Liability in Bardstown Medical Malpractice Cases

To show liability in a Bardstown medical malpractice case, expert witnesses are necessary. This is where medical malpractice cases differ from a car accident. Most people know what the rules are for operating a vehicle on the road, but in a medical malpractice case, since attorneys are not doctors, they do not know what the rules are.

In order to prove malpractice, attorneys will enlist an expert witness to review the case and tell them what the standard of care is so that they can show there was a breach of the standard of care. If this breach can be established then there is a good chance for a successful medical malpractice claim. For more information contact our Bardstown medical malpractice lawyer.

Difficulty of Establishing Liability

The biggest element with respect to liability in a Bardstown medical malpractice case is that it deals with the human body. Just because a patient has a bad result does not mean that a doctor did anything wrong. There are inherent risks with medicine, and even if the doctor does everything perfectly, a person may still not get the results they wanted. That is sometimes a hard concept for people to understand.

With that said, liability does not change dependent upon how the medical malpractice occurs. It is a question of the reasonable prudence of a doctor. If it is going to be a procedural case, did the doctor act like a reasonably prudent surgeon or orthopedic surgeon? In a prescription case, did the doctor act like a reasonably prudent pharmacist or doctor? In misdiagnosis, it might be the radiologist. It is not liability that changes, but maybe who is liable changes in each of those types of cases.

Misdiagnosis

A misdiagnosis case must show that a reasonably prudent doctor, for example, would have run a particular test. Because this doctor did not run that test, they missed having the information that would have let them make a proper diagnosis. For example, if the patient comes in complaining of chest pain, it might be the standard of care that the doctor should run enzymes to see if the person had any heart enzymes in their bloodwork.

If the doctor does not do the proper tests and it turns out the individual was having a heart attack, and later the person starts having problems from that heart attack, a Bardstown personal injury attorney would try to show that the doctor misdiagnosed the case for failing to run the right test. This can assist in determining the liability in medical malpractice cases in Bardstown.

Another example is misdiagnosing something on an x-ray or an MRI. There could be a particular mass or cancer that is visible, but is not caught.

Common Misconceptions

The most common misconception when determining liability in a Bardstown medical malpractice case is that just because a person had a bad result the doctor is liable. An individual must determine what the known risks of the procedure are, and understand if the result of the procedure is because of a breach in the standard of care.

It is difficult to hold a doctor liable for anything. Because they are professionals, these cases are sometimes tough to win.

Bardstown Medical Malpractice Lawyer

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