Medical Malpractice

Reinhardt | Harper | Davis handles all sorts of complex and catastrophic injury claims in Virginia, including those related to medical malpractice. Holding a medical institution or practitioner liable for a serious mistake is difficult due to rules and legislation that often protect them from accountability.

Thanks to our extensive legal experience and insight, though, we know the right steps to build a case that can stand up to the defense’s tactics and the court’s scrutiny. If you were hurt due to a medical professional’s mistakes, do not start your case without first talking to our team.

You can schedule a free consultationwith our firm. Call (804) 294-2966 now.

Forms of Medical Malpractice

Medical malpractice can take many forms, depending on what the medical provider did wrong while treating a patient. Our firm can work on medical malpractice cases of all sorts. If something went wrong and you were hurt because of it, then we want to know about it to see if we can help.

Five common forms of medical malpractice include:

• Misdiagnosis: A doctor who does not correctly diagnose a patient’s condition can put that patient at risk of suffering worsened symptoms. Misdiagnosis can be considered a form of medical malpractice if the doctor did not use all available diagnostic tools that another reasonable doctor would have used in the same situation.
• Failure to diagnose: Failing to diagnose a patient’s condition at all or taking too long to reach a diagnosis can be just as harmful as diagnosing a condition incorrectly. Again, a doctor has a responsibility to use the correct diagnostic methods to find out what is wrong with their patients.
• Surgical errors: In the operating room, surgeons and their assistants must act with the utmost care to ensure even minor surgeries go as planned. Common surgical errors include operating on the wrong body part, damaging adjacent organs and tissues, and leaving medical instruments inside the patient’s body.
• Birth injuries: When an injury or illness afflicts a newborn or a developing child, it is a birth injury. In many cases, birth injuries are entirely preventable if the medical team assisting the pregnant mother follows accepted medical standards.
• Unsafe prescriptions: Doctors must carefully prescribe medicines to their patients based on each patient’s medical history, needs, allergies, and so on. If a doctor does not thoroughly check how a prescription could affect the patient’s health and that patient suffers unsafe side effects, then it could constitute medical malpractice.

How Medical Malpractice Happens

Medical malpractice can happen for many different reasons. Knowing the precise reason for your case is important for proving liability. Let us investigate your case to determine what went wrong and if it could have been avoided with more care.

Medical malpractice can happen for these reasons and more:

• Miscommunication: Medical practitioners need clear internal communications to deliver the best possible medical care. A miscommunication that seems simple on paper can create devastating consequences for the patient.
• Patient misidentification: Mixing up patient medical records practically ensures that neither patient will be correctly treated, putting them both in danger.
• Inadequate experience: Like any professional, medical practitioners need ample experience to perform complicated procedures and tasks. A lack of experience can be the direct cause of a mistake that results in a patient’s injury.
• Negligence: Commonplace negligence can be a serious issue in the medical field because patients rely entirely on their physicians for important care.

Important Elements to a Medical Malpractice Claim

A medical malpractice case that is legally valid will include these four elements:

• Duty: The medical provider must have owed a duty of care to the patient, which is usually established through a doctor-patient relationship.
• Breach: The medical provider must have done something incorrect that breached the duty of care owed to the patient. Typically, this breach must be something that another reasonable medical provider would have not done in the same circumstances.
• Injury: The breach of duty must have caused the patient to suffer an injury or have failed to prevent a condition from worsening.
• Damages: The injury, illness, or condition must have caused the patient to experience damage of some sort, like financial loss or physical suffering.

Building a Strong Medical Malpractice Claim

Clear evidence is useful in any personal injury case, but it is an absolute necessity in a medical malpractice case. The defense will fight every argument you bring, no matter how logical. With strong evidence at the ready, we will be ready to challenge their efforts at every step.

Two important types of evidence to use in a medical malpractice claim are:

• Medical records: The notes in your medical record can be the best source of evidence that something went wrong with your treatments. If you are not sure how to get a copy of your medical records, we would be happy to help you and use those records to your advantage.
• Expert testimony: A court might not accept your medical malpractice case unless it is backed by expert testimony from a third-party medical professional. We can network with medical professionals throughout Virginia and beyond to get your case ready for anything.

Make Your Claim with Our Law Firm

We should discuss your medical malpractice case before any more time passes and while the details of what happened are fresh in your mind. Please call (804) 294-2966 to connect with our Virginia medical malpractice attorneys. We would be happy to schedule a no-cost, no-obligation initial consultation that fits your calendar.

Medical Malpractice FAQ

• What damages can you get from a medical malpractice claim?
  You can likely seek damages related to all past and future medical expenses that you have paid yourself, including the costs for the medical care that went wrong. You might also be able to demand compensation for your lost wages, reduced enjoyment of life, pain, and suffering.
• Is a bad outcome the same as medical malpractice?
  Most people have a story about how they received medical care that felt substandard or resulted in a bad outcome. However, it is not medical malpractice just because a treatment plan did not produce the desired results. The medical provider must have done something incorrectly or unsafe for it to be medical malpractice.
• What is informed consent?
  Before any procedure or treatment, including something as simple as prescribing medicine, a patient must be given informed consent. In medical and legal terms, informed consent means that the patient is given enough information about the recommended treatment to confidently agree to it or not. Information given to the patient to establish informed consent should include benefits, risks, aftercare, alternatives, and so on. If a patient is hurt due to a failed treatment and they did not get a chance to give informed consent, then medical malpractice may have occurred.
• Can I sue a hospital for a doctor’s mistakes?
  Some medical malpractice cases name a hospital or clinic as a defendant, as well as the medical provider who was practicing there. This situation is somewhat uncommon, though, as hospitals often have liability protections that distance them from individual physicians.
• Is there a medical malpractice damage cap in Virginia?
  As of July 1, 2022, Virginia has a $2.5 million damage cap on medical malpractice verdicts when regarding non-economic or general damages. This amount adjusts upward each year.