What Kinds of Medical Lawsuits Are There?
When you go to hospital or to your primary physician to get treatment, you expect the highest standard of care. Unfortunately, this isn’t always guaranteed, and some medical professionals fail to help you get better. In fact, they might injure you further or cause your condition to worsen. In such cases, you can file a medical lawsuit together with a Baltimore personal injury lawyer.
There are various types of medical malpractice lawsuits. Some of the most common ones relate to the failure of medical equipment, misdiagnosis or a failure to diagnose, an error in medication or dosage, and surgical issues. However, a great lawyer can also help you if your child has birth defects due to malpractice or if an elderly friend or relative has been abused in a nursing home.
Types of Medical Lawsuit in Baltimore
Medical professionals have a duty of care, which means that they must act in your best interests and do all they can to help you get better. Although most try their best, you will sometimes encounter a doctor or nurse who is negligent or not fully focused on their work. They might misdiagnose you, fail to notice what your condition is, make a serious surgical error, or even abuse your loved one who is in the nursing home.
It”s crucial that you fight back when this happens. Not only can you receive compensation that helps you restart your life, but you will also prevent the same thing from happening again in the future. Professionals who were irresponsible when looking after you must be held accountable for their actions. Let’s have a closer look at medical malpractice cases, so you can figure out whether you might have a claim.
Birth Injuries
Bringing a child into the world is one of the most joyous occasions of your life, but it can also be dangerous. Every year, thousands of children and mothers experience problems because a doctor didn’t uphold their duty of care. You or your baby might suffer temporarily and heal in time, or you might have to deal with the condition for the rest of your life.
You should always get help from a competent lawyer in this situation. By holding the doctor responsible, you could get the assistance you need to pay your medical bills.This is true whether the damage is temporary or permanent, since both cases can be traumatic and affect your family’s life substantially.
Medical Equipment Lawsuits
In the last decades, medical equipment has evolved beyond recognition, and treatments are becoming more and more complex. While this is undoubtedly good news for the vast majority of patients, it can cause issues when a machine malfunctions and therefore causes harm. Similarly, a medical substance such as a drug or talcum powder could cause you to suffer.
A great lawyer will help you to fight for compensation if you’ve been harmed by a substance or device that was meant to heal you. They have the necessary network to find expert witnesses who can testify on your behalf. As a result, you can receive the money you need, and the defective device is unlikely to cause more damage in the future.
Misdiagnosis
Having long-term medical issues always affects our mental health and causes a reduction in enjoyment of life. However, this effect can be multiplied when we know that the damage could have been prevented. This is often the case in patients who have been misdiagnosed or diagnosed too late. These people might suffer for the rest of their life or die earlier than they should because a doctor failed to properly identify their condition.
Misdiagnosis often happens when the symptoms aren’t very clear-cut or when a person isn’t the typical candidate for a certain illness. For example, a doctor might miss the signs of a stroke in young and healthy people, who don’t generally suffer from severe heart disease. It goes without saying that this can have long-lasting consequences for the life and financial situation of the patient, and they therefore have to get a high level of compensation.
Medication Errors
Like medical devices, the drugs we take today have evolved significantly, and researchers are constantly coming up with new ways of treating conditions. Occasionally, a doctor might prescribe the wrong type of medication, causing your situation to worsen.
Alternatively, the pharmacy distributing your drugs could have made an error and given you the wrong pill. This can have grave consequences, particularly if the drug given to you has serious side effects.
Surgical Error
Undergoing surgery always comes with risks, but they should be minimal. An experienced surgeon will do a great job and significantly improve your quality of life. However, someone who is not concentrating or not fully focused on your welfare might harm you instead of helping. People who are suffering from surgical errors often have serious conditions that affect their most important joints.
Some others will be disfigured or have long-lasting, visible scars. Such issues are particularly common during elective surgery, which is meant to enhance the way you look and feel about yourself. You can hold your doctor accountable for the damage done during your operation by filing a medical lawsuit in Baltimore.
Nursing Home Abuse
When placing your loved one in a nursing home, you are hoping that they will receive superior treatment and get to enjoy their golden years. But in the US, nursing facilities are woefully understaffed, which means that many elderly people don’t receive the care they need. They might develop bedsores, have falls that could have been prevented, or suffer from a lack of care or good nutrition.
In the worst cases, they are actively abused by carers who don’t have the patience and kindness required for the job. You should never allow such behavior, which can lead to quicker deterioration and premature death. Take your loved one out of the bad situation and contact a lawyer as soon as you notice what is happening.
How to Fight for Your Rights
When you or a family member has been harmed because of a medical professional who didn’t uphold a high standard of care, you need to fight back. Your best option is to request a consultation with an experienced, respected personal injury lawyer in your local area.
Such a professional has experience with cases similar to yours and will be able to analyze your situation. They can then tell you what level of compensation to expect and how to best fight for your rights.
Medical malpractice can be traumatizing because you expect your doctors and nurses to take good care of you. What’s more, an error can affect you for the rest of your life or even cause wrongful death. For this reason, you and your Baltimore personal injury lawyer can file a medical lawsuit that helps you recuperate some of the losses you have suffered.
No matter how you’ve been harmed by a medical professional, you’ll have a valid claim if you can prove that the doctor or nurse had a duty of care, that they failed to uphold it, and that you suffered serious consequences. Get in touch with us today at Peter Angelos Law to speak to one of our top attorneys. We can evaluate whether you are likely to receive compensation and work with you to achieve the best possible outcome.