By: Darrell Castle
A bad medical result is probably not medical malpractice, but you should find out for sure.
If you think you’ve been a victim of medical malpractice, you need to speak to an attorney immediately because you may be entitled to compensation for medical bills, lost wages from time off work, pain, suffering and more. Call (901) 327-1212 today or fill out one of the contact forms on this page to schedule a FREE case evaluation with an experienced medical malpractice attorney.
Video Transcript
Is a bad medical result medical malpractice?
Hi, I’m Darrell Castle and I’m an attorney licensed to practice law in the state of Tennessee and the answer to that question is no, probably not in most cases.
If you do have a legitimate case of medical malpractice then it probably is a bad result, but in general, just getting a bad result is not evidence of medical malpractice.
For example, if a doctor comes in and tells you about one of your loved ones who has a brain tumor let’s say, and the doctor tells you he can operate, remove that tumor and save that person’s life, or at least give him a few more years of quality life. And you tell him okay, go ahead and the doctor does his surgery but is not successful and your loved one dies anyway.
These kinds of things happen and that is not medical malpractice. It is simply an unexpected, or bad result. Or it’s a less-than-hoped for result. But medical malpractice – medical negligence – is just that. It is medical behavior – procedure that falls below the standard of care in your local area. In other words, what the doctor did -or hospital or medical provider did – was so far below the standard of care that no reasonable doctor would’ve done it that way. Or said differently, any reasonable doctor would’ve done it differently.
For example, a person goes into his doctor’s office or into an emergency room and he’s got the classic symptoms of a heart attack – crushing chest pain, pain radiating down his arms, numbness in his arms and the doctor tells him to just go home and take two Aspirins and call me in the morning, that it’s probably just indigestion. And then the person goes home and dies of a heart attack.
That is the classic case of medical negligence or medical malpractice. It is so egregious that a reasonable doctor would have looked at that person and would have done some simple cardiac test that would’ve saved his life. He would not be dead if that doctor would’ve taken the most reasonable standard of care. That is the definition of medical negligence – conduct that falls below the standard of care that is so unreasonable that no reasonable doctor would do it.
I hope that helps, folks.