No one wants to go to a doctor, however, under unavoidable circumstances and emergencies, if you have to visit a doctor and have to undergo a surgery or other medical procedure the last thing you want to think about is the doctor or the health care provider making a mistake. But the fact is that careless medical errors happen daily and in certain cases they can be considered as medical malpractice or medical negligence cases.
Legally speaking, clinical malpractice is medical negligence, or some action or failure to act by a health care professional or worker that falls below the professional standards of care. The mistake must actually cause injury to the patient in order to be considered medical malpractice. Examples of malpractice include instances of improper surgery, falling to do a regular follow up of tests, misdiagnosis of a condition or prescribing a wrong medication.
Any health care provider cannot guarantee the results of a treatment, hence a negligence or malpractice claim is not valid just because the treatment wasn’t successful or the patient wasn’t satisfied with the outcome. However, if you believe that you have been a victim of clinical malpractice or medical negligence, consult an attorney to make a compensation claim. And do that as soon as possible as these claims can be filed within a stipulated time period, or else the injured person's lawful claim will be disqualified and his or her right to sue will be lost forever.
This happens because of the law known as "statute of limitationsâ€. Generally, any claim for the damage, injury or death cased due to clinical carelessness must be filed and brought into notice of the law within one year from the date the claimant discovered injury that was caused due to reckless act to a maximum of three years. However the deadline and time limit for filing a case can be longer in some circumstances, for example if the patient was a child;; or there was a gap before the plaintiff realized that the damage was done due to careless fault of the doctor or any health care provider.
However, as a plaintiff, always remember that the delay in knowing about the injury and a delayed claim filing should have a proper reason and explanation. Because the late discovery of harm rules will almost never arise in the most common types of personal injury claims. And the other point to remember is that every state has its own statute of limitations, requiring any personal injury suit be filed in court within a set time after the incident or injury.
