Common Types of Medical Malpractice in Toledo

When you go to a medical professional, the assumption is that you will leave with an accurate assessment and treatment for what ails you. However, in some situations, doctors make errors that can have terrible repercussions for you and your health. Not only can this experience foster a distrust of medical care, but the cost of fixing the misdiagnosis and seeking additional treatment can bring about an unanticipated financial burden. That is where a lawyer can help.

Whether your case concerns the most common forms of medical malpractice in Toledo or a more obscure kind of malpractice, qualified medical malpractice attorney can advocate for you. If you have suffered due to the negligence of your doctor, retain a medical malpractice lawyer that can work tirelessly to achieve a positive outcome for you.

Common Medical Malpractice Claims

There are all sorts of specific medical malpractice cases. Some of the most common types of medical malpractice in Toledo are in the emergency room where there is a specific injury that is not caught by the emergency room physician and the individual is sent home. For example, somebody might come in with the classic signs of heart disease and potential heart attack or stroke, and the individual is sent home.

Another type of common malpractice would be in an operation situation where the operation is done at the wrong part of the body. For example, it is supposed to be left knee surgery, but a right knee surgery was done. That would be a form of a malpractice.

Additionally, there have been cases where various instruments or sponges are left in an individual. Another type of common malpractice would be the misreading of an X-ray, CAT scan, or pap smear where clearly it should have been known that there was illness, such as cancer, and they failed to make a correct a diagnosis.

Where Do These Incidents Occur?

Some of the larger hospitals where medical malpractice may occur would be Toledo Hospital, St. Vincent Hospital, Flower Hospital, St. Ann’s Hospital, St. Charles Hospital, and Baypark Hospital. Those would be the major hospitals in the city of Toledo.

When a Minor Error Becomes Medical Malpractice

Common forms of medical malpractice in Toledo do not always start out as malpractice, but sometimes originate from seemingly minor errors. The first way that something transcends a simple error and becomes medical malpractice is sometimes a person just has a bad result. It can be analyzed as two types of issues.

The first issue would be a bad result does not mean that there is medical malpractice. Sometimes the doctor can do everything right and there is just a bad result. To pursue medical malpractice, lawyers have to show the breach of a duty of care, and as a result of the breach, there were injuries.

The second thing is oftentimes there could be a breach of the standard of care, but there is no injury. For example, in a car accident, someone could run into the rear-end of a car and be at fault for the accident. But if there is no property damage or injury, there is no case.

How Attorneys Decide to Pursue a Case

Typically, lawyers are not going to pursue the case unless there are substantial permanent injuries or death. The reason for that is that often with a medical malpractice case, even if a person is not going to go to trial, they are going to spend probably $25 to $50,000 in expert expenses to pursue a medical malpractice case. Unless there is a permanent injury, the cost of pursuing a medical malpractice case, even a good a medical malpractice case, outweighs the benefits.

Ways a Doctor Can Be At Fault

Amongst the most common Forms of medical malpractice in Toledo, there is a standard of care that doctors are obligated to meet. To prove that a doctor is at fault for not looking for the right thing or for diagnosing the wrong thing, lawyers would use the testimony of an expert witness to say that the internist, ER doctor, or cardiologist make specific information that the standard of care requires them to order a specific testing. Therefore, the failure to order a specific diagnostic testing or blood work was a breach or a failure to meet that standard of care.