What Happens If Your Doctor Makes a Mistake?

When a doctor makes a mistake, it sometimes can result in a medical malpractice claim for an injury to the patient. Medical malpractice occurs whenever a health care provider is negligent (makes a mistake) in performing his or her duties and that negligence injures a patient. If you have been hurt by something a doctor, nurse, hospital, or pharmacy did or failed to do, contact a medical malpractice lawyer right away. Keep reading to learn more.

Serious Injury

Medical malpractice often involves serious injury. While some physician errors are not noteworthy, many instances of medical negligence result in severe health conditions—or even death. For example, physician mistakes during childbirth can result in physical injuries at birth like Erb’s palsy (nerve damage to the arm). Doctors sometimes operate on the wrong body part, give a patient the incorrect type of blood, leave surgical instruments in bodies, and prescribe the wrong medicine or the wrong amount of medicine.

Causal Link

Doctors make mistakes every day, just like everybody else. For a physician’s mistake to have legal effect, it must be the cause of a patient’s injury. For example, medical malpractice does not occur if a doctor prescribes the incorrect medication to treat a patient’s cancer, and the patient breaks her ankle on the way to pick up the medicine. For personal injury lawyers to seek compensation, they must be able to conclusively link a physician’s error to the exact injury that resulted.

Proper Compensation

When physicians commit malpractice, the injured parties are compensated. As your medical malpractice attorney will advise you, you can be paid financial damages for any injury or hardship resulting from that injury. Damages often include medical bills, missed time from work, loss of future compensation, and pain and suffering.

If you have been hurt because of a health care provider’s negligence, contact Pegalis & Erickson. Our malpractice law firm on Long Island, New York has experience successfully advocating for patients’ rights to compensation. To speak to a New York medical malpractice lawyer about your case, call (516) 684-2900 today.