Medical Malpractice Action

General principles of medical malpractice action

• A physician has the duty to give the patient all available treatment options so that the patient can make an informed consent to the treatment.
• While a physician or surgeon is not a guarantor of cure it is his/her duty to exercise reasonable care and skill.
• The physician is considered negligent when he/she fails to meet the applicable professional standard of medical care. The physician or surgeon is expected to apply the skills, knowledge, and care ordinarily possessed and exercised by his/her peers acting under similar conditions and circumstances.
• The doctor’s negligence results in patient injury (treating physician breached his/her duty of care to the patient thereby causing his/her injury due to lack of knowledge and skill possessed by an average physician in the community)
• The fact that treatment of a disease or ailment had unfavorable results has little or no evidentiary weight of itself.
• A medical malpractice claimant has to prove that: 1. The treatment was below the standard of care, and 2. That there is a causal relationship between the alleged negligent treatment and the injury sustained.