On average, the payout for medical malpractice lawsuits is $309,908. If you’ve been injured due to medical negligence, you’re sure to deserve money for your pain and suffering.

Medical malpractice is a legal action that you can take after a medical professional fails to live up to the standards of their profession, causing death, injury, or unnecessary pain and suffering.

However, do I have a case for medical malpractice or not? It’s something many patients ask themselves, as it can often be confusing to know what is and isn’t malpractice.

If you do have a case, you can sue your medical team for damages, helping you get your life back in order. How can you know one way or the other?

To learn more, keep reading to find out everything you need to know about malpractice cases.

What Counts as Medical Malpractice Cases?

There are a few occurrences that are generally considered medical malpractice. These are genuine instances where a doctor has made a mistake, error, or has intentionally not delivered the best possible medical care.

Here are a few examples of medical malpractice that you should know about.

Negligence

Luckily, malpractice isn’t that common, but when it does occur, it’s often due to negligence.

What is medical negligence? This is when a doctor provides a substandard level of care to a patient, not giving them the high level of care that’s required of them.

If you can prove that your doctor didn’t deliver a high level of care, then you might have a case.

Usually, negligence is not intentional—it’s caused by a doctor being busy and forgetful, making surgical errors, or not taking the time to properly diagnose a case. Or, the doctor might neglect to inform you of certain risks, might delay your diagnosis, or might give you the wrong prescription in error.

Sometimes it can be tough to prove negligence, so you might find that hiring medical expert witnesses can lend credibility to your case.

Recklessness

Another cause of malpractice is recklessness. While this is rarer, recklessness does sometimes happen.

This goes beyond error and accidents—a reckless doctor is more extreme. This could be a doctor who performs surgery under the influence of alcohol, makes rash decisions, or doesn’t follow medical guidelines.

Michael Jackson’s doctor was one of the more famous medical malpractice cases. He was reckless in prescribing medication that was lethal in high amounts and went against current medical guidelines.

These cases are so rare that they tend to make headlines—luckily, very few doctors in the world are reckless.

Wrongful Death

You might also be able to claim malpractice for a wrongful death case. This is when the decisions of a doctor led to a patient passing away who would have survived if they had received proper care.

Wrongful death cases can be due to errors in diagnosis, giving the wrong medicine that was fatal, or making mistakes during surgery.

When proving any of the malpractice examples above, you’ll need to demonstrate that the doctor acted incorrectly, due to a breach of duty. You’ll also need to prove that injury, illness, suffering, or loss of work occurred as a direct response to their mistakes.

We recommend keeping all of your medical records, notes, and appointment histories, as this evidence will be needed when trying your case.

Medical malpractices are often hard to prove, so you’ll want to work with an expert legal firm that specializes in the area.

What Isn’t Medical Malpractice?

It’s equally important to understand what doesn’t qualify as malpractice. Unfortunately, the nature of medicine means that some patients won’t recover, even with the best care in the world.

Here are a few examples of things that aren’t considered malpractice.

The Patient Has Gotten Worse

Sadly, sometimes patients get sicker. Even when following all of the medical guidelines, doctors can’t always stop diseases from progressing or spreading.

We often see this in cancers. Although we have amazing medical advances when it comes to treating cancer, some cancers become resistant to treatment and continue to spread.

This is not the fault of the doctor, as they’ve done everything they can. As long as the specialist has done everything possible to treat and care for the patient, then this isn’t considered malpractice.

Their Disease or Injury Can’t be Cured

Some illnesses and diseases are incurable, because we either haven’t found a cure yet or because the disease has already spread.

An illness that is terminal can often still be treated, providing the patient with an increased lifespan and quality of life, but the doctor can’t stop it completely. This is also not medical malpractice, since doctors can’t yet cure every disease.

If you’re ever unsure about whether or not something qualifies as malpractice, talk to a lawyer.

So, Do I Have a Case for Medical Malpractice or Not?

After reading the above, we hope you can now answer the question, ‘Do I have a case for medical malpractice?’.

While the guide above is sure to answer many of your questions, there are sometimes medical malpractice cases that fall into a grey area. How can you tell if something counts as genuine negligence, for example?

In cases where you’re still not sure, the best thing to do is look for a lawyer in your area who specializes in malpractice. During your consultation, they’ll hear more about your concerns and can let you know if the case is worth pursuing.

If you do have a case, the right legal help and expertise will help you get the compensation you deserve.

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