Healthcare professionals are capable of making mistakes just like the rest of us. Unfortunately, those mistakes can have serious, even deadly, consequences. If you believe that you are the victim of one of these mistakes you have the basis of a medical malpractice lawsuit. First, however, you must determine if the mistakes rises to the level of “medical negligence”. For an error made by a healthcare professional to be compensable you must first prove medical negligence.

The number of medical errors committed by doctors and other healthcare professionals each year in the United States is difficult to determine; yet, the number is thought to be staggering. Studies estimate that anywhere from 100,000 to half a million (500,000) people die as a result of medical errors each year in the United States. Not all mistakes made by healthcare professionals, however, amount to medical negligence. For a mistake to be considered negligence, the act or omission by the health care provider must have fallen below the accepted standard of practice in the medical community and caused injury or death to the patient. In other words, would another doctor (nurse, hospital etc.) have done the same thing under the same circumstances?

Because medical negligence is determined by looking at what a reasonable professional would have done, or not have done, under the same circumstances, proving medical negligence always require expert testimony by a healthcare provider –usually another physician or specialist. For example, if the error committed was failure to diagnose cancer by an oncologist, you will likely need another oncologist to testify that the defendant should have made the proper diagnosis given all the information available regarding the patient at the time of the failure to diagnose.

Although medical malpractice lawsuits are similar in concept to any other type of personal injury lawsuit, in practice they are often very different. For example, many states require the victim to submit the proposed claim to a medical board before moving forward with the lawsuit. In addition, many states require the victim to have an expert who is prepared to testify that the defendant’s acts or omissions were negligent.

Because of the inherent complexity of a medical malpractice lawsuit, and the difficulty in proving medical negligence, it is imperative that you consult with an experienced Michigan medical malpractice attorney early on in the process.

You undoubtedly visit your doctor or other healthcare professional with the expectation that they will provide you with medical care and treatment to alleviate your suffering and/or prevent further suffering.  Sometimes, however, a healthcare professional actually causes suffering instead of alleviating it. When this occurs, you may have the basis for a medical malpractice lawsuit; however, not all errors committed by a healthcare professional are actionable. For a victim to be entitled to compensation the medical error committed by the doctor (or other healthcare professional) must rise to the level of negligence. When determining if an error was the result of negligence the law looks to the standard of care to which healthcare professionals are bound.

Medical malpractice is a highly specialized area of tort law. Tort law addresses injuries to persons and property. All personal injury lawsuits fall under the purview of tort law. Medical malpractice, therefore, is essentially a very specialized type of personal injury. For a healthcare professional to be held liable for damages a victim must first prove that the healthcare professional was negligent. Negligence, in legal terms, requires four basic elements:

• Duty of care
• Breach of the duty of care
• Causation
• Damages

When the defendant is a doctor, dentist, hospital, or other medical provider, the duty of care owed to the victim is evaluated differently than when the defendant is not in the healthcare profession. The standard of care that applies when a doctor commits a medical error compares the doctor’s duty to that of other doctors. Therefore, medical malpractice is frequently defined as “failure to do something which a physician in the same specialty, of ordinary learning, judgment or skill, would do, or would not do, under the same or similar circumstances that existed in a particular case.”  In other words, how would other doctors, practicing in the same field of medicine, have acted under the same set of circumstances? If the defendant’s action, or omissions, fell below the standard of care the victim may be entitled to damages for the injuries caused by those actions or omissions.

In order to prove what the standard of care is in a medical malpractice lawsuit, as well as that the defendant’s actions or omissions fell below the standard of care, expert testimony is required. Typically, this requires the testimony of a doctor (or healthcare professional) that practices in the same field of medicine as the defendant.

If you have been injured by what you believe to be medical malpractice, or you have lost a loved one because of a medical error, consult with an experienced Michigan medical malpractice attorney right away. The law provides a method by which you may be compensated for your injuries or your loss; however, the law also limits the amount of time within which you have to pursue that compensation.