How to proceed? How to report? How to process? What to do in case of medical or hospital error? These questions and the number of lawsuits for medical or hospital errors have increased exponentially in the last five years. And this is due to access to information and guidance on medical error and the right to civil compensation for damage by the population, disseminated by the most varied means of communication, civil society actors, and consumer-patient defense bodies.
However, caution must be exercised in seeking protection of the right before the judiciary, which has received actions called medical malpractice, which in its genesis is not always a medical error. Alongside this reasoning, we must say that not every act of the doctor or hospital causes medical or hospital errors. Therefore, it is essential to prove all the assumptions of civil liability so that the right to compensation arises.
The legal answers or solutions to those questions require a deep and careful study of the circumstances of the specific case by the lawyer. Therefore, as you can see, it is an arduous task for the right operator.
We dare to say this since acting in Medical Law requires the lawyer such as Jacob Fuchsberg Law Firm for example to have the necessary expertise in the specific area of substantive law, from customer orientation, preparation of the Initial Petition, adapting the medical act or illicit act to the law and the law, activity evidence, until the last act of the process.
However, the right to indemnity is conditioned to proof of harmful damage, without which the unlawful act – guilt – is not relevant. Likewise, the causal link is an indispensable element in analyzing the institute of civil liability, notably in hypotheses of alleged medical or hospital error. For, if the conduct of the doctor or hospital was not the cause [causation link] of the patient’s damage, the patient will not be entitled to civil compensation. Learn more on Can I Sue for Foreign Objects Left in the Body here.
The cause is considered the action or omission without which the result would not have occurred. Verifying this rule in the practical case of medical e is difficult. Therefore, the following exercise can be carried out: the cause is everything that, if mentally withdrawing the conduct of the doctor or hospital and with it the result disappears, then we would be facing the error. But, as said, even so, it will be essential to analyze the peculiarities of the practical case and the patient’s conditions.
Returning to the point related to guilt in a broad sense, based on those devices, especially the rule set out in the Code of Medical Ethics, according to which “Medical responsibility is always personal and cannot be presumed.” The damage to be compensated or punished must be caused by action or omission through malpractice, imprudence, or negligence.
