Neurosurgery is an extremely complicated field of medicine and yet there have been instances of neurosurgeons engaging in an act of medical malpractice as completely uncomplicated as operating on the wrong site, the wrong side of a patient’s brain, causing a wrongful patient death. There is no area of medicine that is exempt from instances of professional negligence. Even a brain surgeon can make a mistake or fail to monitor a patient or other negligent act the only problem is that is a brain surgeon makes an error the result is irreparable and devastating to his patient.
Elements of a Malpractice Claim
All medical malpractice claims require essentially the same basic elements for an actionable instance of medical malpractice to exist.
- A duty of care was owed the patient by the physician or healthcare provider
- Physican duty of care was breached by his failure to conform to the standard of medical care required and used by competent physicians in that same area of medicine
- The breach of the standard of care must be shown by expert testimony, or in the case of obvious errors such as an act involving, “res ipsa loquitur,” the negligent act by the physician speaks for itself without need for expert testimony.
- The breach of duty caused either a direct injury or was the proximate cause of an injury to the patient.
- Damages
When trying to establish that a patient has been the victim of medical malpractice it may be important to collect medical evidence that surgically implanted devices were installed improperly or that the patient was never offered life saving diagnostic testing, or that a deadly brain tumor went undiagnosed and untreated in spite of the brain surgeon’s best efforts to diagnose and treat obvious brain malady related symptoms.
Getting Legal Help
The best option for any patient or family of a patient that has suffered a severe brain injury due to the improper surgical care and treatment of a brain surgeon is to contact a medical malpractice attorney as soon as possible. The attorney can review the circumstances of the surgery and the injury and determine if an actionable instance of professional negligence exists and then take the steps to protect the injured patient’s rights.
