Medical Malpractice Cases in 2022

To prove one or more acts of medical malpractice, the personal injury attorney that you hire from Morgan and Morgan must first determine what type of medical negligence your healthcare provider committed.

Misdiagnosis

The treatment program a healthcare provider devises for you depends mostly on the results of diagnostic tests. Just a small mistake made during the running of diagnostic tests can lead to receiving improper treatment. Misdiagnosis also includes failing to recognize the signs of an illness or injury, and then ordering the wrong types of diagnostic tests. For example, if a healthcare provider fails to detect the signs of a fractured wrist, the healthcare provider might not run the right type of scan that detects fractured bones. 

Misdiagnosing an illness or injury has become a serious problem in the American healthcare industry. According to the latest data released between 2013 and 2017, more than 30 percent of all medical malpractice lawsuits involved some form of misdiagnosis.

Surgical Errors

You might have read a story or two about a patient discovering that a healthcare provider left a medical device or instrument in the patient’s body after surgery. Although this surgical error lies on the extreme side of the medical malpractice spectrum, surgical errors remain one of the most common types of medical negligence cases. Examples of surgical errors include performing surgery on the wrong area of the body and using the wrong medical devices and instruments to complete a surgical maneuver. Another example of a surgical error is performing surgery on the wrong patient.

Surgical errors sometimes cause fatal injuries that require the legal support of a Morgan and Morgan wrongful death attorney.

Mistakes Made With Prescription Medications

Medical malpractice cases in 2022 have seen an uptick in the number of prescription medication mistakes. The most common type of prescription medication error is prescribing the wrong drug, which can cause a severe enough reaction to place a patient in a life-threatening medical condition. Another common type of drug prescription error involves recommending a patient take larger doses of a drug than they should take. Whether a patient takes too many or not enough pills, a prescription medication mistake can cause a considerable amount of damage to the body.

Unlike other types of personal injury lawsuits, the statute of limitations for filing a medical malpractice lawsuit might depend on different factors. For example, Florida law provides plaintiffs two years to file a medical malpractice lawsuit from the date when they discovered the delayed symptoms of their injuries. If a medical malpractice case does not involve delayed symptoms, a plaintiff has four years to file a lawsuit from the date when the act of medical malpractice occurred. Filing a civil lawsuit for medical malpractice cases in 2022 requires the legal support of an experienced personal injury lawyer who is deeply familiar with state law.

One thing remains clear for plaintiffs filing medical malpractice lawsuits: They should act with a sense of urgency regardless of the statute of limitations. Victims of acts of medical malpractice must pay out-of-pocket for medical expenses, which often run into thousands of dollars. Waiting to file a civil lawsuit that seeks monetary damages can put you in a deep financial hole that might require the filing of bankruptcy documents. The other reason why you should act with a sense of urgency is to ensure your personal injury attorney receives the most accurate statements from witnesses. Witness accounts tend to be much more dependable the closer they are given to the date of an act of medical negligence.

If you fail to file a civil lawsuit before the expiration of the statute of limitations, you can expect the court clerk processing your case to dismiss it.

The goal of winning medical malpractice cases in 2022 is to get the clients of Morgan and Morgan the compensation they deserve. Because of the seriousness of medical practice, judges and juries tend to award more in monetary damages in four possible categories.

Special Compensatory Damages

Also referred to as economic damages, special compensatory damages cover tangible expenses such as medical bills. Your personal injury attorney argues that you deserve to be compensated for the costs associated with diagnostic tests, treatment programs, and physical therapy sessions. The cost of physical therapy sessions can be substantial because of the considerable amount of time it takes to heal from the most serious cases of medical malpractice. You also have the right to seek compensation to cover the cost of prescription medications and the use of an assistive device such as a pair of crutches.

If you missed time from work due to an act of medical negligence, your personal injury lawyer asks the judge hearing your case to approve compensation for lost wages.

General Compensatory Damages

General compensatory damages cover non-economic losses, which cannot be quantified by a bill or receipt. Instead, your personal injury attorney argues that one or more acts of medical malpractice caused you to suffer from emotional distress issues. Because of the trauma inflicted because of one or more acts of medical negligence, you might experience emotional distress issues like fear, anger, and anxiety. Medical malpractice cases in 2022 that involve general compensatory damages require your personal injury lawyer to use a formula that factors in the value of economic damages to calculate the value of non-economic damages.

Punitive Damages

Punitive damages do not compensate you for any tangible expenses such as lost wages and medical bills. Instead, the judge or jury hearing your case has the power to award punitive damages to punish the defendant for committing one or more acts of medical negligence. The purpose of awarding punitive damages is to deter the defendant from committing a similar act of medical malpractice in the future. Punitive damages also send a message to other healthcare providers to take the steps necessary to prevent acts of medical negligence.

Judges and juries tend to award higher amounts for punitive damages in cases that involve medical malpractice because of the significant breaching of the duty of care doctrine.

Wrongful Death Damages

In addition to the possibility of facing criminal charges for a wrongful death case, a healthcare provider faces the prospect of losing a substantial amount of money for a wrongful death lawsuit. A representative of the deceased victim’s estate files a wrongful death lawsuit. Every state allows the spouse of a wrongful death victim to file a civil lawsuit that seeks monetary damages. However, most states differ on which other family members have the right to file a wrongful death lawsuit.

Wrongful death lawsuits seek the same types of compensation as other medical malpractice cases. The major difference is the amount of money requested for a wrongful death lawsuit is much higher than it is for other types of medical malpractice cases. This is especially true for punitive damages. Loss of consortium represents the most costly type of non-economic damages for wrongful death cases.

Hiring an experienced personal injury attorney who specializes in handling medical malpractice cases should be at the top of your list of the factors that determine the best lawyer on your shortlist. At Morgan and Morgan, each of our personal injury attorneys specializes in a specific practice, such as medical malpractice cases. You must hire an attorney who understands healthcare industry terminology.

You also should make sure the lawyer that you hire represents you during the entire litigation process. Some attorneys meet with clients for a free case evaluation only to disappear for the remainder of a case. When you work with a personal injury attorney from Morgan and Morgan, you can expect your lawyer to provide legal support from the day of the free case evaluation to the day when your case reaches its conclusion.

Schedule a free case evaluation today with a Morgan and Morgan personal injury attorney to learn more about how to approach medical malpractice cases in 2022.