HEALTHCARE EXPERT: Seattle, WA
When you visit a doctor or hospital for care, you expect that the doctors and nurses will treat you in accordance with accepted medical practices. When a doctor fails to do so and you are injured or killed, you have grounds for a Seattle medical malpractice lawsuit. A skilled Seattle healthcare malpractice lawyer could help you recover compensation for your damages.
Mistakes in the hospital are common, but not all mistakes rise to the level of professional negligence that can support a claim for compensation. For a claim to succeed, you must prove that the healthcare provider deviated from the standard of care in your case, which requires the testimony of a medical expert witness.
What is the Standard of Care in a Medical Malpractice Case?
The standard of care in a Seattle Healthcare Malpractice Expert case is the degree of skill and learning that a reasonably prudent healthcare provider in the same or similar profession would have exercised under the same or similar circumstances. The standard of care applies to the diagnosis and treatment of your injury, as well as other aspects of the healthcare provider’s service.
To establish the standard of care in a medical malpractice claim, your attorney could call upon medical experts to testify about the accepted treatments for your condition under the circumstances. These experts can also provide evidence that the healthcare provider departed from the standard of care, and that this departure was the cause of your injuries.
Diagnosis is one of the most common forms of medical malpractice. A Seattle healthcare malpractice attorney could use expert witnesses to testify about the accepted diagnostic procedures for your injury, and how your doctor departed from these standards of care. Your attorney could also look at your medical records to see if the healthcare provider had previously been cited for other incidents of malpractice in the past.
A physician can sometimes make a mistake in the operating room. For example, they might forget to put a sponge in during surgery. If the wrong sponge is left inside you, it can lead to complications that require additional surgeries and prolonged recovery periods. If you believe your health care provider made a mistake in the operating room, it’s important to contact a Seattle healthcare malpractice expert as soon as possible.
Damages in a Medical Malpractice Case
A successful Seattle healthcare malpractice lawsuit could result in compensation for your medical expenses, physical and emotional harm, lost income and future earnings, loss of consortium, and other damages. An experienced Seattle medical malpractice lawyer could help you gather the necessary documentation to support your claim. This could include medical bills, second opinions from independent healthcare professionals, and any foreign objects removed from your body after the surgery. A qualified Seattle medical malpractice attorney could also report the malpractice to the Washington Department of Health and/or the Washington Medical Commission. This creates an official record of the malpractice and may strengthen your case.