If you are worried that you may have experienced medical malpractice, there are several signs that indicate that you might have a valid lawsuit. If you’ve noticed any of these signs, you should get in touch with a medical malpractice lawyer right away.
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Ask a Medical Malpractice Lawyer: 7 Signs of Medical Malpractice
1. Your Treatment Isn’t Working
Once your doctor diagnoses you, they will provide you with treatment. It’s important that you follow all of your doctor’s instructions to make sure that your treatment is as effective as possible and that you fully recover from your condition.
However, if you are following all of your doctor’s orders and nothing is changing or new symptoms are arising, this could be a sign that you are experiencing medical malpractice. While it’s true that mistakes can happen and that sometimes treatments don’t work, if your treatment isn’t working because of your doctor’s negligence, that is malpractice.
2. Your Diagnosis Came Late
It’s a doctor’s responsibility to diagnose their patients as efficiently as possible. A prompt and accurate diagnosis ensures that you get the medical treatment you need to recover quickly. Sometimes it can be hard to reach the correct diagnosis, especially if your symptoms are unusual.
But in some instances, a diagnosis can come too late simply because of a doctor’s negligence. If a doctor with similar experience and training would have reached a conclusion as to your condition sooner, then you might have a medical malpractice case on your hands.
3. Your Treatment Doesn’t Make Sense
Some conditions require more extensive treatments than others. If your doctor prescribes you mild treatment for a serious condition and your condition becomes worse, then that’s a major sign of neglect. You should get in touch with malpractice attorneys in Maryland right away to determine if you could have a valid lawsuit.
On the other hand, if your doctor prescribed you a highly aggressive treatment for a condition that doesn’t require it, that is also malpractice. More aggressive treatments tend to carry higher risks and more severe side effects. A good doctor will avoid treatments like these unless they are actually necessary (and sometimes they are).
4. Your Doctor Only Ordered Basic Tests
If you have the signs and symptoms of a serious illness and your doctor only ordered a few basic lab tests before diagnosing you, then that diagnosis may be inaccurate. A lack of proper testing could result in a delayed diagnosis, which gives your condition the chance to become much worse.
The reverse is true as well. If your doctor ordered only a few basic lab tests and then diagnosed you with a serious illness, you may be misdiagnosed and given a treatment that’s inappropriate for your condition.
5. You Got a Different Second Opinion
If you are uncertain about the diagnosis you were given, you deserve to be taken seriously. It’s well within your right to seek out a second opinion. If the doctor you get this second opinion from gives you a different diagnosis than your first doctor, that’s a sign they might not be doing their job correctly.
If you are still feeling uncertain about your diagnosis, then you can look for a third opinion as well. If this opinion is the same as the second one you received, that’s a huge indication that you might have a lawsuit on your hands.
6. The Hospital Was Understaffed
Unfortunately, understaffing in hospitals is an all-too-common issue across the country. When hospitals are understaffed, this causes a lot of stress for the staff. It also means that patients are more likely to experience neglect.
If the hospital you are visiting does not have enough staff, then you may not get the treatment or assistance you need. Many things can go wrong in a hospital because of understaffing. Patients that need help walking may not receive this help, or patients pressing the nurse call button may not be answered. If you’ve experienced any of these things, you may have a malpractice case.
7. Surgical Errors
Surgical errors are not as common as issues like misdiagnoses or delayed diagnoses, but they do still happen. This type of medical malpractice can be incredibly traumatizing and lead to long-term or even permanent effects.
Many different incidents can count as surgical errors. If your surgeon operated on the wrong body part, for instance, or if surgical instruments were left in your body after the surgery, those are examples of malpractice. You should make sure to get in touch with your lawyer right away if you believe your doctor made a surgical error.
Medical malpractice is difficult to deal with. We trust our doctors, and when they betray our trust, that affects us deeply. Anyone who believes they have been through medical malpractice should contact a qualified lawyer. Your lawyer will help you get compensation for what you’ve been through.
