Every year there are countless numbers of people that are filing medical malpractice lawsuits due to misdiagnosis, negligence, medical errors, delayed diagnosis and surgery errors, and many other things that were needless delays or errors that resulted in the injury or even death of a patient.
No doctor can assure you that the outcome of every surgery will be ok. There are always risks involved when taking medical treatments. People react differently to different medications and different procedures. Doctors make decisions based on the best evidence they can see at the time, and sometimes those decisions need to be made quickly or without a complete picture.
Nevertheless, due to the mistakes of doctors and other medical personnel, many people have suffered needlessly and some have even died. The hardship of the grieving family that is left behind and the loss of life of a person that still could be enjoying life and contributing to others is often overlooked.
If a person remains permanently disabled due to such mistakes, the hardship both of the family and the surviving person is great and often a medical lawsuit should be filed in order to keep up with expenses and to help with the damage that a person is experiencing for the rest of his or her life. This is a primary reason for malpractice lawsuits - the financial expense that the family or care-givers will need to provide for the patient due to the error, which many times will not be covered by standard health insurance.
Most people may think that medical malpractice lawsuits are made because of mistakes by surgeons. While it is true that surgeons have made some terrible mistakes, the majority of lawsuits filed actually stems from mistakes from wrong or delayed diagnosis, which can reflect poorly on various departments within the hospital, such as the readings of a radiologist or the attending nurse or others. When the doctor or surgeon is given wrong information, mistakes can and will happen, sometimes with disastrous results.
At the top of the list are colon caner, lung cancer, breast cancer rectal cancer and other various forms of cancer as well as heart attacks. A misdiagnosis in any of these diseases can be life threatening and very dangerous, and often results in very unfortunate circumstances.
A recent study released by the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine says that up to 98,000 people are killed yearly due to medical errors in hospitals. The number of inflicted injuries and long-term unfortunate and unnecessary pain is much higher. There are also an increasing number of cases of negligence in nursing homes.
Yet some studies have shown that only a small number of people (between 2% - 5%) that have experienced wrongful injuries file medical malpractice lawsuits. The common misperception that many people have is that the doctor is human and therefore allowed to make mistakes. While that is true to an extent, it is the job of the medical malpractice lawsuit to determine why the error occurred and could it have been prevented, since when human life is involved, the allowance for errors is much less tolerant. It certainly has a much greater impact than making an error when balancing your checkbook.
Sometimes patients may go for a settlement instead of a medical malpractice lawsuit. When it is obvious that a doctor or any other medical staff has made a mistake that could have been avoided, you want to talk to a professional lawyer who is experienced in medical malpractice lawsuits. It is only fair for the injured person that has now needlessly to suffer to get some financial help.
Pain and suffering damages make up about 50% of all the money that is awarded in medical malpractice lawsuits.
If you think your family has been a victim of medical errors, misdiagnosis or surgical errors you want to seek some help and financial relief for physical and emotional damages that cannot be undone. A lawyer who is experienced in the area of medical malpractice should be able to tell you about your chances of winning the lawsuit based on the circumstances, and also based on the malpractice laws in your state.
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