YOUR INJURY ATTORNEYS IN THE NEWS: MALPRACTICE LED TO INJURY INSTEAD OF HOPED-FOR HEALING

It might be said that medical malpractice is one of the saddest categories of the law, because it involves injury and suffering that happened when what was hoped for was – help and healing…

Lawsuits may be filed against doctors, nurses, anesthesiologists, healthcare facilities, pharmaceutical companies, and others who provide healthcare services. When a hospital’s employee injures a patient, the hospital itself may be held liable. That’s why, when earlier this month, the law firm of Ramey & Hailey filed a proposed medical malpractice complaint with the Indiana Department of Insurance, three individual medical practitioners, one hospital, and one healthcare organization were all named as having helped bring about the sad, sad result of S.C.’s loss of an eye.

In order to sue a medical professional for negligence, you must follow certain medical malpractice rules. Here in the state of Indiana, for example, you must start the lawsuit within two years of when the medical malpractice was committed. What’s more, if you’re suing for more than $15,000, the complaint must first be submitted to a medical malpractice review panel before it can proceed to court.

Some interesting and relevant facts to know about medical malpractice in our state:

• Back in 1975, Indiana became the first state in the United States to pass medical malpractice reform legislation.
• Last year, the state raised the cap on the amount injured patients can collect.  The cap, now $1.65 million, will again be raised in 2019.
• The Indiana Medical Malpractice Act dictates that any claim from the Patients’ Compensation Fund must be paid to a plaintiff within 60 days of a final judgment or settlement approval.

Medical malpractice occurs when a health-care provider deviates from the recognized “standard of care” in the treatment of a patient (which means what a reasonably prudent medical provider would or would not have done under the same or similar circumstances).

In any personal injury lawsuit, “pain and suffering” will be calculated, measuring the amount of medical bills incurred (and which are likely to be needed in the future), earnings lost so far(and those anticipated to be lost in the future), and loss and pain caused to family members.

But can pain and suffering really be “calculated”?  Imagine this patient, who, due to a misdiagnosed and mistreated eye infection, ended up losing her right eye. S.C. suffered permanent and life-changing injury because the medical treatment she was given fell below the accepted standard of care….