Doctors and other medical professionals have extensive education, training, and experience when it comes to diagnosing and treating health concerns. Unfortunately, doctors and medical professionals are also humans who are prone to mistakes. If a health care professional makes a mistake that causes injury to a patient, the victim can file a medical malpractice claim with an experienced Doctor Error Lawyer for compensation for their damages.

Malpractice is a term that is defined in legal terms as “failure to act according to accepted standards of practice in the profession.” The accepted standard of care is the level of treatment that a competent, reasonable medical professional would provide under similar circumstances. If a medical professional fails to meet this standard of care and a patient is harmed as a result, the victim can file a medical malpractice lawsuit.

When a doctor violates the standard of care and a patient is injured as a result, the victim may be entitled to monetary compensation for their medical bills, lost wages, emotional distress, pain and suffering and other damages. A New York Doctor Error Lawyer is an experienced attorney who has the legal knowledge, medical expertise and familiarity with medical protocol necessary to pursue a medical malpractice case.

Doctor errors can be catastrophic and can cause life-altering injuries for the victim and their family. Injuries caused by a doctor’s negligence might include spinal cord injuries, brain injuries, organ damage, paralysis, miscarriages and wrongful death.

Medical errors account for approximately 250,000 deaths each year, according to a report from Johns Hopkins University. Although this number does not compare to those who die from cancer or heart disease, the majority of these fatalities are due to preventable medical errors.

A successful medical malpractice case must prove four key elements: a health care professional owed a duty to the patient; that professional breached this duty; that such breach caused an injury; and that the injury was a direct result of the physician’s actions. This standard of proof, known as preponderance of the evidence, is a lower burden than the beyond a reasonable doubt standard used in criminal cases.

Surgical errors are one of the most common medical malpractice claims. These errors can include wrong-site surgery, spinal cord injuries and organ damage. These errors can occur because of poor pre-operative planning, surgical mistakes, surgical equipment malfunction, anesthesia errors and more. Other types of medical malpractice include misdiagnosis, birth injuries and medication errors. Medical malpractice laws vary by state, but the vast majority of states follow a modified version of English common law. This system of law was developed through judicial decisions rather than legislative statutes. Many of these common law provisions are still in place today. In addition to determining what constitutes medical malpractice, state laws also determine who can file a lawsuit and when the statute of limitations will expire. A lawsuit must be filed before this date or the right to recover damages is forfeited.