Many doctors take the Hippocratic Oath. They pledge to “abstain from all intentional wrong-doing and harm.”
Unfortunately, that is not always the case.
The World Health Organization recently released statistics that over 2.5 million deaths annually occur because of hospital unsafe care.
If you incur an injury or your health condition worsens because of a medical professional’s actions, you should speak with a lawyer immediately. It is crucial to determine if your case falls under medical malpractice or medical negligence.
There is a distinct difference between malpractice vs negligence. To better understand the difference, you must know both definitions within personal injury law.
Here is what you should know.
What Is Medical Negligence?
First, there is a general legal definition for “negligence.” It means that a personal or business caused your injury because of carelessness or recklessness. Your goal is to hold the person or company liable for the cost of damage for your injury.
Proving negligence, in general, means that the following requirements are met.
- The individual or business was legally responsible for protecting you
- They breached their duty
- The result of their negligence is that you have an injury
- Your injury is due to an individual or company’s breach
For medical negligence, these qualifiers are needed, and a few more. In these cases, you would accuse a medical institution or professional of negligence. This includes doctors, nurses, and hospitals.
The key to a lawyer winning such a case is to prove the professional or institution violated what is considered an accepted standard of care for the medical field.
What Is Medical Malpractice?
The most significant difference between a doctor negligence case and medical malpractice is that with malpractice, you are proving the actions of the individual or organization was intentionally reckless. In short, medical malpractice is worse than medical negligence.
Types of Medical Malpractice
This is an ongoing issue and is often overlooked. Medical malpractice is a grave concern and must be addressed. Here are the most common types and cases where you need to contact a medical malpractice lawyer for help.
Misdiagnosis
This happens when a doctor does not recognize an issue or condition of the patient. It can produce a wide range of consequences for the patient. Challenges like incorrect prescriptions and progression of the condition can put a patient at risk beyond what could have been efficiently treated.
Sometimes, the results are deadly. Timely medical treatment is critical. Irreversible severe complications can occur, or even a wrongful death case.
It is essential to understand how a misdiagnosis could qualify as a medical malpractice case. The doctor in question must not perform at a level equivalent to other doctors. In short, another doctor would not have missed the diagnosis.
Delayed Diagnosis
The same is true if a doctor takes too long to decide what is causing your underlying health issues. In some instances, it may even be too late to treat it. In these cases, a doctor may struggle to make a diagnosis, if they make one at all.
Your condition may worsen when you do not get a diagnosis on time. A medical malpractice lawyer will help you prove that the doctor’s assessment was less than competent for a delayed diagnosis case. Examples of proof could be overlooking something about your health, missing tests, etc.
Surgical Errors
There are a few reasons this could happen. It could be that the surgery was unnecessary, the wrong procedure was performed, and the surgical instruments were not sterile. Other examples include medical equipment left inside you during surgery, aftercare being inadequate, and damage to the nerves, organs, or tissues is avoidable.
Risks associated with surgery are not the same as a surgical error. Doctors must tell you about the associated risks. If you suffer a risk that the physician communicated to you before surgery, this is not considered medical malpractice.
Failure to Treat
This happens when a doctor determines the correct diagnosis but fails to follow through properly. This can include failing to provide proper follow-up care, discharging the patient too soon, etc.
To prove these cases, you need the help of an excellent attorney to show you did not receive the standard care you should have been given, at a minimum. A more competent doctor would have handled your treatment differently.
Prescription Drug Errors
Sometimes these cases are alongside a misdiagnosis. It could be that the wrong prescription is filled or the incorrect prescription is ordered, but in either case, the patient takes the wrong medication.
Errors with medication can cause adverse side effects. This can be especially true if they interact with another medication you are taking. To prove these medical malpractice cases, you need to prove you experienced injury from a medication error and prove negligence in your prescription.
Failure to Treat or Prevent Infections
When a doctor does not use sterile equipment or there are unsanitary conditions, hospitals can cause you to develop an infection. By failing to keep a clinic or hospital clean, they would fail to protect you from diseases. This is dangerous and another example of medical malpractice.
Anesthesia Errors
Essential to surgery, anesthesia prevents patients from feeling pain. However, a mistake in anesthesia can cause long-lasting consequences. This includes brain injuries, intense pain, and fatalities.
You may have a case of medical malpractice by failing to provide the correct amount of anesthesia or if a doctor did not give you appropriate instructions for care after surgery.
Malpractice vs Negligence
The most significant difference between malpractice vs negligence is whether the actions are intentional. Regardless, you must contact an attorney to better evaluate your case.
If a health provider causes you pain, suffering, or even the death of a loved one, you need to speak with relentless advocates at the Law Offices of Gerald J. Noonan. For over 30 years, their lawyers have proven results.
With a reputation for helping patients, you will get the justice you deserve. Contact the Law Offices of Gerald J. Noonan for a free evaluation