How a Lawyer Can Help After a Medical Error
We naturally expect our medical providers to perform at their absolute best when we place our lives in their hands. Unfortunately, despite the expectation that a doctor will treat us at the highest standard of care accepted by the medical community, medical mistakes still occur. According to one controversial study by Johns Hopkins, medical malpractice may cause as many as 250,000 deaths each year in the U.S., making it the third leading cause of death.
If you’ve suffered the consequences of a medical mistake, it’s crucial to seek experienced legal representation as soon as possible. Understanding the role an experienced medical malpractice lawyer has in recovering the compensation you deserve is the first step of the process.
Common Types of Medical Malpractice In Georgia
The standard of care for doctors and other medical providers compels them to provide treatment at the level of care accepted by the medical community. Once a doctor-patient relationship is established, a doctor who fails to treat the patient the way another reasonable physician would under the same circumstances breaches their duty of care. This constitutes medical malpractice if the medical error causes injury, worsens a medical condition, or results in death. These consequences cause financial damages as well as physical harm. Common types of medical mistakes in Georgia include the following:
- Medication mistakes
- Misdiagnosis, missed diagnosis, or delayed diagnosis
- Anesthesia errors
- Failure to order appropriate diagnostic tests
- Failure to accurately read or interpret diagnostic test results
- Surgical errors, such as wrong-patient, wrong-side, and wrong-site surgeries, or surgical implements left inside a body cavity
- Birth injuries
- Inadequate surgical aftercare or inadequate patient discharge instructions
- Failure to diagnose post-surgical infection
- Failure to obtain informed consent
Any of the above medical mistakes constitutes medical malpractice. Some types of medical mistakes, such as wrong-limb amputations and wrong-patient surgeries, are considered “Never Events” by the medical community. Yet, despite preventative protocols, these so-called never events sometimes occur, causing permanent harm to the injury victim.
What Can a Medical Malpractice Lawyer Do For Me?
Taking on a medical malpractice claim may seem overwhelming, especially for an injury victim and their family who are dealing with the serious health and financial consequences of the medical error. Still, when a medical provider makes a mistake that causes injury, worsened medical outcome, or wrongful death, a medical malpractice claim demands financial accountability, eases the injury victim’s related financial hardship, and forms a deterrent for repeated negligence. By hiring a medical malpractice attorney in Atlanta to handle your case, you can focus on your physical healing while your lawyer does the following:
- Files the paperwork for your medical malpractice claim with meticulous attention to details, filing requirements, and deadlines
- Investigates all aspects of the incident during the discovery and disclosure period to document compelling evidence of the provider’s liability
- Consults with medical experts to obtain a clear understanding of the full impacts of the malpractice on health, earning ability, and life expectancy
- Carefully calculates the past, present, and future financial damages caused by the malpractice, such as medical expenses, lost earnings, compensation for pain and suffering, catastrophic injury damages for permanent harm, or wrongful death expenses to surviving family members
- Submits their findings in a demand package to the at-fault provider’s medical malpractice insurance company
- Negotiates from a position of evidence-backed strength with the malpractice insurance adjuster to achieve the settlement you deserve
- Takes the case to court within the state’s two-year statute of limitations if the insurance company fails to provide an ample settlement
Most medical malpractice claims handled by experienced injury lawyers end with a settlement by the insurance company; however, if your case requires a trial in court, your attorney will ensure that you are well prepared.
Court cases have a longer time frame compared to settlements, but juries are often sympathetic to medical malpractice victims, commonly delivering positive verdicts and large jury awards for damages after a medical mistake causes harm.