

Mistakes made with the administration of anesthesia.Using the wrong medication or the wrong dosage.Not warning a patient of the risks of a procedure or type of treatment.Failure to follow up after treatment or care, or poor or inadequate follow up.Errors made during surgery or performing unnecessary surgery.Misdiagnosing a patient, which can lead to improper treatment.Failure to diagnose a condition, which results in a lack of treatment.

There are nearly endless examples of what constitutes medical malpractice, but there are some general types that are more common or that are more likely to occur: For example, negligence may have caused chronic pain, death, mental anguish, expensive additional medical bills, or an inability to go back to work and earn a living. There must be some specific and significant damage caused to the patient if all the above elements are proven.

For instance, if a patient dies of cancer, the family may believe that the medical team was negligent in some way, but it can be difficult to determine whether it was the cancer or negligence that led to the death.
DEFINE BREACH OF DUTY HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONAL
This can also be tricky to prove, as the professional actions or negligence have to be separated from the illness or injury the patient already had. A case of malpractice only exists if that breach of duty leads to an injury or some other type of harm in the patient. A professional duty to provide certain standards of care doesn’t necessarily mean the best care, but it must be reasonable and competent. Defining standards of care can be tricky, but in a malpractice case it must be shown that a medical professional violated these standards resulting in a breach of their professional duty to the patient. A breach of duty occurs in the context of standards of care. This is easy to prove in most cases, as the relationship is assumed as soon as a patient comes under the care of a medical professional. This shows that there was a legal duty on the part of the professionals to provide reasonable care. First it has to be established that there was a professional, medical relationship between the patient and the individual or team accused of malpractice.

In other words, when a doctor or other caregiver makes a mistake or fails to provide the right care, a patient can be harmed or even killed, and this is medical malpractice. Medical malpractice occurs when a patient is harmed and suffers as a result of a professional medical caregiver failing to provide care that measures up to accepted standards of care.
