Medical malpractice is sweeping across America. Roughly one in three doctors will be sued at least once during their careers.
Medical negligence can lead to lifelong consequences, including chronic pain and disability. Yet pursuing a Florida medical malpractice case can get you the money you need for recovery. The key is to understand what conditions you need to meet.
What do Florida malpractice laws say you need to prove? What are some common examples of malpractice cases? How can you use medical paperwork to build a case for yourself?
Answer these questions and you can develop strong cases against negligent doctors. Here is your quick guide.
Misdiagnosis
A misdiagnosis can occur when a doctor diagnoses a patient with the wrong condition. Many conditions have similar symptoms, and doctors can mistake one condition for another one.
Treatments can cause medical problems. For example, if you receive cancer treatment when you don’t have cancer, you may develop dangerous side effects from that inappropriate treatment.
Your doctor may also not diagnose you at all. They may tell you your symptoms are in your head and your disease may progress until you develop irrecoverable complications.
Florida Statute 766.102 describes some of the prerequisites needed to bring a medical malpractice case. You must assert that you sustained an injury caused by the misdiagnosis. This injury cannot be a foreseeable result of a medical procedure but must be caused by negligence.
You must show that your doctor acted in an improper or unskilled way. For example, a doctor who fails to run additional tests may have acted improperly if additional tests could indicate what condition you have.
You have two years to file your malpractice claim. It begins when you knew or should have known of potential negligence. So you should start gathering evidence, like your medical records, as soon as possible.
Misread Laboratory Tests
Your doctor may misread the results of your laboratory tests. They may tell you you tested positive for a disease when you actually tested negative. This can lead to treatments that may be harmful or unnecessary.
They may tell you you tested negative when you were positive. You may not receive treatment in a timely fashion, causing your disease to progress.
Doctors may also confuse your results with another person’s results. A blood vial may be mislabeled, or two people with similar names may get confused with each other.
You should consider whether you should file your malpractice claim against the lab technician. They may have botched the test or mislabeled your results. Contact an attorney who can interview witnesses and investigate what happened.
Inaccurate Medical History
A doctor may ask you questions about your medical history. This helps them establish if you have a pre-existing condition or a history of similar symptoms.
If a doctor does not ask you these questions, you may have a claim. Their failure to ask you medical questions may result in you getting treated for a condition you don’t have. You may have a genetic disorder that would have been revealed if they had asked you about your parents’ health.
It is okay if you cannot answer certain questions. The doctor or a nurse should go and look at your medical records to see what is going on. If they fail to do so and they administer improper treatments, you could potentially file a lawsuit.
You may be able to file a suit against a previous doctor if they placed inaccurate information in your file. You should get copies of the medical documents with the mistakes in them. A lawyer should research how these mistakes may have impacted your medical treatment over time.
Surgical Mistakes
Surgical mistakes are what many people think about when they hear about medical lawsuits. Surgeons can operate on the wrong parts of the body, causing devastating injuries.
The surgery they perform may be correct, but the surgeon may make a mistake. They may cut deep into your body, causing excessive bleeding. They may sever a nerve or muscle, which can lead to pain and mobility problems.
During surgery, you may experience bleeding, a high heart rate, or difficulty breathing. The surgeon and their team should monitor you for these problems. If they don’t and you experience complications, you may have a strong case.
The key is to identify who exactly made the mistake. A surgeon may cut in the wrong place, but they have been told by another doctor where to cut. They may read a medical document that’s incorrect, so you could sue the person who made the document.
Skipped Follow-up Procedures
Even if the procedure goes fine, you may experience problems during the aftercare. After surgery, you may suffer from an infection.
Some infections are preventable, and you have a case if the surgeon failed to clean your wound properly. You can also sue a nurse or doctor who did not give you antibiotics if indicated.
After you go home, you may receive medication to soothe your pain. But you may get the wrong medication, or you may experience side effects that delay your recovery. You can claim damages for this, especially if your medication caused you to miss work.
You can sue a physical or occupational therapist for hurting you during recovery therapy. Ask your doctor to write a document explaining what your treatment should be and why they asked you to get therapy.
The Essentials of Florida Medical Malpractice
A Florida medical malpractice case requires a few things. You must prove an injury that comes directly from a mistake by your care provider. The mistake must be significant enough to violate the standard of care and cause you injury.
Medical malpractice cases can be complex and require significant investigation by knowledgeable lawyers.
Talk to a lawyer with expertise in Florida medical laws. RHINO Lawyers fights for Florida patients. Contact us today.
CONTACT A TAMPA Medical Malpractice ATTORNEY
In short, if you believe you’re a victim of medical malpractice, you may not know your rights. Above all, don’t struggle through the process alone. Actually, our personal injury team is here to help you with any legal needs you might have regarding your case.
Lastly, let RHINO Lawyers answer your questions and review the facts of your case with a Free Consultation. So, get started by completing the “Free Instant Case Evaluation” or by calling us any time, day or night, at 844.RHINO.77.
