Medical Malpractice Liability in Louisville

The first thing that a patient has to do in order to claim medical malpractice, is to show that the doctor actually deviated from the standard of care and made a medical mistake. Once the standard has been established, the plaintiff can show that a doctor in the same or similar circumstances could not reasonably have acted in the manner that this doctor, nurse, or other healthcare provider did. In order for a person to prove liability, they must show that they have suffered damages or injuries as a result and that the injuries were specifically caused by the medical mistake.

In order to file a successful medical malpractice claim for an incident that occurred in Louisville, Kentucky, you will need an attorney on your side who is experienced in medical malpractice liability in Louisville. Medical malpractice lawsuits are incredibly complex and require the legal expertise of a team who understands liability laws inside and out and has access to a team of expert witnesses who can help bring forward a strong case.

The Louisville medical malpractice lawyers at McCoy & Hiestand, PLC have over 60 years of combined experience handling personal injury cases and those in the field of medical errors. To learn how we can help, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us.

What You Need to Know About Informed Consent

Informed consent requires that the medical professional tell a patient exactly what it is that he or she is coming in for, tell them what anyone can expect from the procedure, let them know what he or she is consenting to, and then ask them to sign any patient consent or release forms. If the healthcare provider does not thoroughly explain the details surrounding treatment, the patient signing is not able to give informed consent.

When a person is going in for surgery early in the morning, is thrown dozens of documents, and urgently told to sign, they may not have not received enough information to be able to give informed consent to the medical staff.

In Louisville medical malpractice cases, there are certain items that a person can request from a jury, one being his or her past and future medical bills. If the malpractice caused that person a wrongful death, his or her family can ask for that person’s funeral expenses. If a person is working, that person can ask for past and future lost income or lost ability to find work. A person can ask for past and future pain and suffering. Currently, there are no caps in Kentucky on medical malpractice cases though the surrounding states have that, and, every year, the legislature tries to enact something to that effect.

Punitive damages can be requested but there must be a very high standard to get to punitive damages. An injured person has to show wantonness, willfulness, recklessness, and that the medical professionals were basically completely ignorant of what was going on or intentionally caused the damages to that person. So, they are difficult damages to obtain.

An extreme situation with punitive damages that might apply, would be something like amputating the wrong appendage. It would be having a callous disregard for someone that is coming in repeatedly with the same complaints and the doctor ignores it or perhaps the doctor has a drug or alcohol problem and just does nothing to treat the patient or does not do anything to properly evaluate them and that would be an exasperating situation that might lead to the level of punitive damages.

It is important that a person get an attorney right away with any of these cases because the statute of limitations in Louisville medical malpractice cases is one year from the date of the negligence or one year from which it reasonably should have been discovered.