Every day, patients are booked into hospital wards. Their families stand by wide-eyed, hoping for a good outcome. Most people go to hospitals and doctors, fully trusting they will get expert medical treatment.
People hope their medical team will bring them safely to the other side of a scary treatment or surgery. Considering how uncertain illnesses and diseases can make them feel, they need this hope.
Tragically, doctors and surgeons dash these hopes all the time. So, with 17,000 medical malpractice lawsuits filed every year, it is safe to say you cannot just assume you get the peace of mind you are after.
Instead, medical malpractice is a terrifying reality in America. People leave their lives in the hands of medical practitioners. Too often, this leaves them ill, disabled, or with only a few months left to live.
Are you one of these thousands of patients? Know that there is a way for you to be compensated for your losses.
But, before you file a legal claim, you must be sure that your case qualifies as medical malpractice. You also have to learn how to shield your family from the impact of both medical malpractice and the legal consequences.
Medical Malpractice Is a Complicated Legal Term
Before you accuse anyone of malpractice, you must have proof. Without it, the situation can easily be turned around on you. That is the last thing you want.
If you want to claim malpractice, one of the following scenarios (or variants) must apply.
Misdiagnosis or Delayed Diagnosis
If your doctor misdiagnosed you, you may have a good reason to suspect malpractice. This is especially true if you have a serious disease that the doctor did not identify. The same goes for if the doctor delayed your diagnosis. If the delay meant you could not receive life-saving treatment, it is considered malpractice.
Surgical Errors
There are thousands of patient horror stories about botched surgeries on the Internet. The really scary thing about these stories is that the majority of them are not exaggerated.
Sometimes, doctors cut into the wrong part of the body. They amputate the wrong arm or leg. Other times, they do not provide enough anesthesia. This causes patients to wake up in the middle of their surgery. Waking up while a surgeon is elbows-deep in your body can be extremely traumatizing.
It is also common for patients to discover objects left inside their bodies after surgery. If you underwent surgery and a towel, scalpel, or sponge was left behind in your body cavity, you may suffer excruciating pain. This type of negligence can also cause health complications – some of them life-threatening.
If you were stitched up and told to go home, you may have grounds for a medical malpractice claim.
Medication Errors
Malpractice also includes giving the wrong medication or prescribing the incorrect dosage. If this happened to you and you became even more sick, it could be malpractice.
Birth Injuries
Thousands of birth injuries every year also fall under the umbrella of malpractice. If you or your new baby suffered harm because of negligence, you should look into filing a malpractice case.
No Consent
Not giving consent for a medical procedure can be considered malpractice. However, if you were unconscious when the procedure became necessary, you may not have a case.
How Your Family May Suffer Because of Malpractice
Severe malpractice means you will likely suffer long-term effects for the rest of your life. This situation will upend your life and that of your family. Children and spouses, in particular, tend to experience anxiety and distress when their loved one is in pain.
For example, you may have been healthy and energetic for your whole life until you weren’t. Now, you may struggle with depression and chronic pain. You may not be able to pick up your child. This causes fractures in relationships and may eventually break them.
Your family may share in your anxiety. They may desperately want to help you but not know how.
Things usually get worse from this point. Your spouse may walk out on you because of the stress on them. Some people simply cannot handle seeing their partners in constant pain. They would rather remove themselves from that situation.
If this happens, your life will become more challenging. Should you get divorced, you will have to work through a custody process. If you have assets, you will have to decide how to split them.
Plus, you will have to do all of this while trying to recover or heal. For most people, this is an impossible situation to be in.
Wrongful Death Impact
Not everyone survives medical malpractice. If you lose your life because of negligence, your loved ones will be left devastated. They will have to try and cope with their grief while seeking to understand what happened.
This is often the case when death is completely unexpected. You may go in for a routine appendectomy and die on the operating table.
In case of your death, your family can file a wrongful death case. But this will not make up for their suffering in any way. It also will not help their anger towards the responsible doctor or hospital.
Financial Consequences
The impact of medical malpractice does not end with a settlement. It does not even end with your death.
Whether you live or die, you and your family will have to deal with the financial consequences.
Say you make it through a botched surgery. You will likely need more surgery to fix what went wrong. Even if you do not have to pay for the right surgery, you will have other expenses.
For instance, if they cut off the wrong leg, the right one must be cut off, too. This means more physical therapy and rehabilitation. Both these treatments are expensive.
If you cannot recover from the surgery, you may need to go to a long-term facility. Your family will have to make a plan to pay for your care.
The list of examples goes on and on, and they all affect both patients and their families.
Hiring a Lawyer After Medical Malpractice
The best thing you can do for yourself and your family is to hire a lawyer after medical malpractice. According to Alabama law, you can claim compensation for your injuries, losses, and damages.
If you do not survive, your family will still have a right to fight for compensation. This will hopefully help them find justice for you and move on.