When you visit a health care provider, you are hoping to have your overall health condition improved, or at the very least, you are not expecting to have your health worsen due to the doctor’s or healthcare worker’s negligence. Unfortunately, medical malpractice situations happen all too frequently across the country, and within the state of Louisiana.
If you or your loved one have experienced medical malpractice at the hands of a negligent physician, nurse, pharmacist or other healthcare or hospital employee, an experienced Louisiana medical malpractice lawyer can help. Work with a compassionate personal injury attorney that can attempt to achieve the best possible outcome for you.
As Louisiana attorneys, we must screen any case when someone wants advice on filing a medical malpractice claim. However, unless it is a serious injury, organ loss, permanent disability, or death, then a small claim involving a violation of the standard of care is better served administratively rather than contacting a personal injury lawyer.
A healthcare provider might make mistakes, so it comes down to whether the mistake is a deviation from the standard of care. If they recognize their mistake and correct it, then that will not be a justiciable case of medical negligence.
The average person might think if they get a bad result from a surgical procedure, then the doctor or the hospital did something wrong, rising to the level of malpractice. However, even competent, caring physicians doing their best job can have an inadequate result which has nothing to do with the quality of their care.
The truth is, the injured patient or the family of a deceased patient must have a case where they can prove the health care provider or facility did not exercise the standard of care expected of them, and it caused harm.
There are numerous kinds of medical malpractice cases, and almost any injury a patient suffers due to the negligence of their doctor or nurse could result in a medical malpractice claim, if the healthcare worker did not follow the adequate standard of care established.
Some examples of medical malpractice claims that a Louisiana attorney could help with include:
In a procedure, whether it is a radiology, cardiology, anesthesia, or surgical procedure, the question that always exists is whether that professional deviated from the standard of care. With prescription errors, the question is whether the failure to prescribe, or the mistake in prescribing, a medication was a deviation from the standard of care.
Misdiagnosis can be among the most difficult to determine negligence: health care providers must look at all the circumstances and come up with a working diagnosis, and they must rule out the conditions that are the most dangerous or life-threatening. Without knowing the exact cause of the problem, it will be impossible to know the correct standard of care.
At an initial consultation for a medical malpractice claim in Louisiana, we will interview the injured person about the circumstances of their medical treatment, what they think went wrong, if they consulted with any healthcare providers who advised seeking legal counsel, and they will have to give medical authorization so we can obtain their medical records.
We may request photographs of their injury (if it is visible), and they will be asked to collect any evidence of medical bills they have incurred because of the event. If they were employed before the event, they should provide evidence of their earnings, if the injury is affecting their income. They may also be asked to show what disability or impairment they have, such as difficulty walking, sitting, or standing.
Medical malpractice victims are generally required to first submit their complaints to a medical review panel. The requests for review are filed with the Louisiana Commissioner of Administration.
The state also maintains the Louisiana Patient’s Compensation Fund, which exists to help compensate medical malpractice victims for their losses. An experienced Louisiana medical malpractice attorney can help victims navigate the state’s unique medical malpractice system.
Patient negligence will be tougher to defend if they do not follow their doctor’s advice. But more often, we see cases where a doctor says the patient was at fault for a car accident that injured them, and therefore they cannot be held liable for negligence, or the patient smoked cigarettes, which hindered their healing ability post-surgery.
Across the country, it is becoming more popular for states to place caps or limits on damages medical malpractice victims can receive. Louisiana is one such state to place limits on the amount of damages a victim may be awarded, though there are no limits to the amount of monetary losses a victim can seek to recover for medical expenses caused by the malpractice
As an attorney can further explain, these so-called actual damages available to victims in Louisiana medical malpractice cases typically consist of medical bills accrued since the act of malpractice lost wages, medication, physical therapy costs, pain and suffering, mental pain and anguish, disability, impairment of enjoyment of living, future medical expenses and certain wrongful death benefits.
In medical malpractice cases, courts and medical review panels will consider whether the doctor or healthcare provider acted in accordance with the established standard of care for that particular medical specialty. What matters when alleging medical malpractice is whether the doctor made a mistake that was especially unreasonable, and that a similarly situated doctor would not likely have made.
No matter what type of medical malpractice injuries you may have suffered at the hands of an irresponsible or negligent doctor or health care employee, your Louisiana medical malpractice lawyer can help you pursue the compensation to which you are entitled. Consult a qualified personal injury attorney that could work tirelessly to build your personal injury claim.
