When we go to the doctor, we have faith that they are going to always do the right thing for our treatment. We trust them because they are knowledgeable and experienced. The thing is they are also human and humans make mistakes.
There are times when you feel like you didn’t get the proper treatment or that a mistake was made. When this happens you usually have a medical malpractice case that can be made. If you are unsure if your situation falls under malpractice or something else, you need to look for certain signs.
In this article, we will go over what several of those signs are so you can then call the top personal injury lawyer in your area. Visit their website if you are in the Philadelphia area.
1 - Surgical errors
Surgical errors can be a case for malpractice in many different ways. For instance, you may have gotten an infection due to the lack of properly sterilized tools. Or, there may have even been something left inside you such as a sponge or bit of gauze that complicates your healing.
There have been even some exceptionally egregious examples of surgeons operating on the wrong limb, for instance.
If your surgery didn’t go as expected then you may have a ase. There is a very thin line between an undesirable outcome and malpractice or negligence on the part of the surgeon.
Not every operation has a 100% success rate so the case has to be provable that there was negligence on the part of the surgeon or the team. The above examples are the type to look out for.
2 - Lack of informed consent
Your doctor can only perform treatment on you if you consent to it. They are required to inform you of the plan and any possible side effects that you could incur so you can make an informed decision about your own health.
When that doesn’t happen and you encounter problems as a result then you have a clear case of medical malpractice. Let’s say that a treatment would run the risk of you losing your hearing. The doctor never told you about this as a possibility and performed the procedure anyway which resulted in it actually happening. This is grounds for a medical malpractice case as you did not give informed consent.
3 - No follow through
After a medical procedure, your doctor and their team will need to be in contact with you to ensure that things are progressing as they should. If you have any of the side effects that could happen then your doctor needs to follow up to see what can be done about it.
If the doctor is not responsive to your concerns and doesn’t treat you any further then you may have a case. It does depend on if the outcome is likely to cause you further harm because they are not responsive. Infections can get worse, or wounds may not heal properly and need to be seen.
