Medical Malpractice Claims: Your Guide
An Oklahoma medical malpractice claim involves an avoidable error made by a medical professional. Essentially, a medical facility, doctor, nurse or all combined are named in a lawsuit as being responsible for a medical mistake that causes damage or harm to someone.
While lawyers and the courts are not medical professionals, the law and legal system provide people access to a remedy when an avoidable medical mistake is made causing an injury, especially when the injury causes permanent damage. The legal action pursued by an Oklahoma City malpractice attorney (req keyword spelled wrong) generally falls under the concept of negligence, but the laws and remedies are specific to the medical practice, ergo the term “malpractice.”
For a medical malpractice case to be successful, a number of aspects need to be proven in court conclusively. First, the medical provider involved had a standard of care to deliver what is normal for medical professionals and that standard wasn’t met by the provider involved. Second, the patient was harmed by the mistake or lack of care and the harm can be tied directly to the mistake made (i.e. it was not a downstream injury because something else happened after the fact), and third, the injury created serious and lasting damage that the patient suffered, which can include physical, mental and financial losses (for example, no longer being able to work for an income and living).
Damages that can be collected in a successful case vary. The physical damages obviously can include the cost of additional medical care needed after the mistake was made However, additional damages can be recovered for ongoing pain and mental suffering, loss of income-earning ability, disability and more. All of these are translated into financial values by the legal system, and the damages are recovered in the form of a financial payment. Whether the case goes to trial or is settled, when damages are recovered, they are recovered in the form of a financial payment. In some cases, the payment is not direct; many cases use an annuity to make payments to the injured party for the rest of their life or a set time, distributing sufficient funds for recovery but not immediately. This is common in cases where the injury is permanent and life changing.
Not all cases go to trial. In fact, many settle out of court because the potential cost and risk of loss could be much greater in trial than to resolve the matter out of court. However, there is no guarantee, and no case outcome can be predicted as a sure thing. Strong cases tend to be fairly clear in the facts and evidence, but they also depend on the experience of the attorneys involved as well.
For the patient, oftentimes there can be confusion between what is believed to be a mistake by a medical provider and dissatisfaction with the expected outcomes of a medical procedure. This is particularly common in situations that are visual, such as plastic surgery. Technically, dissatisfaction is not sufficient to meet the criteria of medical malpractice. However, if a mistake occurs that no similar medical provider would normally allow under the expected standard of care for that procedure, then the conditions change. Typical medical malpractice OKC mistakes seen by lawyers okc can and do include:
- Not diagnosing a condition correctly or missing it completely when the condition should have been found by a reasonable peer
- Surgery that wasn’t necessary or requested
- Discharging a patient from care before a reasonable recovery time by professional standards
- Failure to follow up with correct testing
- Failure to follow up at all
- Prescribing the wrong medicine or the wrong dose level
- Missing equipment during a surgery that ends up inside the patient
- Allowing preventable infections to occur that cause additional issues and medical responses
- Poor patient care in general, such as bedsores
As attorneys Oklahoma City legal experts, the Burton Law Group has gained a well-known reputation as the go-to source for those needing an OKC medical malpractice attorney. Not only have they successfully litigated malpractice cases for their clients consistently, but the Burton Law Group has also been recognized as one of the premier OK medical malpractice attorney firms in the state for their work. For prospective clients trying to find out more about medical malpractice and their options, the Burton Law Group is available, call or email for more information.