When an individual has a stroke, there may be an underlying medical malpractice claim against the physician or hospital if the individual’s stroke was due to a deviation from the standard of medical practice.
What is a Stroke?
A stroke occurs where blood clots block the arteries or breaks blood vessels which interrupt the blood flow to the brain. As a result, brain cells die, which causes brain damage to occur.
Hospital Liability
When a patient is admitted to a hospital to receive medical care, all licensed medical professionals at the hospital have a legal duty to provide appropriate medical diagnosis and care. Failure to provide this care or a deviation from this legal duty which results in an injury, such as a stroke, can provide the basis for a medical malpractice lawsuit. Strokes can be due to any of the following:
- physician failure to diagnose the stroke
- physician/hospital failure to treat the symptoms of a stroke
- delay in treating patient
- failure to monitor a patient
- premature discharge of a patient
Prerequisites to Lawsuits
It is important to recognize that some jurisdictions require certain prerequisites to the filing of a medical malpractice claim. When dealing with a public hospital, it may be necessary to file a “Notice of Claim,” which is a statutorily-required notice of one’s intent to file a lawsuit against the medical provider. The notice must be filed within a certain time period. A failure to file the notice can result in the inability to pursue a lawsuit. Moreover, some jurisdictions require a medical professional certification that an injury was due to negligence or a departure from the standard of medical care is necessary in order to assert a medical malpractice lawsuit. If one fails to provide this certification prior to filing a lawsuit, one is automatically unable to assert a medical malpractice case.
Types of Damages in a Hospital Liability Suit
In the event that a hospital is found liable in a medical malpractice case for a stroke, the patient or patient’s representative may be able to obtain a wide range of damages. These may include:
- compensatory damages (to compensate the victim)
- punitive damages (to punish and deter the wrongdoer)
- pain and suffering
- loss of enjoyment of life
- loss of future income
- loss of employment
- medical bills
How an Attorney Can Help
Medical malpractice cases are complex. Therefore, one should retain the services of an experienced medical malpractice attorney who has handled litigation involving hospitals in the past. An experienced hospital medical malpractice attorney can review the case and the circumstances affiliated with the matter in order to determine whether one is entitled to compensation for the injury. Moreover, an experienced attorney will have the expertise and resources to pursue the lawsuit on one’s behalf, while easily negotiating the complexities of the matter.
