Medical malpractice can have devastating consequences for patients and their families. If you suspect that you or a loved one has suffered injury from medical malpractice, it’s important that you get legal representation to get the compensation you deserve. 

Medical malpractice occurs when a healthcare professional, such as a doctor, nurse, or medical institution, fails to provide a standard level of care that a reasonably skilled and competent healthcare provider would have offered in a similar situation. This negligence can lead to harm or injury to the patient, and, if proven, entitles the patient to seek compensation for damages.  

An experienced attorney can help by: 

• Establishing a doctor-patient relationship: To initiate a medical malpractice claim, you must first demonstrate that a doctor-patient relationship existed. This means that the patient must have sought the healthcare provider's services, and the provider agreed to provide treatment or care.
• Breach of standard of care: The cornerstone of any medical malpractice claim is proving a breach of the standard of care. The standard of care refers to the level of competence and skill that other healthcare providers in the same field would have applied in a similar situation. To establish this breach, expert testimony from a medical professional is often required to compare the care provided with what should have been provided under the circumstances.
• Proving harm resulting from negligence: Simply proving that the standard of care was breached is not enough; the patient must also demonstrate that the healthcare provider's negligence directly caused the injury or harm. This can be complex and may require further expert testimony to link the negligence to the patient's condition.
• Demonstrate damages: For a medical malpractice claim to be successful, the patient must show that they suffered damages due to the healthcare provider's negligence. Damages can include physical pain, emotional distress, medical expenses, lost wages, and loss of earning capacity.
• Determine statute of limitations: Massachusetts has a statute of limitations for filing medical malpractice claims. Generally, patients have three years from the date the injury occurred to bring a claim, but there are exceptions, such as cases involving foreign objects left in the body, which may allow a longer time period for filing.
• Attain compensation for damages: Massachusetts imposes caps on non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases. Non-economic damages are intangible losses like pain and suffering, emotional distress, and loss of enjoyment of life. As of the writing of this post, the non-economic damages cap is $500,000 for most cases, but certain exceptions may apply. If there is a “substantial or permanent loss or impairment of a bodily function or substantial disfigurement or other special circumstances that would warrant a finding that imposition of such limitation would deprive the plaintiff of just compensation for injuries,” the $500,000 damage cap can be exceeded. 

Contact KC Law Today 

If you wish to start a medical malpractice claim, KC Law can help. Lead attorney Kevin Chrisanthopoulos can help you get the compensation you deserve after medical malpractice. Contact KC Law today for a free consultation.