The two primary reasons for seeing a doctor are to prevent yourself from getting sick or getting help when you are ill.
Before you get to see the doctor, you will sign some form of a waiver, giving access to your medical records and allowing them to examine as they see fit. You form a bond of trust with that medical professional and expect them to provide a standard of care designed to help you with your health concerns. Sharing that trust does not make that doctor or their staff infallible.
Suppose you or someone in your family has experienced an injury because of negligence by a healthcare provider. In that case, you might have an actionable claim that an experienced Louisville medical malpractice lawyer can help with.
These types of claims are especially complex to litigate. They require a thorough understanding of the applicable laws and how to negotiate with insurance companies.
The attorneys at the Thomas Law Offices can provide that support.
Do You Have a Claim?
In addition to signing a waiver for a medical examination, you’ll also sign a waiver for any procedure or treatment. Those waivers are supposed to inform you about the risks associated with the treatment and what you can expect for your recovery, but they don’t provide an excuse for an act of negligence.
Do you have a claim? You might if one of the following occurs:
Your Doctor Ignored Your Concerns
Your concerns about a pain or physical ailment like dizziness are legitimate. If your doctor ignores your concerns and that leads to complications, it could be considered neglecting your condition.
You Suffer from a New injury or Illness After Being Treated in a Hospital
There is always the risk of complications arising from a surgical procedure or hospitalization stay.
What isn’t expected is that you suffer a new injury due to a doctor, surgical team, or hospital staff’s negligent act.
Hospital Protocols Weren’t Follow
Infection is a genuine concern in a hospital, especially after a surgical procedure. If the hospital fails to follow safety protocols such as washing hands, sanitizing your room, and providing proper wound dressing, you could develop an infection that stymies your recovery or leads to even more severe complications.
You Received the Wrong Treatment or Surgical
A study published by the National Library of Medicine finds that wrong-site surgery occurs in 1 out of every 112,994 surgeries. While those rates are low, wrong-site surgery is still a devastating act of negligence with dire consequences.
It Took Multiple Visits to Diagnose Your Condition
There are many ailments that present very similar symptoms. As such, it might mean going through several tests to determine what is happening. If your doctor does not pursue all the testing options or waits for a change in your condition, that can only compound the ailment.
Emergency Room Misdiagnosis
There are many instances when the doctors and staff on call during an emergency room shift misdiagnose a patient or send them home too early. A busy shift or understaffing can be a defense, but that is not an excuse.
You’re Given the Wrong Prescription
If your prescription is the wrong medicine or dosage, it can cause serious side effects. You could also experience harmful side effects if your doctor did not thoroughly review your medical history for the potential of any allergies.
Who Can Be Held Liable?
Your medical care begins with your primary care physician. They will be the healthcare professional who will recommend you to other specialists. They might also be the physician who overlooks the condition.
Doctors, surgeons, and family practitioners are not the only medical professionals liable for medical malpractice in Kentucky. Healthcare providers and medical facilities, both public and private, can commit malpractice so long as they are licensed or certified.
These include but are not limited to:
- Surgeons
- Nurses
- Anesthesiologists
- Physical therapists
- Psychiatrists and psychologists
- Dentists
- Orthodontists
- Chiropractors
- Nurse practitioner
- Physicians’ assistants
- Optometrists
The Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure certifies many medical professionals. It is also the agency you might need to lodge an official complaint with.
Proving Your Claim
You and your Louisville medical malpractice lawyer need to establish four elements to prove your claim.
The first is the duty of care owed to you by your doctor. You must demonstrate a patient/doctor relationship with that professional. It can’t be someone you met at a party who gave you medical advice.
The second element to provide is the doctor’s negligence. This is essentially what they failed to do or did wrong. That is closely tied to the third element, which is causation. How did their negligence cause you to be injured?
Finally, you have to have to establish what damages you suffered as a result of the negligence.
The damages you can claim can be the following economic and noneconomic items:
- Exam costs
- Tests
- Surgical procedures
- Hospitalization
- Prescriptions
- Rehabilitative therapy
- Medical supplies
- Special transportation
- Lost income
- Lost earning capacity
- Psychological counseling
- Pain and suffering
- Physical scarring
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Loss of companionship
You are also entitled to seek punitive damages. These are separate from your compensatory damages and are meant to punish the liable party for their negligence.
There’s no limit to the amount of punitive damages you can request. However, these awards are usually only given out by a jury if your claim becomes a civil matter. Most insurance companies don’t pay punitive damages.
Certification of Merit Requirement
When you speak to a Louisville medical malpractice lawyer, you’ll have a chance to present your claim and whatever evidence you might have. If your attorney agrees this is a valid claim, you can enter into a retainer agreement.
The first step is to file a complaint, but before that can happen, you need to obtain a merit certification.
This is a type of avadavat from an independent medical practitioner who has reviewed your case and determined inconsistencies with your standard of care that could rise to the level of malpractice.
A certification of merit is not a final verdict. It is just verification that there is enough evidence to proceed.
Don’t Wait to File
You don’t have a lot of time to file your medical malpractice claim in Kentucky. While most states allow two or three years to file a case, in Kentucky, you only have one year to file. That filing usually happens after you’ve exhausted all your options with an insurance company representing the medical professional or hospital.
The Kentucky Statute of Limitations for medical malpractice lawsuits is one year from the date of the injury or from the date that the damage was discovered.
This means that if a person is injured due to medical malpractice, they must file a lawsuit within one year of the injury or the date that the injury was discovered. If the person does not file a lawsuit within this one year, they may be barred from filing a lawsuit at all.
Our Louisville Medical Malpractice Lawyer Is Here to Assist
You don’t want to wait to file your medical malpractice claim. You can contact the Thomas Law Offices today to set up a free case evaluation.
At that first meeting, we’ll listen to what happened to you and consider your documentation. We’ll be able to provide you with a preliminary consideration for the case. We might require further investigation before we can proceed, but you’ll know all your options.
The best way to proceed with a medical malpractice claim is to have the backing of attorneys who have the experience and principles to provide the support you need to navigate the claim. Call to talk to our Louisville medical malpractice lawyer today.
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