It happens every day: a person goes in for routine surgery and ends up with a more serious problem than the one for which they had the operation. People even die during routine surgery. In fact, medical mistakes are the third leading cause of death in the United States according to a study at Johns Hopkins University. When you are injured or lose a loved one due to a medical professional’s negligence, it is only natural to want justice. However, knowing exactly who to sue is not always so clear.
Do You Sue the Doctor or the Hospital?
Generally speaking, doctors are not employees of the hospital in which they work. Most of them are considered independent contractors. If you need to sue a doctor, you must sue them or the company under which they have incorporated themselves.Â
In some cases, a doctor will be directly in charge of the people who assist them in a medical procedure. If a medical technician who was directly supervised and employed by a doctor was responsible for a mistake, you may need to sue the doctor and not the hospital.
You only want to sue the hospital If the practitioner who caused the injury or death was its employee. Nurses, assistant nurses, and technicians are generally a hospital’s employees. If an injury or death was caused by an ambulance driver, you will need to find out if the driver or EMT worked for the hospital or was an independent contractor.Â
Pinpointing Who was at Fault in a Malpractice CaseÂ
The cause of an injury or death during surgery may or may not be immediately apparent. If a doctor leaves a sponge inside of a patient, it is pretty obvious that it is the doctor’s’ fault. However, anyone from a scrub nurse to an anesthesiologist can make a fatal mistake when it comes to medical care. A contaminated surgical instrument can cause infection and subsequent fatality. Too much anesthesia can cause coma or death and too little can cause tremendous pain. Â
Any medical malpractice case will require a good deal of research. It can involve requesting both public records and hospital records. Even finding out who is employed by who can require a bit of digging.
Finding a Law Firm
If you have been injured due to medical treatment or if you have lost a loved one due to malpractice, you may not be up to doing a lot of research and you may not know where to begin. A personal injury law firm will be staffed with legal professionals who will be able to do the necessary research to build your case. They will keep apprised of laws concerning medical malpractice suits.
The lawyer that you select should have plenty of endorsements and a stellar reputation with the California State Bar. Be sure to provide your attorney with all the paperwork that you have, so they can begin to look at the evidence of malpractice and know what avenues to take in researching the causes of your injury.
The Law Offices of Elliot Kanter recommends contacting an attorney’s office staffed with experienced lawyers, paralegals, and assistants immediately after seeking medical attention following the discovery of a medical malpractice incident.
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