Sophia Soraya
October 28, 2024
A deviation from prescribed medical standards gives rise to medical malpractice claims. For instance, a misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis is a suitable ground for a medical malpractice claim.
Medical malpractice or negligence results in physical injury, infection, or long-term complications of affected victims. Personal injury law allows the affected victim to file a medical malpractice lawsuit against a health institution or healthcare provider.
The role of a medical malpractice lawsuit is to obtain enforced damages from a court of law. Consult a trusted medical malpractice attorney in New Jersey, to learn ways of protecting your rights as an injured victim.
What Is Medical Negligence?
Medical negligence occurs when healthcare providers fail to adhere to acceptable standards. Each medical provider has a duty of care to patients who seek treatment, and breaching this duty results in medical negligence.
Medical negligence can trigger a medical malpractice lawsuit depending on the injury inflicted. In personal injury law, negligence is the failure to act or behave similarly to how a reasonably prudent person would have done.
As such, healthcare providers should provide treatment services comparable to those offered by a similarly trained person under the same circumstances. Medical negligence arises whenever there is a deviation from acceptable medical standards.
Negligent actions and omissions can trigger medical malpractice claims.
Is Medical Negligence the Same as Medical Malpractice?
The extent to which actions or omissions vary from accepted medical standards can determine whether the injury occurred due to an unavoidable or unintentional mistake (medical negligence) or an intentionally negligent action (medical malpractice).
The primary difference between medical negligence and medical malpractice is that a lawsuit aims to prove that the professional’s actions were intentionally reckless.
Comparing Medical Malpractice and Medical Negligence
Medical malpractice and medical negligence are personal injury claims. However, you cannot sue for negligence or medical malpractice if a healthcare professional did not cause physical harm.
Similarly, being injured doesn’t necessarily trigger a medical negligence case. If a medical mistake is deemed reasonable within acceptable standards, you may not have a medical malpractice or negligence case.
What Are Common Types of Medical Malpractice?
Here are the common types of medical malpractice:
Surgical Malpractice
A simple error during surgery can be frightening and have devastating effects. Although surgeons have a high level of specialization, they are prone to mistakes. Even if the surgical error occurred in an operating room, you must prove to have received a substandard level of care during treatment.
Surgical malpractice can occur in various stages during surgery, including pre-operative care, during surgery, and post-operative care. For instance, the surgical team should sterilize tools, apply caution, and avoid leaving foreign objects in the patient’s body.
Typical forms of surgical malpractice include:
- Wrong-site surgery
- Unnecessary surgery
- Damage to tissues, nerves, or organs during surgery
- Administering too much or too little anesthesia
- Failure to conduct adequate follow-up
Delayed Diagnosis
Delayed diagnosis is another form of medical malpractice where a patient seeks treatment for a specific medical condition, yet the symptoms go unnoticed for a prolonged time. As a result, the condition worsens or develops into a severe illness or disease.
A delayed diagnosis occurs when a healthcare provider overlooks or dismisses specific symptoms. It may also occur when a physician needs to order follow-up testing to understand the patient’s condition.
For a successful delayed diagnosis claim, a patient must prove that a doctor should have done more to evaluate and identify the condition.
Birth Injuries
A birth injury malpractice occurs when a healthcare provider makes an error before, during, or after delivery, leading to harm to the mother or child.
Common types of birth injuries caused by medical negligence include:
- Brain damage
- Skull fractures
- Intrauterine fetal demise
- Periventricular leukomalacia
Cerebral palsy is an additional condition commonly caused by a birth injury due to medical negligence. Damage to the brain before, during, or after birth can cause cerebral palsy.
Medical malpractice leading to cerebral palsy can take any of the following forms:
- Failure to perform a C-section in an emergency
- Anesthesia errors
- Providing substandard prenatal care
- Incorrect use of assistive devices causing cerebral palsy or brachial plexus injuries
- Failure to monitor the health of the baby and mother during labor
Negligent Failure to Treat
Unlike misdiagnosis, negligent failure to treat involves a lack of follow-up treatment despite adequately identifying the problem. It may include discharging a patient too soon or providing substandard care for a specific medical condition.
You must prove you did not receive reasonable care to obtain damages for your losses.
Misdiagnosis
A misdiagnosis of your physical injury or illness means that a physician misled your test results or medical records.
As a result, misdiagnosis might:
- Worsen your medical condition
- Delay the treatment plan
- Results in complications, including wrongful death
A misdiagnosis may also occur when a doctor fails to diagnose your condition or run vital tests, such as an X-ray or blood test.
Here is a list of commonly misdiagnosed illnesses:
- A misdiagnosis of asthma as recurring bronchitis
- A heart attack is misdiagnosed as a panic or heart attack
- Parkinson’s disease is misdiagnosed as stroke or stress
Healthcare providers become negligent for misdiagnosis when they dismiss symptoms as minor or not worthy of further investigation. Misdiagnosis leaves a disease untreated for too long, endangering a patient.
What Are the Legal Consequences of Negligence And Malpractice?
You file a medical malpractice lawsuit to hold the negligent healthcare provider accountable.
Even so, you must prove the following four elements:
- Doctor-Patient Relationship: You may demonstrate an established relationship between a doctor and a patient. The relationship indicates that the healthcare provider had a duty of care to provide quality treatment services.
- Negligence: Medical malpractice claims are based on negligence, a breach of duty of care by a doctor or healthcare provider.
- Causation: You must also prove that the negligence of the healthcare provider was the cause of your injuries.
- Losses: You must also demonstrate that you suffered loss due to injuries caused by the healthcare provider. Without loss, you cannot initiate a medical malpractice lawsuit.
What Compensation Can I Receive in a Medical Malpractice Lawsuit?
Physical harm due to medical negligence can affect every aspect of your life, which is why the New Jersey law allows injured victims to recover damages through malpractice claims. You deserve compensation because of the physical, emotional, and economic suffering you endured due to the injury.
Injured victims are entitled to damages as a form of compensation for their losses. You can obtain two types of damages in a medical malpractice lawsuit: compensatory and punitive.
Compensatory Damages
Compensatory damages reimburse victims for the physical injuries and losses they suffered due to medical negligence. There are two types of compensatory damages: economic and non-economic damages.
Here’s a list of possible compensatory damages:
Medical Expenses
Medical bills comprise a large percentage of medical malpractice settlements. Treating a physical injury, illness, or infection is expensive. The negligent party should cover the cost.
Here’s a possible list of medical expenses you can recover:
- Hospitalization charges
- Physicians bill
- Emergency room charges
- Surgeries
- Diagnostic and lab tests
- Medical equipment
Lost Wages
Lost wages refer to the income an individual loses due to an injury caused by a healthcare provider’s negligence. An injured victim is entitled to past and future lost earnings because of the accident or injury.
Lost wages can include the following:
- Salary or hourly pay
- Overtime pay
- Commissions or bonuses
- Vacation or sick days
To obtain lost income damages, you must prove your injuries prevented you from working and would have earned the income had the medical malpractice claim not occurred.
Out-of-Pocket Expenses
You might incur other expenses related to the injury, which you can include in a medical malpractice lawsuit.
Here’s a list of possible out-of-pocket expenses:
- Assistance with childcare or household chores
- Transport expenses to and from medical expenses
- Personal care needs like feeding, bathing, or dressing
- Modifications to your home or vehicle due to permanent impairment
Non-economic Damages
In addition to medical expenses or lost income, other losses are still profound without a direct dollar value. Non-economic damages compensate for other intangible losses due to the injury.
You can seek various non-economic damages for your injuries, including:
- Pain and suffering
- Emotional anguish
- Loss of consortium
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Permanent disfigurement
Punitive Damages
You can also obtain punitive damages for your medical malpractice lawsuit. Punitive damages are awarded in addition to compensatory damages in New Jersey (which cover medical expenses, lost wages, pain and suffering, etc.).
It is mainly challenging to obtain punitive damages because you must demonstrate intentional, willful, and deliberate action by the health care provider. Punitive damages are designed to punish the wrongdoer and deter other healthcare providers from engaging in a similar action.
Get in Touch With an Experienced New Jersey Medical Malpractice Attorney
Suppose you sustained nerve damage or your child has a birth injury due to negligence from a healthcare provider. In that case, you may incur hefty medical bills to recover from the physical harm. You need assistance in exercising your legal rights.
You deserve representation from an experienced attorney like Varcadipane & Pinnisi, P.C. who’ll aggressively protect your right to compensation. Contact us online or at (800) 616-2916 for a free consultation.
Sophia Soraya
Sophia Soraya is a seasoned attorney specializing in complex civil matters, with a focus on personal injury, professional malpractice, and product liability cases across New York and New Jersey. Sophia is a Partner with the Firm and has been selected as a Super Lawyers, Rising Star for consecutive years.
University: J.D. New England Law (Boston)
Bar Number: 000402013
Locations: New Jersey and New York.
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