Should You Consider Pursuing a Case for Medical Negligence and What Could Lay Ahead of You?
Life can be very unpredictable, sometimes. You could be walking down the road minding your own business, formulating plans for your upcoming vacation and then get involved in somebody else's accident. Now, you need to focus on medical care and how you can get through that. If that wasn't enough, your medical care may have been substandard, causing you further injury. Do you have recourse in this situation and can you claim damages against the medical provider based on negligence?
Cause and Effect
One of the key hurdles in front of you when it comes to winning a medical negligence case is the need to prove causation. The legal system will require you to prove that what happened here was a direct result of a negligent act by the medical professional. Could it be that you had a pre-existing condition which made it more likely that you would suffer from the ultimate outcome? Would you have been in this position anyway, despite the actions taken by the provider?
Would Others Have Done the Same?
An even bigger grey area may face you next. The provider may argue that they acted in accordance with procedures that were widely accepted within the medical community. This defence is often used and case law (and sometimes other experts) can be brought in to prove a case. If other medical professionals would have acted the same way, then the defence will be that this individual was competent. As you can imagine, this type of approach is open to many different types of interpretation and it's not unusual for a court to find that the defence put forward is irrational.
Acting on Knowledge
Were you given the right amount of information by the medical professional before any action was taken? You may be able to assert negligence if you weren't warned about the risks of the procedure. If your current affliction as a consequence of the procedure was one of those "known risks," then can you prove that you were not advised ahead of time? You will also be asked whether or not the risk was significant and whether you would have opted to proceed even if you'd been warned about it.
How to Move Forward
It's certainly true to say that it can be tough to prove a case of negligence in the medical community, but far from impossible. It's good to have an attorney on your side who has experience in dealing with all the aforementioned defences. Get in touch with just such an expert, to get legal advice before you proceed with your claim.
