When you visit a doctor or hospital, you expect the health care professionals there to adhere to strict medical standards of practice. Unfortunately, mistakes sometimes happen, and if these errors result in serious injury to the patient, the healthcare provider may be liable for their actions. If you or a loved one have been injured due to a medical error, contact an injury lawyer medical malpractice to discuss your case.
What Is Medical Malpractice?
According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, medical negligence is the third leading cause of death in the United States after heart disease and cancer. If you are a victim of medical negligence, a New York City medical malpractice attorney will help you recover damages for your losses.
Your lawyer will begin by reviewing all of the medical records available to see what was done and what should have been done. This information will be critical in proving the medical professional breached their duty of care. The next step will be to establish that this breach of duty directly caused the injuries that you suffered. In medical malpractice claims, you must prove proximate cause. This means that the medical professional’s breach of their duty was the direct cause of your present and future financial losses such as medical bills, lost income, and disability. You must also demonstrate noneconomic losses, such as pain and suffering.
In most cases, your lawyer will need to work with expert witnesses to support your case and explain what happened and how it should have happened. These experts can be vital in helping the jury understand your case and decide on a fair amount of compensation for your present and future losses. Your lawyer will also conduct a series of on-the-record interviews called depositions to question the doctors, nurses, and other health care providers who may be called to testify in your lawsuit. Your attorney is well-versed in conducting these depositions and will be able to get the best possible testimony from these witnesses to strengthen your claim.
If you have been injured due to a medical mistake, you should consult with an experienced New York City injury lawyer medical malpractice immediately. Under New York law, you have only two years to file a medical malpractice claim, so it is important to hire an attorney as soon as possible.
The first thing your lawyer will do is review all of the medical and hospital records to see what was done and how it should have been done. They will then work with experts to establish that your injury was caused by a breach of the health care professional’s duty of care and that it caused you to suffer injuries, damages, and loss. Your attorney will also use evidence of your current and future losses to calculate the value of your medical malpractice claim. Your compensation will be comprised of both actual economic losses, such as medical expenses and lost wages, as well as noneconomic damages, such as your current and future pain and suffering.