Statistics indicate over 195k people die from malpractice

Medical errors are considered malpractice

Statistics show that each year, in the United States, approximately 195,000 people die as a result of medical errors.

Medical malpractice occurs when treatment by a health care provider falls below the accepted standard of practice and causes injury or death to a patient.

The rules about bringing a medical malpractice lawsuit vary from state to state, but there are some general principals and rules that can be applied to most medical malpractice cases.

Things to occur to prove malpractice

In order to prove that medical malpractice has occurred, you must be able to show all of these things:

1. You must show that you had a physician-patient relationship with the doctor you are suing. What this means is that you hired the doctor, and the doctor agreed to be hired. This will be easy to prove if a doctor began seeing you and treating you.
2. The doctor must have been negligent.  This means the doctor was not reasonably skillful and careful in your diagnosis or treatment. You will need to be able to show the doctor caused you harm in a way that a competent doctor, under the same circumstances, would not have.

Almost all states require that the patient present a medical expert that can speak to what standards of treatment are considered to be reasonably skillful and careful.

1. The patient must show that it is “more likely than not” that the doctor’s negligence directly caused the injury. Many malpractice cases often involve patients that were already sick or injured and therefore it is often a question of whether what the doctor did, whether it be negligent or not, actually caused the harm. Usually, the patient must present a medical expert that can testify that the doctor’s negligence caused the injury or death.
2. The injury led to specific damages. Even if it is clear and obvious the doctor performed below expected standards, the patient can’t sue for malpractice if the patient did not suffer harm. Physical pain, mental anguish, additional medical bills, and lost work and therefore earning capacity are examples of the types of harm patients can sue for.

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