There are at least dozens of ways that you can be injured by poor medical treatment. Many of them may seem extreme, but happen far more often than they should. Most medical malpractice cases deal with errors committed during surgery or other problems with your treatment. Many stem from failures in diagnosing your condition. Still more are such obvious negligence that they may even be easier to prove in court. If you have been injured by your healthcare provider in Texas, talk to an experienced Arlington medical malpractice lawyer. An Arlington TX personal injury lawyer at The Queenan Law Firm may be able to get you compensation for the harm you suffered.
Types of Medical Negligence Defined
The following are some of the more common ways you can suffer injury because of medical malpractice. These are not the only types of medical malpractice, though. There are ways you may have been injured that do not fit neatly into any of these categories, such as having a severe allergic reaction to medication prescribed by your doctor, and that is okay. Any injuries that you receive from poor healthcare can be the basis for a medical malpractice suit. These are some of the more common types of malpractice:
Diagnosis Errors
When a doctor fails to diagnose your condition or illness, you often cannot receive treatment. Without knowing what the issue is, doctors cannot know how to fix the issue. Sometimes, doctors do correctly diagnose you, but take too long. During that delay, your condition may get worse or become untreatable. Possibly the worst diagnosis error is when a doctor misdiagnosis your condition. Then, you face a delay in treatment, plus you may receive harmful treatments for a condition you do not actually have. With treatments like chemotherapy or removal of body parts, this may cause permanent harm.
Gross Negligence
Sometimes, a healthcare provider’s failures are extremely obvious. In these kinds of cases, jurors do not need expert witnesses or other complicated proof to understand that the doctor failed to give proper care. Gross negligence usually covers things like performing surgery on the wrong part of the body, amputating the wrong limb, performing the wrong procedure, or mixing-up patients. Not only do these things fail to fix your problem, they cause new problems as well.
Hospital Errors
While a doctor may not be a hospital employee, and injuries they cause may not be the hospital’s fault, the hospital can be responsible for other errors. First, the hospital usually employs nurses, orderlies, and other medical staff. Their failures are the hospital’s failures, so if they provide improper treatment, you may have a case against the hospital. Hospitals are also responsible for keeping places clean, free from infection, and safe. You may have a case against the hospital for infections you pick up, or injuries you sustain because of unsafe or unclean facilities.
Objects Left Inside the Body During Surgery
When performing surgery, a medical staff may accidentally leave an object inside the patient’s body. Usually, this is a medical sponge or tool. In many cases, the error may not be discovered until years later. Texas has very strict rules for when you may bring your case, so if you face this kind of injury, talk to a Houston medical malpractice lawyer immediately. Otherwise, your case may be time-barred, and a court will not hear it.
Operating Room Errors
Operating rooms are sophisticated scientific facilities. They often have instruments, chemicals, and machines that, if mishandled, could cause injuries. Though these injuries are rarer, patients may be injured by fire or other problems in the operating room. These are clear cases of negligence and may not need the complicated legal proof that other medical injuries need.
Surgical Errors
When you undergo surgery, you trust the doctor to do things correctly. Sometimes, the surgery does not go as expected. In many cases, this is still within the normal outcomes of surgery. When the doctor commits errors during surgery that harm you, though, it is malpractice. For instance, if a surgeon slips and cuts an artery, requiring additional surgery and blood transfusions to reverse the harm, it is malpractice.
Proving a Medical Malpractice Case
Most medical malpractice cases require showing that the doctor or other healthcare professional’s care fell below the “standard of care.” In order to prove what the standard level of care is, you usually need other doctors and experts to testify as to what the doctor should have done differently.
Some cases are so obvious that this kind of proof is not required, such as hospital premises liability, operating room problems, and gross negligence. Regardless, hiring a Dallas medical malpractice lawyer with experience in medical malpractice claims helps ensure that the lawyer knows how to handle the complex proof malpractice cases require.
Talk to Our Arlington, TX Medical Malpractice Attorney Today
In some cases, you may have a very strict deadline to file your case. For a free consultation with experienced medical malpractice attorneys, call The Queenan Law firm today. Our phone number is (817) 476-1797.