According to the Canadian Bar Association, medical care providers owe patients a legal duty to give proper medical care or suffer the consequences. Physicians do have the legal right to accept or refuse treatment of a patient due to disagreements in treatment methods or for personal reasons. However, once a doctor takes on a patient, he or she can be sued for medical malpractice if he or she fails to give patients a certain level of care. Medical malpractice suits result from two factors: 1) negligence and 2) failure to get a patient’s informed consent for treatment.
Negligence and Your Ottawa Medical Malpractice Lawsuit
Negligence means that a doctor or other healthcare provider failed to give a patient the standard of care that any other qualified doctor would give under similar circumstances. If a doctor’s negligence causes illness or injury, then that doctor or healthcare provider can be held liable for that illness or injury in the form of financial penalties, or in severe instances, a loss of licence. When a doctor is clearly wrong in his or her diagnose or treatment that causes you harm, you may be entitled to compensation. In such a case, you’ll want to file a medical malpractice lawsuit.
Not all injuries that result from a doctor’s actions are eligible for the filing of a medical malpractice suit. For instance, if your doctor took all the necessary precautions when diagnosing and treating you and followed standard procedures, but was wrong, you cannot just arbitrarily sue him or her for damages. It is possible for a doctor to exercise proper, standard medical care, make a mistake and cause a patient damage. If a reasonable doctor would have made the same call, you probably won’t win a medical malpractice case.
The standard of care provision for medical malpractice suits varies from place to place, by level of specialty as well as experience. It also varies by time as today’s standard may not be the same as tomorrow’s, when treatment methods or technology have improved. The community and its standards
dictate the standard of care that is legally relevant.
Basically, where medical malpractice is concerned, not every bad result or mistake can be categorised as negligence. A doctor or healthcare provider may do everything right and yet injury still occurs. If you do have a provable medical malpractice case, you have the right to ask the court to award you:
- Medical exposes
- Lost wages
- Pain and suffering
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Future attendant care needs
Informed Consent and Your Medical Malpractice Lawsuit
Doctors are required to tell you the specifics of your medical condition, the type of treatment proposed, treatment risks, and treatment options available for your condition. You then are required to consent to the treatment your doctor has suggested before he or she can treat you. Once your doctor informs you of the risks of your treatment, you have the option to either decline or accept that treatment. If your doctor fails to give you all the risk information about your treatment and you are injured as a result, that failure can result in a medical malpractice lawsuit. However, this only holds true if the failure of informing you actually is the cause of your medical problem. Even if a doctor does not supply you with all the information about a certain treatment, he or she may not be liable if you agreed to the treatment regardless of the outcome.
Contact a Qualified Ottawa Medical Malpractice Lawyer about Your Medical Malpractice Case
You need to be careful when accusing a doctor or healthcare professional of medical malpractice. If you think you may have suffered injuries as the result of medical malpractice, consult with an experienced Ottawa medical malpractice lawyer to determine if your case is a viable one.
