Before talking about medical malpractice cases, let’s pause to appreciate the scope of the problem.
Unfortunately, medical mistakes are common in the United States. Analyzing medical death rate data over an eight-year period, Johns Hopkins patient safety experts have calculated that in the U.S. more than 250,000 deaths per year are due to medical errors. This makes medical errors the third leading cause of death in the country, behind heart disease and cancer! In addition, hundreds of thousands more are injured or disabled each year because of medical mistakes.
These facts make it clear that the primary cause of malpractice cases is not any of the things that the defense propagandists would have you believe — runaway juries, greedy malpractice lawyers, “frivolous lawsuits.” Instead, it is malpractice!
Liability
Malpractice cases have two components. One is called “liability” and the other is called “damages.”
Liability, or legal responsibility, exists if a health care provider fails to comply with the appropriate “standard of care.” Standard of care, in turn, means what a competent health care provider should do in a particular circumstance. For example, a competent surgeon should remove all sponges from the patient before closing at the end of surgery. If the surgeon does not do so, s/he has deviated from the standard of care and committed malpractice.
Typically, the defense will oppose your liability case by arguing that the health care provider did nothing wrong. They will contend that the bad result is just one of those things. It is, they will argue, a known risk of the particular treatment or procedure.
Ultimately, questions of whether malpractice often boil down to dueling experts. In fact, in Maryland, you have a malpractice case — literally — when an expert says you do. When you file your case, Maryland malpractice law requires you to include a Certificate of Merit. An expert in the specialty the case involves must state that the defendant deviated from the standard of care. Without that Certificate, your case will be dismissed.
Damages
If you can prove liability, you are entitled to recover damages. Damages is the term that refers to the consequences of the health care provider’s error. In other words, “What harm did the violation of the standard of care cause?”
Damages include both economic losses and noneconomic losses.
Economic Damages
The economic damages you can recover include these:
- all medical bills you incurred treating injuries that result from the malpractice,
- any loss of income, such as employment income, and
- any other economic losses that result from the malpractice.
And, if you have a permanent injury, you can also recover damages for your future losses.
You may be wondering: How do you prove future damages, such as future medical bills and future loss of income? You probably guessed . . . expert witnesses. This is an example of how that occurs. First, medical experts document the future physical limitations of the patient. Then, there may be a vocational rehabilitation expert to testify about the patient’s vocational limitations. There might also be a life care planner who will testify about the patient’s other needs. Finally, an economist will convert all of this into dollars and cents.
Noneconomic Damages
If Maryland malpractice law merely required the careless health care provider to pay for your financial losses, you would not be fully compensated. You are also entitled to be compensated for having to go through the experience. Many call this element of damages by the shorthand “pain and suffering.”
If you have been the victim of medical malpractice, you can recovery money damages for such noneconomic losses as these:.
- physical pain.
- mental anguish.
- disfigurement.
- inconvenience.
- physical impairment.
- damage to your marital relationship.
Where there are serious, permanent injuries, fair compensation under Maryland malpractice law can be $1,000,000.00 or more. However, you should also know that there are statutes putting “caps” on how much you can recover in a malpractice case.
If you hire a Maryland malpractice lawyer, your lawyer will know the specifics of these statutes.
Final Thoughts
Medical malpractice cases are complicated and expensive, and the results are uncertain.
No matter how obvious the malpractice, the defense will have experts who will defend the actions of the health care provider. On the other hand, you may have difficulty locating an expert, even if your claim is meritorious. Physicians are putting increasing pressure on their brethren who testify for injured plaintiffs.
As a result, somewhere between two-thirds and three-quarters of court cases are won by the defense.
Contact Us
If you have been seriously injured by medical malpractice, contact us.