We go to a doctor or hospital when we’re ill, experiencing concerning symptoms, or after an accident or injury, naturally expecting our medical providers to treat us with a high standard of care and compassion. Unfortunately, hospitals sometimes cut corners, doctors fail to uphold legal care standards, or medical staff fail to follow safety protocols, and the result is an injury, a worsened medical outcome, or even wrongful death.
No legal process can undo the harm of medical malpractice, but a successful claim can recover the compensation that an injury victim or their surviving family members deserve.
Proving medical malpractice to gain a settlement or court award for your damages requires compelling evidence that demonstrates the four elements of medical malpractice in Illinois. Contact our medical malpractice lawyer in Chicago in the event you were injured due to the negligence of a medical worker.
A successful medical malpractice claim begins with evidence that a doctor-patient relationship existed at the time the medical error or negligence occurred. If no official doctor-patient relationship was established, the doctor has no legal obligation. In other words, if your neighbor is a doctor and you complain of an upset stomach at a neighborhood barbecue, and the doctor tells you to take an antacid, but later you are diagnosed with a ruptured appendix, it is not malpractice because you were not the doctor’s patient.
Evidence of a doctor-patient relationship includes medical records, emergency-room sign-in documents, medical invoices, and receipts. Once a doctor-patient relationship is established, the doctor owes a legal duty of care to the patient, requiring them to provide treatment that meets the medical community’s standards.
The evidence in the case must show that the doctor or other medical provider breached their duty of care to the patient by failing to treat them in accordance with the standard of care accepted by the medical community. If the doctor failed to act the way another reasonable medical professional would have under the same circumstances, it’s evidence that they violated the duty of care.
Common evidence includes medical records and medical expert testimony highlighting the negligent breach of duty.
If a medical provider’s breach of duty didn’t cause any real harm, the patient doesn’t have a compelling claim. A successful medical malpractice case must show that the patient suffered injury or a worsened medical outcome directly due to the doctor’s breach of duty. If a later medical condition developed that wasn’t caused by the earlier treatment, it isn’t medical malpractice.
Even if a doctor makes an error, you cannot recover compensation if you didn’t suffer damages from the mistake. Common damages cited in medical malpractice claims include:
If a patient dies from medical malpractice, their close surviving family can recover wrongful death compensation for damages like funeral costs and the loss of a provider’s income, as well as compensation for grief and anguish. Reach out to our hospital wrongful death lawyer in Chicago if a loved one has passed due to medical negligence.
An injury victim in a medical malpractice case must prove the above four elements of medical malpractice through a preponderance of evidence, which means they must show that it’s more likely than not that the doctor caused harm.
Doctors, hospitals, and their medical malpractice insurers often dispute claims or delay progress to push the case close to the two-year statute of limitations. An experienced Chicago personal injury lawyer has the skills and resources required to present the most compelling claim possible for the maximum compensation available to you.
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