Getting medical treatment should not make your quality of life worse. However, that is exactly the situation that many victims of medical malpractice face: when they seek medical care for an injury or a health condition, they walk away with additional injuries or setbacks. In many cases, victims of medical malpractice can file injury lawsuits against the doctors and hospitals that harmed them.
Getting these damages often means seeking help from an experienced medical malpractice lawyer. Our attorneys can help you determine whether you have a case and how much your claim could be worth. They can also help you with the processes of filing and getting compensation.
For a free case evaluation, call the Newark, NJ medical malpractice attorneys at The Carrion Law Firm today. Our phone number is (718) 841-0083.
When Does Medical Care Rise to the Level of Medical Malpractice in Newark, NJ?
Medical science has its limitations, and sometimes even the best doctors cannot cure your condition or heal your injuries. Sometimes, medical care has bad outcomes even when doctors do their best. However, medical malpractice is a separate, serious issue. Telling the difference between a mere bad outcome and actual medical malpractice can be difficult, but our Newark medical malpractice lawyers can help.
Medical Negligence
Medical malpractice is only present when a doctor’s care deviates from or fails to meet the “standard of care” in your case. This standard is established by what other reasonable doctors with similar training and experience would have done to treat you. If your doctor took a risk and tried something different, and it ended badly for you, that is malpractice. Similarly, if your doctor failed to recognize what should be done and failed to take important steps, that would also constitute malpractice or medical negligence.
Causation
To prove your medical malpractice case, you must prove that your doctor’s deviation or negligence also actually caused your injuries or bad outcomes. If your bad outcomes would have been unavoidable even if your doctor did do everything right, then it can be difficult to blame them for the bad outcomes.
Damages
Lastly, every medical malpractice case requires some negative outcome or other damages. Without damages, there is nothing to sue for. For example, if your doctor prescribed you the wrong prescription, but you noticed the error before leaving the doctor’s office, there might be no actual harm that you can sue for despite the fact that the error was made. In those kinds of cases, you might be able to report your doctor to their licensing authority, but you might not have a medical malpractice case.
Identifying Malpractice
For help determining whether what happened to you was, in fact, medical malpractice, you should consult with our Newark medical malpractice lawyers. It can be difficult to determine whether what happened to you legally and medically meets the definition of malpractice. Because of this, you should have a lawyer review your case – and you should also have another physician review your case.
It is a requirement under NJ law that your lawyer submit an “affidavit of merit” from a licensed physician stating that what your doctor did “fell outside” of the “acceptable professional … standards” for your care. This type of certification helps courts stop frivolous cases from making their way into court. If we can get a medical professional to review your case and agree that you have a valid malpractice case, we can take the claim to court and fight to get you the damages you deserve.
Damages in a Newark, NJ Medical Malpractice Case
The damages that you can get paid in a medical malpractice case can range widely depending on the harm you experienced. Our Newark medical malpractice lawyers can help you claim all of the following damages, if they apply to your case:
Medical Bills
Any additional medical care you need to reverse the doctor’s mistakes should be paid for. This additional care is used to set you back to where you were before the doctor committed malpractice, and there is no reason you should have to pay for their mistakes.
Lost Wages
If your injuries and worsened conditions keep you from returning to work, you could be left with missing income that your family needs. Lost income and other economic damages brought about by the malpractice should be compensated in a medical malpractice lawsuit.
Pain and Suffering
If the mistakes your doctors committed left you with physical, mental, or emotional effects, you can seek compensation for these harms. Even though it is difficult to explain the severity of things like pain, mental anguish, and emotional distress, our Newark medical malpractice lawyers can still fight for financial compensation for these damages.
Lost Enjoyment of Life
A decline in your health can often lead to reduced enjoyment of life. For example, a patient whose doctor turned them away from the ER during an impending heart attack could be left with shortness of breath, chest pain, and general tiredness that make it hard to play with their grandkids and ride a bike – activities they might have enjoyed before their heart attack went untreated. These kinds of damages are often included under the umbrella of “pain and suffering,” but they are nonetheless important damages in many medical malpractice lawsuits.
Lost Chance
Many patients see an improvement in their condition when they get prompt, competent medical care. If the medical care you received was negligent or delayed by misdiagnosis or failure to diagnose, then your condition could get much worse. Sometimes, a delay from failure to diagnose or misdiagnosis even means missing out on the opportunity to make a full recovery. This lost chance at recovery and improvement is often compensable in failure to diagnose and misdiagnosis cases.
Call Our Newark Medical Malpractice Lawyers Today
For help with your potential medical malpractice case, call The Carrion Law Firm’s Newark, NJ medical malpractice attorneys today. You can reach us at (718) 841-0083.