Medical malpractice is a legal term that refers to a health care professional’s failure to provide the appropriate standard of care or treatment. If you feel that you have been a victim of medical malpractice, some key factors must be present for your medical malpractice lawyer in Philadelphia to make a successful case.
Factors Medical Malpractice Lawyers in Philadelphia Will Consider in a Medical Malpractice Case
1. Professional Duty of Care
In all 50 states, doctors must provide their patients with the same degree of care that any other competent doctor would give under similar circumstances. Your doctor may be held accountable for damages if they fail to fulfill this standard. To prove that a healthcare provider breached their duty of care, you must show that they failed to meet their profession’s standard of care.
2. Breach of Duty
To determine if there was a breach of duty, you must first determine what that duty was. In most cases, the duty owed to the patient is to provide competent care. A physician who fails to meet this standard has breached their duty. This is an objective standard based on what reasonable physicians would do in similar circumstances. If a reasonable physician would have ordered further testing for a patient with chest pain, for example, then failing to do so makes up for medical malpractice.
3. Cause in Fact
You must establish causation by showing a link between the breach of duty and the injuries sustained due to the negligence on behalf of your doctor or hospital staff member(s). also, you must show that this injury would not have happened if they had not been negligent in providing care to you.
When proving causation in a medical malpractice case, it is important to establish that they deviated from acceptable standards of care and that this deviation caused your injury. You will also have to show that your wounds would not have occurred or would have been less severe if your doctor had followed those standards.
4. Proximate Cause
The plaintiff must prove that the defendant’s actions were a substantial factor in causing their injuries. The issue of proximate cause is often complicated by various factors, including uncertainty about what happened, a lack of expert causation testimony, and questions about how much time passed between when the incident occurred and when the injury manifested itself.
5. Damages/Harm Caused By Mistake
For compensation to be awarded in a medical malpractice case, there must be evidence of actual damages caused by the error made by the doctor (or other medical professional). This can include physical pain and suffering and financial losses due to lost wages or other expenses related to treatment after an injury occurred because of a doctor’s mistake.
Summary
Medical malpractice cases can be complicated, but they can also yield strong results. If you or someone you love has been injured by a medical professional, the best thing to do is seek legal advice from a qualified medical malpractice lawyer. A medical malpractice lawyer in Philadelphia understands the unique laws that govern these cases, which are different from other personal injury cases.