Wrongful Death Caused by Medical Malpractice
Medical malpractice occurs when a doctor or other medical provider breaches their legal duty to treat their patient at the medical community’s accepted standard of care. Fortunately, most medical malpractice incidents end with the patient’s recovery, but in the worst cases, medical malpractice can cause fatal injury or a worsened medical outcome that results in the patient’s death.
If you lost a loved one due to medical malpractice, your family deserves justice. An Atlanta medical malpractice attorney can help your family gain a sense of justice through financial accountability.
What Types of Medical Malpractice Cause Wrongful Death?
A controversial Johns Hopkins study suggests that medical malpractice may be the third-leading cause of death in the United States. Most cases of malpractice are avoidable when doctors adhere to their required standard of care, and hospital administrators and staff develop and follow safety protocols. Unfortunately, common violations of the duty of care cause the following types of medical malpractice wrongful deaths:
- Medication mistakes
- Misdiagnosis
- Missed diagnosis
- Delayed diagnosis
- Emergency room negligence
- Anesthesia errors
- Surgical errors
- Negligent post-surgical care and monitoring
- Failure to detect post-surgical infection
- Premature patient discharge
- Incomplete post-surgical discharge instructions
- Improper use of extraction equipment during labor and delivery
- Negligent patient monitoring during labor and delivery
When a patient’s death could have been prevented with proper care, it’s a wrongful death by medical malpractice.
Proving Medical Malpractice Wrongful Death In Atlanta
Proving that a loved one’s death was caused by medical malpractice requires evidence such as medical records, a medical examiner’s report, eyewitness testimony, and testimony from medical experts. The evidence must demonstrate the following legal points of liability for medical malpractice wrongful death:
- That a doctor/patient relationship was in place at the time the malpractice occurred
- The medical provider owed a duty of care to the patient, requiring them to treat the patient at the standard of care accepted by the medical community
- They breached their duty of care through medical malpractice
- The breach of duty caused the patient’s wrongful death
- The surviving family member suffered economic and non-economic damages from the death
Recoverable damages in medical malpractice wrongful death claims in Georgia include both tangible economic damages and intangible emotional damages.
What Can I Recover in a Medical Malpractice Wrongful Death Claim In Atlanta?
A loved one’s death causes a wide range of adverse effects on their loved ones. These are the damages in a medical malpractice wrongful death claim. Common damages recovered in these claims include the following:
- Reimbursement of medical costs and funeral expenses
- Compensation for the decedent’s lost income and benefits
- Compensation for loss of household services, such as caring for children or providing home and yard maintenance
- Compensation for grief and anguish
- Compensation for loss of companionship, consortium, guidance, and support
Who Can File a Medical Malpractice Wrongful Death Claim In Atlanta?
Most medical malpractice claims are filed by the injured patient, but when a patient dies due to medical malpractice, the family left behind suffers the financial losses associated with the death as well as the grief and anguish of the loss. Like most states, Georgia limits those who can file a wrongful death claim to immediate family members. In Georgia, the following family members can file a wrongful death claim, including in medical malpractice cases:
- A spouse
- Parents
- An adult child
- The decedent’s personal representative
Limiting the availability of wrongful death claims to immediate family members prevents distant relatives who didn’t suffer economic losses from the death from exploiting the death for profit.
How Can an Atlanta Medical Malpractice Wrongful Death Lawyer Help?
A successful compensation claim after a wrongful death caused by medical malpractice requires access to medical experts and compelling evidence. Call or contact Piasta Walker Hagenbush, LLC to learn more about your family’s right to compensation after a loved one’s preventable medical malpractice death.