UNDERSTANDING MEDICAL MALPRACTICE

We rely on the healthcare system to make us better, so what happens when we suddenly find ourselves worse off due to substandard care? Medical malpractice is defined as “professional negligence by act or omission by a health care provider in which care provided deviates from accepted standards of practice in the medical community and causes injury or death to the patient.” What does this mean to you, as a victim? The unfortunate answer is a long and challenging courtroom battle in which you must prove:

Liability – proof that the healthcare professional provided care below the acceptable standard/was negligent
Damages - proof of injury causing physical damage or economical damage
Causation – proof that the damages were in fact caused by the negligence

If you are a victim of medical malpractice, your first task will be finding a Calgary injury lawyer to represent you. Calgary personal injury lawyers, along with all accident lawyers, are very selective of the cases that they agree to pursue since they will have to carry the high costs of litigation for you, the client, before receiving compensation. Most medical malpractice cases require the act of securing expert evidence from a variety of medical professionals, which can run upwards of $100,000 dollars. Because the Calgary injury lawyer will be carrying such a large risk, he or she will look for key indicators that your case will be a success. Such indicators can include:

Limitation period
There is a limit on the time period in which you are allowed to sue for medical malpractice. Your personal injury lawyer will be able to guide you on the restrictions in your area.
Damages
The amount of damages that your claim may warrant will be a significant factor in whether or not a law firm is willing to carry the costs of litigation for you. Usually, the higher the potential damages, the higher the likelihood that your case will be a good investment.
The type of claim
Obviously, some cases are easier to prove than others. If there’s been an object left in your body after surgery, for example, your case is easy to establish. However, others involve more grey area. Again, your Calgary personal injury lawyer will evaluate your case in a free consultation and advise you accordingly.

Most cases of medical malpractice will fall into one of the following categories:
Failure to receive clear permission prior to operating on a patient
Failure to come to the right diagnosis
Failure to perform an operation properly
Failure to anticipate a problem that should have been foreseen

In determining whether a mistake was truly made, the court will measure the actions of the practitioner on trial against what reasonable, prudent medical practitioners would have done in the same situation.

A few of the different categories of damages that one can claim for in a medical malpractice case are:
Out of pocket medical costs
Costs of future care
Loss of past wages
Loss of future wages
Damages for pain and suffering.
Legal fees