Medical malpractice can have terrible effects on New Jersey residents. Unfortunately, even an honest mistake can leave you with long-lasting personal injuries.
What is medical malpractice?
Medical malpractice occurs when a doctor or other healthcare professional makes a mistake or behaves negligently and a patient is harmed. Medical professionals are held to a high standard when it comes to providing care. If they fail in their duty of providing a reasonable expectation of care and a patient is injured as a result, it means they breached that duty and can be held liable for damages.
The damages a victim can suffer from medical malpractice could include any of the following:
• Pain and suffering
• Emotional distress
• Disability
• Chronic illness
• Continuous hardship
• Loss of income
How does medical malpractice occur?
There are a variety of things that can lead to medical negligence or errors and cause harm to a patient. Some of the most common involve misdiagnosis or improper medical treatment, operating on the wrong side of the patient’s body or on the wrong patient altogether, leaving an object inside a patient’s body during surgery or prescribing the wrong medication or the wrong dose of it.
Patients can also experience significant injury if they don’t receive follow-up care or are prematurely discharged from the hospital after surgery or a major medical event. A person can be left experiencing constant pain or get a serious infection without the proper follow-up care. The effects they could suffer from medical mistakes or negligence can last for months, years or even permanently, which can diminish a person’s quality of life.
A patient does not have a legitimate claim for medical malpractice if they are unhappy with the results of their medical treatment. There must be serious harm such as personal injury to warrant filing a lawsuit for damages.