrect medication or medication dosage, mislabeling medication, failing to warn patients of a medicine’s side effects, and prescribing medication that the patient is allergic to, or that reacts strongly with other medicine they may be taking.