A trip to the hospital or lengthy care with a physician can be very stressful on you and your family. When you are in a doctor’s care you expect them to take the situation just as seriously as you do. Unfortunately, mistakes can be made that cost you recovery time or can even cause serious injuries that you didn’t have before. 

If you think something has gone seriously wrong in your medical care, it’s worth talking to an attorney to understand your rights and compensation options. You could be a victim of medical malpractice or negligence. While no doctor is perfect, you want to make sure that your doctor wasn’t lacking in competence or poorly executing their work, causing you further injury. 

The definition of medical malpractice is as follows: the improper, unskilled, or negligent treatment of a patient by a physician, dentist, nurse, pharmacist, or other health care professional. 

This definition can mean many things to many people. Sometimes it means that a surgeon makes a mistake that they should never have made, or that a nurse forgets to administer medication and you suffer the consequences. It could mean an infection that spreads because it wasn’t caught in time, or an accruement of medical expenses due to a careless misdiagnosis. You may think that these circumstances are rare, but the data will surprise you: 

  • 195,000 hospital patients die every year due to preventable errors in care
  • According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, medical negligence is the third leading cause of death in the United States

Everybody makes mistakes on the job, and doctors are put under incredible pressure because their honest mistakes can be fatal. However, there is a big difference between an honest mistake and medical malpractice. For medical negligence to be legally proven, four criteria must be proven: 

  1. A duty of care was owed by the physician, meaning you’re questioning the right professional who was in charge of your care
  2. You suffered a compensable injury from the error in care
  3. The physician violated the applicable standard of care set by the medical community
  4. The injury can be proven to be caused by the substandard care in question, meaning no other reason could have caused the resulting injury or illness

Many times medical negligence can be hard to prove. Not all errors in medical care can be proven, and sometimes mistakes happen that could not be prevented. However, doctors who are too busy or not fully invested in your care may brush over steps and cause more harm than good. This is when an attorney is there to be by your side and ensure you receive compensation for our injuries. 

If you believe you are a victim of medical negligence, contact Katherine Stone at Injury Florida Law Firm today. Katherine has many years of experience in personal injury law and can help you build a strong medical malpractice case in Florida. Contact Katherine at [email protected] or call our offices today.