Medical malpractice statistics are much more alarming than one may think. A recent study published by the Washington Post showed medical error being the third leading cause of death in the U.S. If you’ve researched your own questions about medical malpractice and feel as if you or a loved one has fallen victim to medical malpractice in Kenedy, contacting a Kenedy medical malpractice attorney can be beneficial to fight for the compensation you deserve and answer questions, such as who can be sued in a medical malpractice suit.
When you or a loved one is undergoing a procedure in a hospital, pay attention to the top five vital signs to watch for in hospital to ensure you or a loved one don’t fall victim to medical malpractice. By remaining cognizant of these signs, you may be able to prevent a medical malpractice accident before it occurs, saving you or your loved one pain and anguish.
Who Can Be Sued in a Medical Malpractice Suit?If you are a medical malpractice victim in Kenedy, an attorney at Carabin Shaw can assist you in determining who will be held liable in your specific case. The parties most often held accountable and most likely to be sued are individual medical professionals, pharmaceutical and medical manufacturers, and the hospital itself.
In order to pursue a medical malpractice suit there must be grounds on which you can establish liability. In order to place liability upon a healthcare professional, you must be able to establish that the healthcare professional you interacted with, acted out of the scope of their job description resulting in injury to you or your loved ones.
Hospital Staff:Often times, people think of medical malpractice as being a surgical or clinic related error, but disregard that a dental surgery or childbirth injury also fall under the medical malpractice umbrella. Anyone who receives patient care from any type of healthcare provider is subject to falling victim to medical malpractice. Additionally, a dental hygienist could be held just as liable as a doctor who is actually performing a surgery. The key to winning a medical malpractice case is being able to prove negligence in the party causing injury to the patient.
Defensive medicine encompasses practices that exist for the sake of avoiding malpractice liability, primarily in the form of outsourcing procedures or tests known to be risky to third-party clinics or services. As each new set of hands they pass through adds another opportunity to compound fresh negligence or mistakes upon their treatment, the risk to the patient multiplies. If you find yourself sent from place to place in the course of your treatment, you should be on high alert for any red flags, as you are in the figurative Bermuda Triangle of patient danger.
Hospitals and Healthcare Institutions:The Kenedy hospital in which your medical malpractice incident occurred can be sued for medical malpractice. Hospital staff in Kenedy are required to be licensed doctors, nurses, and other well-trained healthcare professionals; it is the hospital’s duty to .investigate their employees credentials before allowing them to treat or perform procedures on patients.
The concept of vicarious liability is one way hospitals and healthcare institutions can be held liable for medical malpractice. In a medical malpractice case, the healthcare employee should always be acting under their job scope. If they take actions out of scope of their job description, the hospital or healthcare institution they work for can be held legally liable. An attorney can help investigate details so that the hospital serves as the party with financial compensation to pay the victim.
Pharmaceutical and Equipment Manufacturers:Pharmaceutical companies or manufacturers may be held responsible in the cases in which a prescribed drug served as the cause of injury to a patient. In almost all cases, pharmaceutical and equipment manufacturers have a sole duty of being sure the physician that receives a drug or prescription is fully briefed on the side effects and potential dangers of that particular drug. When the pharmaceutical or equipment manufacturer fails to warn the physician of said dangers or side effects, there can possibly be grounds to hold the pharmaceutical company responsible for medical malpractice.
Statute of Repose:Statute of repose is a unique 15-year statute of limitations in Texas that applies to product liability and by extension, manufactured medicines. A Statute of repose essentially sets a time limit on the passage of time or the occurrence of a certain event. For example, a patient in a medical malpractice case who was prescribed drugs may not be immediately aware that he or she suffered injury as a result of that medicine. Statute of repose allows Texans 15 years from the date of purchase of said medicine to claim liability against that specific product.
In addition to the above examples, an experienced attorney can help you decipher other parties who can be sued in a medical malpractice suit in Kenedy. Having an experienced attorney in your corner to help you build a strong foundation for your case can be extremely helpful when combating large hospital and pharmaceutical companies. With these large corporations come a large team of lawyers who will fight to make sure their corporation doesn’t have to pay a large sum of money to a patient. Doing your research to find an attorney with ample experience in Kenedy medical malpractice cases will increase your chance if winning the compensation and justice you and your loved ones deserve.
Medical malpractice injuries can take a heavy toll on victim’s and their families. On top of pain and suffering, the stress of gathering information to build a comprehensive case can be straining. The team of attorneys at Carabin Shaw have ample experience fighting for their client’s through this trying time and winning them the compensation they deserve to pay their medical costs. Contact the team at 800-862-1260 for a free consultation today.