What Qualifies for a Medical Malpractice Case

After undergoing medical diagnosis and treatment, you may not be entirely sure of whether the doctor was to blame for any harms that follow. In some cases, adverse side effects are natural, while in others, they are the result of egregious or sloppy work by the doctor. It is crucial to figure out whether your doctor’s conduct led to your injuries by consulting with legal counsel that has experience in these types of cases. If you are concerned about what qualifies for a medical malpractice case, and are seeking best results, you should give the seasoned Syracuse medical malpractice lawyers of DeFrancisco & Falgiatano a call. We have more than 30 years of experience helping patients and their families.

Not every mistake made by a doctor counts as medical malpractice. Instead, lawsuits arising out of health care provider errors are often highly contested and complex matters. To recover damages for medical malpractice, our lawyers will need to show that your health care provider’s conduct departed from the accepted, existing medical practices followed by other health care providers in the same or similar specialty in Upstate New York. We will need to show it’s more likely than not: (1) you were owed a professional duty to use reasonable care, (2) breach of the professional duty to use reasonable care, (3) causation, and (4) damages.

In order to establish what the professional standard of care was and how your doctor or other health care provider breached it, we will need to discuss your case with an expert in the same or a closely similar specialty as the health care provider who made the mistake in your case. For example, if you were injured by a nurse in the cancer ward of a hospital who erred in administering medication, such that you suffered internal injuries from the wrong medication, we would need to determine whether a reasonably competent nurse in the cancer ward would have made that error.

Often medical malpractice cases turn into a battle of experts who disagree about whether there is a viable medical malpractice claim or not. The facts of a particular case may be confusing or ambiguous. It is the job of a defendant’s attorney to try to make sure his client’s version of events that occurred is presented in the most favorable light, the approach that makes it least likely for the plaintiff to win damages. As a consequence, defendants may raise arguments that the harm suffered by a plaintiff was a natural result of the illness or injuries, and not causally connected to the defendant’s conduct. In other cases, defendants and their attorneys may claim that a plaintiff is malingering or simply not in need of services his or her provider believes are reasonably necessary because of the earlier doctor’s malpractice.

As in other lawsuits, an expert may argue that you were comparatively negligent and therefore partially responsible. For example, if your doctor asked you to provide information about your other health conditions and you omitted crucial information, you may be partially or fully to blame for your injuries. Under the doctrine of comparative fault, the jury may determine your damages and your percentage of fault for injuries. Your damages will be reduced by an amount proportionate to your degree of fault.

In order to recover damages, you must have been harmed by your doctor’s conduct. An error without any consequences to the patient is not a sound basis for a medical malpractice lawsuit. Damages we may be able to recover may be economic and noneconomic.

If a loved one dies as the result of a doctor’s error that fell below the professional standard of care, it may be appropriate for the patient’s family to file a wrongful death lawsuit.

A veteran Syracuse medical malpractice attorney can seek the best outcomes in a lawsuit against a doctor, hospital, or other health care provider. If you’re wondering whether what you experience counts as medical malpractice, call us. DeFrancisco & Falgiatano Personal Injury Attorneys has represented injured patientsand their families in Buffalo, Albany, Lowville, Rochester, Auburn, Watertown, Herkimer, Oswego, Wampsville, Canandaigua, Lyons, Ithaca, Cooperstown, Oneida, Utica, Binghamton, Elmira, and all of Upstate New York for more than 30 years. For a free consultation, complete our online form or call us at 833-200-2000.