You trust physicians to provide appropriate care when you or a loved one has experienced an illness or sustained an injury. In these situations, your doctor holds your health, and sometimes your life, in their hands. What happens when your physician’s actions cause harm instead of healing? In this instance, you may have a claim for medical malpractice.
What is Malpractice?
Medical malpractice results when a person is under the care of a physician and is harmed rather than helped by that doctor’s care. In Maryland, medical malpractice claims often fall under two distinct categories:
- Failure to exercise ordinary medical care and skills based upon the standard of care established by the medical community. In other words, a physician did something such as prescribe the wrong medicine, provide the wrong treatment, or perform the treatment in an incorrect manner that resulted in harm to their patient. This can also mean that the physician failed to do something, such as prescribe a medication, order a test, or request a referral that resulted in harm to the patient. Whatever the physician did or did not do, their actions were inconsistent with what the medical community has established as appropriate care.
- Breach of informed consent. Doctors are required to explain the risks and benefits of proposed treatments. They must communicate this information in a manner that the patients with whom they are speaking can fully understand. This is necessary so that the patients can truly give informed consent to the treatment. Often doctors use technical terms or provide hurried and incomplete explanations to patients regarding the known risks of a medication or treatment. In these instances, they do not allow the patient to give informed consent and, if harm occurs from the treatment, these doctors may be held accountable.
Victims of medical malpractice may recover compensation for their injuries. This compensation may include past and future medical expenses, pain and suffering, emotional distress and lost income.
Experienced Malpractice Attorneys
Zewdu Alem & Associates has successfully represented medical malpractice clients in Silver Spring and throughout Maryland since 2003. We routinely obtain generous awards in cases involving surgical errors, misdiagnoses, failure to diagnose, birth injuries, and prescription mistakes. Medical testimony is necessary to prevail in medical malpractice cases. To meet this need, we consult with a number of licensed medical professionals and retain prominent medical experts who can clearly explain medical mistakes to jurors.
Contact an experienced medical malpractice attorney today.
Call Zewdu Alem & Associates today at (301) 608-1133, or contact us at Inquiry@alemlawgroup.com to schedule your initial consultation. |
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