When we suffer injuries or illnesses, we turn to medical professionals for aid and assistance. Unfortunately, you cannot always rely on the doctor, hospital, or nurse that is treating you. In some cases, a health professional may act negligently and cause great harm to a patient. If you have been hurt because of a medical professional’s negligent behavior, you can file a claim to get the compensation you deserve.
To help you determine if you have a medical malpractice case, our Kentucky medical malpractice attorneys have put together the Four D’s that make a medical malpractice case.
#1: Duty of Care
The first “D” to a medical malpractice case is duty of care. When filing a medical malpractice claim, you will need to prove that there was some type of doctor-patient relationship. For example, if you started to choke at a restaurant and there happened to be a doctor nearby that assisted you and failed to do so, you wouldn’t be able to hold them accountable. In that situation, you and the doctor didn’t have a doctor-patient relationship.
In a doctor-patient relationship, a doctor owes a duty of “care and treatment with that degree of skill, care, and diligence as possessed by or expected of a reasonably competent physician under the same or similar circumstances.”
#2: Dereliction or Failure to Fulfill the Duty
Dereliction is when a medical professional fails to meet the duty of care. In other words, the medical professional did not provide the patient with the care and treatment needed and expected of a reasonably competent physician under the same or similar circumstances.
#3: Direct Causation
When filing a personal injury claim, you will need to demonstrate that the health professional’s negligence caused direct suffering or harm to you – whether physically or mentally. Although this part is fairly straightforward, there are some cases when you need to provide sufficient proof that the doctor’s attention or inattention led to damages.
#4: Damages
Finally, you will need to show exactly which damages the medical professional caused upon you. You will need to present medical records, testimonies, prescriptions, and other findings that provide an accurate estimation of what compensation you deserve.
Contact our Kentucky medical malpractice attorneys today at (502) 890-9954 to schedule a consultation!