Articles Posted in Medical Malpractice

Can an orthodontist be sued for medical malpractice? The short answer to that question is ‘yes’. An orthodontist is a health care professional like any other and, as such, has a duty to provide a certain standard of care. When an orthodontist fails to meet that standard, a patient may be due compensation under the law. Before you reach out to call an attorney, there are some things to keep in ind.

Firstly, just because something goes wrong with your orthodontic care does not mean that you have a medical malpractice case. When you have braces put on your teeth, you are excepting some level of risk. Complications with orthodontics are not out of the ordinary. In fact, if you remember signing paperwork before your braces were put on, chances are that there was some fine print outlining those risks and your acceptance of them.

They key to a successful orthodontic malpractice case is the look closely at the details. What led to the harm? Would another orthodontist have treated you the same way? If your orthodontist did not provide the same level of care that another would have and you were harmed, you may have a case. Orthodontic malpractice injuries typically occur with:

It is not unusual for people to put medical professionals on pedestals. We assume that they are more intelligent than the average person. When doctors and other medical professionals make mistakes, we feel a sense of disappointment and disbelief.

It’s important to remember that doctors are human, too. Errors occur, and mistakes happen when even the best standards of care are practiced. So what causes a doctor to make an error? While every situation is unique, there are several factors that may contribute to a medical mistake.

1. Uninformed Patients

A study, although conducted in 2001, pointed out that medication errors were three times more likely to occur in children than adults. The rate of other medical errors was comparable. As a parent, the last thing you expect when visiting the pediatrician with your child is negligence or error.

Unfortunately, errors among pediatric patients do occur. There are some things that you can do to help avoid those errors. From mistakes to misdiagnoses, keeping your child safe at the doctor is partly in your hands. Here is what you can do:

1. Share All Medical Information

When you don’t feel quite like yourself, you deserve to know why. You deserve to know why without unnecessary delay. Unfortunately, it is not always easy to pinpoint the exact cause of an illness when so many symptoms can be indicative of different ailments.

It is difficult to determine just how many cases are misdiagnosed every year, but it is estimated that there is a misdiagnosis rate of between 10 and 15 percent. Of the conditions misdiagnosed, heart attack, appendicitis, breast cancer, colon cancer and lung cancer top the list.

Because you want to get the right diagnosis from your doctor, here are five things you should do.

People check into the hospital for surgery on a daily basis. In fact, there are just under 50 million surgeries performed in the United States each year. Most surgeries performed are necessary and many improve or save lives. Scarily for some, as many as 50 percent of the surgeries performed may be unnecessary to the patient.

Any surgery is a risk. You could hemorrhage, experience damage to your internal organs or develop an infection. Almost all surgeries require that you take time off of your job to recover. It stands to reason that people would only want to undergo surgery if it was absolutely necessary.

How Common Is the Problem?

In a medical malpractice lawsuit, one of the elements to be proven is “standard of care.” But what exactly does that mean? It is important that you understand the term because you will be talking about it frequently as you move forward with a medical malpractice lawsuit. Our lawyers explain what the term means.

Four Elements of a Successful Medical Malpractice Case

To win a medical malpractice case, you and your attorney must prove:

Anesthesia is necessary for most surgeries. Unfortunately, anesthesia errors occur and are a form of medical malpractice. By law, an error is considered to have occurred when a patient suffers unnecessary harm as a result of negligence or error. When an anesthesiologist makes an error, the consequences can range from mild to debilitating.

What is Anesthesia?

Anesthesia is a medically-induced state that causes a patient to be unable to feel pain. It causes a decreased stress response, amnesia, the loss of skeletal muscle reflexes and a loss of responsiveness. Administering anesthesia involves one or more drugs.

Certain laws and regulations have been created to keep people safe when they receive medical care. Unfortunately, even with regulations, people can get hurt. This is the case when a doctor performs his or her duties in a negligent manner. Many people who have experienced negligence believe that they have a malpractice case. Some do and some do not. Negligence is not always malpractice and vice versa. Here is the difference between the two.

When first considered, medical malpractice and negligence appear as though they could be in a category together. When looked at more closely, they are very different. Medical malpractice is a category of negligence. In other words, negligence is of a broader scope than malpractice. The difference between negligence and malpractice is, ultimately, intent.

Let’s look at an example: