Malpractice by definition in Charleston is any time a health care provider uses a standard of care other than what professionals in the industry would use when treating a patient. Malpractice is a violation that standard. A health care provider is considered a physician, nurse, any type of healthcare professional, or any type of facility, such as a hospital or urgent care. If the healthcare provider uses the standard of care up to the industry standard and a bad result occurs, that is not malpractice. There has to be some deviation from the standard of care in order to prove a malpractice case.
An injury from medical malpractice is not an easy situation for anybody. When you are hurt by those who you trusted to provide care to you, you deserve to be fully and fairly compensated for the damage you endured. An experienced injury attorney can help hold the responsible party accountable. En Español.
Elements of Medical Malpractice in Charleston
The elements of a medical malpractice case in Charleston would first include the establishment of a doctor-patient relationship. Once that has been established, the patient would need to establish that there was some type of duty owed by the physician. They would establish that the breach of that duty has occurred either by an act of the physician, or something they should not have done, an omission, or failed to do. The combination of the breach of duty and damages that the patient incurred as a result of the breach of that duty, forms a causal relationship.
Liability For a Medical Malpractice
A Charleston medical malpractice lawyer can help pursue medical malpractice cases against:
- General practitioners
- Surgeons
- Chiropractors
- Anesthesiologists
- Dentists
- Nurses
- Hospitals and health clinics
These and other medical care providers have an obligation to all patients. When they have made a mistake or have misdiagnosed, an attorney can help victims who are harmed make a claim for damages. When medical malpractice is fatal, surviving family members can also pursue a claim against doctors, hospitals, or other providers whose negligence killed their loved ones.
Recovering Damages
Medical negligence can have a profound impact on the individual’s life. When an individual has been harmed by medical negligence, they deserve to be fully compensated in order to recover and move on. Compensation, with the help of a Charleston medical malpractice lawyer, should include:
- Payment of all medical expenditures needed to treat the problems caused by the medical error.
- Payment for loss of wages if medical negligence is causing someone to miss work or the ability to earn as much in the future.
- Payment for emotional distress and pain endured due to medical negligence.
Wrongful death damages paid to surviving family members provide different types of compensation like payment for lost companionship and a lifetime of lost earnings.
Benefits of a Charleston Medical Malpractice Lawyer
One of the benefits of hiring an experienced medical malpractice attorney would be their role in gathering evidence in the case. Evidence can include the medical records meaning utilizing the applicable records to the proper expert(s) for their review to determine if there indeed has been medical negligence or medical malpractice. The attorney can challenge the claims made by doctors of the defense who say there was not medical negligence or medical malpractice.
The lawyer should gather the evidence to quantify both economic and non-economic damages in the case. Economic damages being the past medical bills and whatever the future medical care may be necessary, and lost wages (past and future). An expert economist may be brought on to accurately quantify those numbers to the medical legal standard, and the present value of what those damages would be in order to get in front of a jury. All those damages will be considered by the jury in determining an award.
The lawyer can help develop evidence that may help prove the non-economic damages of pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, and in some cases loss of consortium if there is a spouse. Loss of consortium would be the services that the spouse has lost due to the restrictions and inabilities of the injured person following the injury or damage they incurred from the medical malpractice/negligence.
Expectations of the Initial Consultation
A Charleston medical malpractice attorney would be likely on a fact-finding mission in the initial consultation. The injured person should expect empathy, professionalism, a willingness to get involved, and the desire to get to the bottom of the issues in the case with both liability and damages issues. The injured person should expect a pace and commitment to work the case in a timely manner and should expect the attorney to identify experts for the liability side and proving the malpractice itself, and also for the damages portion, proving the economic and non-economic damages.
