Law Pointers

People usually look up to doctors and nurses because of the reputation they cultivated of alleviating the pain and suffering of their patients. Doctors and nurses are guided by medical procedures developed by international experts and specialists. They are own competence develop through experience as they mature in their profession.

Alas, these medical practitioners are but human, imperfect and erring. Given the tremendous trust people give them, however, once something goes wrong in their execution of medical procedures and their patient suffers from it, it opens a controversial issue of medical malpractice.

Many people fall to the wrong impression that to sue a certain doctor with medical malpractice charges is quite easy. In fact, medical malpractice cases are extremely tough to win.

Not all medical injuries can be considered as medical malpractice, thus medical malpractice claims is not applicable for such cases.

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In many respects, Virginia has been more conservative about modifying the common law than its sister states. To the extent modifications have been approved, many restrict rather than expand the rights of the victims of medical negligence. For example, Virginia has adopted three major modifications of medical malpractice law: a damage cap, screening of proposed lawsuits by a medical review panel, and a state fund to compensate victims of birth-related neurological injuries. Much of the legislation specific to medical malpractice can be found in the Medical Malpractice Act, Va. Code Ann. §§ 8.01-581.1 to 8.01-581.20.

Statutes of Limitations

All medical malpractice actions for injury (as opposed to death) must be brought within two years from the date the cause of action accrued. Va. Code Ann. § 8.01-243(A). In § 8.01-230, a cause of action “accrues” at the time of injury: “the cause of action shall be deemed to accrue and the prescribed limitation period shall begin to run from the date the injury is sustained in the case of injury to the person… and not when the resulting damage is discovered.”

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When a doctor, a medical practitioner, or a medical institution caused more harm for its patient rather than good, it was said that he has been negligent in taking care of his patient’s welfare and recovery. Medical malpractice is now getting more rampant than ever, and the cases of medical malpractice in the United States are rising at an alarming rate. A simple act of negligence can cause great injury to its patient, which then can lead to disability or even death.

Just how alarming medical malpractice is nowadays? According to the American Academy of Family Physicians, more than two-thirds of the total claims for medical malpractice come from death of patients. One-third of all the total claims account for “diagnostic errors”, mainly due to problems with records, or the practitioner’s negligence to look at the patient’s medical background prior to treatment. In 2006, medication errors constitute at least 1.5 million harmed individuals, roughly 1.3 million of which had suffered preventable drug-related injuries in outpatient settings. Also, a recent study by Healthgrades found out that preventable medical errors have caused up to almost 100,000 new deaths every year, making it considered a national epidemic.

Medical malpractice claims can help determine where primary health care in the United States can go wrong. Analyses by different primary health care organizations have pinpointed the actual locations where people are being injured and it’s usually the outpatients who suffer more than the patients in the hospitals. This does not conclude though that medical errors in hospitals are less adverse than medical errors in an outpatient setting.

The data gathered by these studies are useless unless medical practitioners recognize its value to review their medical process so they can identify the root causes and conditions of these medical errors, especially for those working on high-risk medical categories. Eventually, the information given by these statistics aim at investigating as to how potential injuries can be reduced.

When we hear the words “medical malpractice,” we may have terrible visions of surgeons amputating the wrong limb or leaving surgical instruments in bodies during surgery. While those events do take place, not all forms of medical malpractice are so terribly egregious. Some forms can be as subtle as missing or delaying a diagnosis, prescribing the wrong dosage of a medication, or delaying a treatment while awaiting test results. While these errors may not seem as egregious as wrong site surgery or being drunk during an operation, they can be just as catastrophic. Whether you have suffered from an egregious medical error or a subtle one, there is legal help available to cover any losses you have suffered.

Medical malpractice cases are often time-consuming, complicated and costly. When deciding whether or not to pursue a medical malpractice case, it is important to ensure the strength of your case and to ascertain that you have a chance for monetary recovery. An experienced medical malpractice attorney can help you determine the validity of your case and advise on whether or not to proceed. Our legal expertise will help you wade through the mire of legal and medical paperwork and jargon that are inevitable in medical malpractice cases.

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