What Is an Example of Medical Malpractice?
For example, if you did not receive an adequate level of care, but you were not injured and did not suffer any damages, you cannot bring a claim. Similarly, if your condition worsened after receiving treatment, but the doctor who treated you did everything that any other qualified medical provider would have done in his or her attempts to treat your condition, you do not have grounds for a claim.
However, if you were not provided the same level of treatment and care that you could have reasonably expected another doctor or health care provider to offer and, as a result, you were injured or suffered complications that led to additional medical treatments, costs, and other damages, you likely have grounds to bring a medical malpractice claim. Contact Todd Miner Law®️ today to discuss your situation at no cost.
What are Florida Medical Malpractice Statutes of Limitation?
Florida has a time limit of two years to file a claim for medical malpractice or you may lose your right to compensation, this is referred to as the statute of limitations. Florida allows several exceptions to this two year rule, the first being the discovery rule. If an injury is not discovered at the time of injury you have two years from the date of discovery or date the injury should have reasonably been discovered to file a claim. There is a four year deadline from the time of the injury to file a claim no matter when the injury was discovered.
The second exception is if the injury victim was under the age of eight at the time of injury. In this case you have until the child’s eighth birthday to file a claim. The last exception is if the injury was intentionally hidden from you by way of some sort of fraud. In this situation you have two years from the date of discovery or date the injury should have been reasonably discovered with an overarching cap of seven years to file a claim no matter when the injury was discovered.
What Qualifies as Medical Malpractice?
Doctors, nurses, and other health care providers are human and, like anyone else, they can make mistakes. Unfortunately, medical mistakes tend to have very serious implications. However, that doesn’t mean that every mistake made by a health care provider constitutes medical malpractice. You cannot hold a doctor legally liable just because they did not successfully cure your condition; in fact, the law is very specific as to what qualifies as medical malpractice.
In short, medical malpractice occurs when a doctor, nurse, or another health care provider causes injury to a patient or someone to whom the medical provider owed a duty of care through a negligent act or omission.
Further, for an act or event to be considered medical malpractice, it must have all of the following elements:
- The Medical Provider Owed the Plaintiff a Duty of Care: Typically, this is established by showing that a doctor-patient relationship existed; health care providers are presumed to owe a duty of care to anyone they see and/or treat.
- The Medical Provider Failed to Provide a Standard Duty of Care: This means that the health care provider in question did not provide the same level of care that one could reasonably expect another qualified medical professional to provide.
- As a Result of This Failure, the Plaintiff Sustained Damages: This means that you were affected by the medical provider’s failure to uphold the standard duty of care, meaning you were injured or suffered a worsened condition, leading to measurable damages.
You will need to prove all of these elements if you wish to bring a medical malpractice claim against a negligent health care provider. For example, if you did not receive an adequate level of care, but you were not injured and did not suffer any damages, you cannot bring a claim. Similarly, if your condition worsened after receiving treatment, but the doctor who treated you did everything that any other qualified medical provider would have done in his or her attempts to treat your condition, you do not have grounds for a claim.
However, if you were not provided the same level of treatment and care that you could have reasonably expected another doctor or health care provider to offer and, as a result, you were injured or suffered complications that led to additional medical treatments, costs, and other damages, you likely have grounds to bring a medical malpractice claim. Contact Todd Miner Law®️ today to discuss your situation at no cost.
What Damages Can I Recover in a Medical Malpractice Case?
There are three main categories of damages or compensation an injury victim can pursue after suffering an injury which is economic, non-economic, or punitive. Economic damages compensate for the financial losses associated with an injury such as medical bills, future medical expenses and the inability to work.
Non-economic damages, as the name suggests, compensates for the abstract losses and injury victims face, such as pain and suffering, mental anguish, and emotional distress. Since non-economic damages compensate for losses intangible by nature, they are also called general damages. Florida does place a cap or limit on the amount of non-economic damages that can be awarded. An experienced attorney from our firm can let you know how these laws may affect your case.
The last category, punitive damages, is different from economic and non-economic damages in that it’s main purpose is to punish the defendant. As such, punitive damages are not often awarded and are usually reserved for cases where the negligent party knew their actions would cause harm but did them anyway.