Things can go wrong from time to time. No one erred, and nobody is to blame. But according to the law, someone is usually to blame when something goes wrong. This is particularly true if that person is a medical expert responsible for treating you with the appropriate level of care; a medical attorney can help.
A medical error is:
As defined by the National Center for Biotechnology Information, a medical error is when a planned activity is not carried out as intended or when an incorrect strategy is used to accomplish a specific goal. These are errors of operation and faults of planning, respectively. The NCBI presents an alternate meaning of a medical error that, in essence, includes an act of commission or omission in preparation or implementation that can or does add to an unexpected medical result. It is noted that this exempts errors of omission.
How does medical malpractice happen?
A legal notion is medical malpractice (Med Malpractice). In the end, a victim will file a lawsuit to seek restitution for what they believe to be a tort (a civil wrong). The victim of medical malpractice must demonstrate each of the following:
- There is a care standard that is relevant.
- That the health care provider had a responsibility to uphold that quality of care for the victim
- The medical practitioner failed to do their responsibility, and the sufferer was injured.
To establish medical negligence, it is only necessary to show that the victim was injured due to a professional standard of care breach.
According to Georgia law, anyone who holds themselves out as a medical professional may be liable for medical negligence if they fail to exercise reasonable care and skill and cause harm to a patient. According to the Georgia Supreme Court, the victim must demonstrate that there was:
- In the doctor-patient relationship, there is a duty
- a failure to exercise the necessary level of caution and competence that results in a breach of such duty
- a connection between the injury and the breach
In either scenario, the threshold from mistake to malpractice is raised by an injury brought on by a failure to uphold the competent standard of care.
How can we move from one to another?
Despite how the mistake is characterized, a medical malpractice lawsuit requires more than simply a mistake. Real, compensable damage must have been caused by the professional error, which must have violated the relevant medical standard of care.
