|
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
Van Camp & Deissner Law Offices,
1707 W. Broadway Ave., Spokane, WA 99201 |
|
|
| Medical
Malpractice
|
Van Camp & Deissner handles a limited number of Medical Malpractice
claims.
| We receive literally hundreds of inquiries about Medical Negligence every
year. The reason that the number of cases we take is limited is that
Medical Malpractice cases are very difficult to prove, and juries do not
like to award damages against Doctors or other health care providers. Most
Doctors' Malpractice Insurance carriers fight every claim as if it were an
invasion of the Homeland. So unless a case is very clear, it usually
is not worth pursuing. |
|
| Standard of Care |
What has to be proved in a Medical Malpractice? In Washington
a statute, RCW 7.70.040 requires:
The following shall be necessary elements of proof that injury resulted from
the failure of the health care provider to follow the accepted standard of
care:
(1) The health care provider failed to exercise that degree of care, skill,
and learning expected of a reasonably prudent health care provider at
that time in the profession or class to which he belongs, in the state of
Washington, acting in the same or similar circumstances;
(2) Such failure was a proximate cause of the injury complained of.
The Courts have held that in almost all cases, proof of the standard of care
must be from expert testimony by a Doctor. Since Doctors don't like to testify
against local colleagues, we generally have to hire experts from out of town
to testify in these cases.
| The fact that a Doctor has a bad result, or even makes a mistake, is
not proof of malpractice. Sadly, errors and failures are an expected part
of medicine. It is the failure to follow accepted procedure, or mistakes
that are simply too great to be acceptable, that result in liability. |
|
| Proximate Cause |
The harder notion to understand is that a claimant must show the
Doctor's negligence caused a specific injury. It is like where a car
blows through a stop sign: that is negligence. But if the car
doesn't hit you, there is no "proximate cause" of an injury.
In medical malpractice it gets even more complicated because most medical
procedures are being carried out to treat some kind of medical problem. If
a Doctor makes a mistake and the condition doesn't better, is it because
of the mistake, or because the condition was so bad it couldn't have been
fixed, even without malpractice?
| Example: Patient has an infected leg. Doctor uses the wrong antibiotic,
the leg gets gangrene. The leg has to be amputated; Surgeon amputates the
wrong leg. In this example Surgeon is clearly negligent and clearly
caused an injury, loss of the good leg. But what about Doctor? He
may be negligent for using the wrong drug; but we would have to prove that
using the right drug would have saved the leg, and that may be impossible
to prove. |
More information can be found
here.
|
| Moral of the Story |
There are other types of malpractice cases, and we would be happy to
talk to you about your case and advise if we think it makes sense to pursue.
But hte bottom line is this: these cases are difficult and expensive.
It only makes sense to pursue them where there is fairly clear negligence
and where there is a severe, permanent injury resulting. |
|
Call us for a free consultation. |
|
|
|
