You visit a doctor for an unknown disease symptom, but then after the visit, your condition gets worse. Not we discredit the medical profession, but medical malpractice does happen. And you have the right to be suspicious when you feel like your health is at stake.
However, there are right and wrong responses in following a suspicion. Moreover, if you do not act correctly, the case can backfire and put you in a false accusation lawsuit.
How Common is Medical Malpractice?
According to an article published on Hopkins Medicine on May 3, 20016, medical errors have been found out to be the third primary cause of death. What is more surprising is that the United States still adopts an outdated concept of perceiving circumstances that can be categorized as causes of death. It originates in 1949’s International Classification of Disease (ICD) that undermined minor misconducts by medical practitioners as unlikely to lead to the patient’s death.
Today, the average number of deaths by medical malpractice has been estimated to reach 250,000 cases per year. When we discuss this, we also have to consider the possibilities of how malpractices have been silently impairing and damaging the life of unsuspecting patients. The real example of this suspicion is the PIP (Poly Implant Prothèse) case.
The company manufactured breast implants that managed to get certified and distributed to 65 countries. However, the twist of the story happened when the French Health Agency AFFSAPPS investigated their products and proved them to be containing fake silicon gels.
Investigating in Silence
When you feel suspicious about your doctor’s treatment, the first step you must do is to visit a different doctor and compare their treatments. At this point, you must try to understand the basics of the relevant medical terms. You can share your experience with the new doctor, but you must bear in mind that you shall not make an open accusation. Remember, the doctor who mistreats you probably has a liability insurance premium of which the company has prominent lawyers backing the doctor up.
Avoid sharing your stories in social media! This move can be used against you by the defendant because you should provide substantial evidence first before you can accuse a person. Doctors rely direly on their reputation. If your problem turns out to be not accounted to the doctor who you have been accusing of, you practically kill his/her career by making the issue public. You want to know the truth, not to find someone to blame.
Getting the Right Lawyer
The right lawyer you need for a medical malpractice case is a personal injury lawyer. However, a personal injury lawyer may be inexperienced in handling medical malpractice because their field also includes workplace injury, traffic accident, and medical insurance bad faith. Depending on your case, if the damages you have felt have not been severe, then partnering with a novice attorney can get you a deal where you will receive most of the compensation money. Experienced attorneys do have a more significant chance at winning, but they also cost more.…