medical malpractice victimWe place a lot of trust in medical professionals because we believe what they do is difficult and specialized. But as much as we trust them to take care of our medical problems, there are times when things don’t go right.

Apart from medical equipment malfunctioning or medical products causing a bad reaction, we are talking about medical professionals who don’t take precautions or don’t do what they are supposed to do when they are supposed to do it. And they end up injuring their patients and in some cases, the injuries are permanently damaging.

The good news is the law protects victims of medical malpractice but only if you go about things the right way.

If you have been a victim of medical malpractice, you can protect your rights by hiring an experienced medical malpractice lawyer. They can help you receive adequate compensation for your injuries.

But the big question is…

How can you tell if you’ve been a victim of medical malpractice? The law has its own definition of medical malpractice but it varies from one state to another. But, there’s what’s known as “standard care” and all medical professionals are required to provide it. The measure of medical malpractice is related to standard care.

If you suspect you’ve been a victim of medical malpractice, you should contact your personal injury lawyer immediately.

Signs You Are A Medical Malpractice Victim

Delayed Diagnosis or Misdiagnosis

If your doctor misdiagnosed you or failed to detect a serious illness during its early stages and as a result, your condition worsened, then you could sue them for medical malpractice.

So how do you prove that your doctor misdiagnosed your condition or delayed the diagnosis?

You need to consult a doctor who’s competent in the same field of medicine as the doctor you want to sue for malpractice. Find out how they would have handled the case given the same circumstances. Would the results be different? Was the diagnostic error preventable?

Your Condition Isn’t Improving

When a doctor gives you a prescription, you expect your condition to improve within a few days. But in the case of medical malpractice, your condition won’t improve or it will get worse. There could be several reasons as to why your treatment isn’t working including misdiagnosis, wrong diagnosis or something went wrong during your surgery (botched surgery).

Misreading Lab Tests

Lab tests are subject to human error. Samples can be contaminated, they can be switched or they can be misread. If your entire treatment was based on a single contaminated or switched test, you could be staring a huge problem in the eye. You might need additional tests.

There Were Medication Errors

Approximately 1.5 million people every year in the United States are victims of medical errors, which can occur in a number of ways including administration and prescription of a drug.

The most common type of medical error involves dosage. Maybe you were given too much or too little of a prescribed drug. For instance:

  1. The doctor prescribed the incorrect dosage
  2. The doctor prescribed the right dosage but the nurse administrated the wrong amount.
  3. Medical equipment malfunctioned and administered a large dose of medication. For example, when a valve dislodges in an intravenous pump, there’s a high chance that a large dose of medication will be administered over a short period of time.

There Were Surgery Errors

Sometimes surgeons might be negligent during surgery. For instance, they might leave surgical instruments in your body, they could operate on the wrong part of the body or they could puncture internal organs.

Sometimes the surgeon might recommend unnecessary surgical procedures. For instance, when you’ve been diagnosed with breast cancer and the surgeon recommends the entire breast be removed when you could have been treated using chemotherapy.

In other instances, you might not receive proper post-operative care and you end up getting infections, which could lead to additional serious problems.

Failure To Follow Up

If you are not sure about how to take care of yourself after treatment or how to care for your condition, there’s a high chance you’ll end up in the hospital again. With that in mind, your health care provider should clearly explain to you how to fend for yourself following treatment and they should follow up with you to ensure your road to recovery is as smooth as possible.

Your Questions Are Ignored

You have the right to know what’s going on with your condition and what sort of drugs you are being given. If a doctor or nurse refuses to give you vital information about your condition or refuses to answer any of your questions, that is usually a bad sign.

They could be trying to avoid answering your questions because they know something went wrong somewhere and they don’t want you to find out. If that’s the case then you need to seek a second opinion.

They Give You A Quick “Honest” Apology

An apology is given in order to dissuade you from pursuing legal action or to at least consider settling the matter out of court. They don’t want you to hire a personal injury attorney because the settlement value will increase. They will also act swiftly and pressure you into settling out of court before the extent of your injuries is known.

Hiring A Medical Malpractice Lawyer

According to a study, medical errors kill around 200, 000 people in the United States annually. 15% of lawsuits filed in the U.S involve medical malpractice and 80% of them end with no payment to the victims.

There are many reasons as to why this could be happening and one of them is failure to properly evaluate the medical malpractice claim.

An experienced medical malpractice lawyer should not pursue a case unless the damages and injuries are documented and a competent medical professional has reviewed them.

We provide an initial free consultation to help figure out whether or not you’ve been a victim of medical malpractice. We’ll advise you of your rights from wherever is comfortable for you.

We will pay keen attention to your case and we won’t treat it like it’s just another medical malpractice case.

To schedule your free initial consultation, call any of our Cape Cod, Massachusetts or Rhode Island offices today at (800)-200-7752.