A patient must often demonstrate three fundamental aspects in order to succeed in a medical negligence claim. A doctor-patient connection must be present, there must be carelessness on the part of the doctor when administering care, and there must be an actual injury to the patient as a result of that negligence. You may consult a personal injury lawyer in Grand Prairie for a better understanding.
How recently did the event happen? It is typically essential to employ an expert medical witness with knowledge of the surgery or health condition in question and connections to the local medical community in order to demonstrate carelessness.
The role of the medical expert in proving the negligence of a healthcare practitioner is to persuade the jury of two things:
• the particular responsibility (the medical standard of care) due to the patient
• how the defendant doctor violated that duty.
The Standard of Care’s Proof
The benchmark by which a medical malpractice defendant’s actions are judged is the “medical standard of care.” Simply defined, a doctor has a legal obligation to treat a patient with the same caliber of treatment they themselves would get if they were similarly educated and skilled healthcare professionals.
The first task of an expert medical witness is to demonstrate what the “standard of care” would be in the situation that gave rise to the claimed misconduct. What would a responsible healthcare practitioner, with the defendant’s level of education and training, and within the same medical community, have done in the given situation? What medical conditions would have been taken into account, recognized, and treated? Which line of action for the patient’s care would have been decided?
There may be statutes that specify who can testify as a medical expert in a malpractice case or what sort of expert must provide first expert testimony regarding the viability of a medical malpractice claim.
Providing Evidence of a Care Standard Violation
The defendant’s actions (or inaction) in relation to the medical standard of care will next be discussed by the plaintiff’s expert medical witness. This might include everything from failing to correctly identify a particular ailment to making physical errors during surgery or another medical operation, and everything in between.
Expert witnesses engaged by both sides of the case will review every element of the case, including the plaintiff’s medical records. Each party will make a thorough and in-depth case for how exactly the defendant doctor’s delivery of medical treatment either fell short of or met that standard. It is not easy to prove medical negligence and that is why consulting with an injury lawyer that specializes in this arena becomes important.