As far as scary two-word phrases go, medical malpractice has to be near the top. Every year, millions of Americans rely on their healthcare professionals to provide them with the care needed to fix their ailments. Our doctors, nurses and specialists went through many, many semesters of rigorous schooling, and they have years of experience practicing medicine. That’s why we trust them.
Sometimes though, even with years of schooling and experience, things still go wrong.
What Is Medical Malpractice?
To start, I want to make it clear how much I respect our country’s medical professionals for providing us with the care we need. I come from a medical family, and I know how hard our healthcare professionals work and how much they care about their patients. They provide an invaluable service to our nation. However, as with all things in life, they aren’t perfect, and mistakes are made.
Medical malpractice, also known as medical negligence, happens when a healthcare provider causes injury or even death due to a failure to uphold basic standards of care. This can be a willfully negligent act, or it can be a failure to provide reasonable and appropriate care.
An easy way to look at it for me is this:
- If you’d gone to a different doctor or specialist, would they have provided you with the same level of care?
- Would the injury still have happened if you’d receive the acceptable standards of care agreed upon by the medical community?
If the answer to these questions is no, and your injury is a direct result of negligence, you may have a medical malpractice case.
Should You Be Worried?
Medical professionals are regular people, and regular people make mistakes. Is medical malpractice an isolated issue, or is it part of a bigger problem? A recent study by researchers at the distinguished Johns Hopkins University revealed some unsettling statistics:
- More than 9% of all deaths per year in the U.S. are due to medical errors
- Medical error is the third leading cause of death in the U.S.
A number like 9% is enough to knock me off of my chair. That means that nearly 1 in 10 deaths in our country are a result of failings in the medical industry. I don’t know if I’d have ever believed that without seeing the study myself.
That’s more than 250,000 people who die from medical errors every year. With a number like that, you might imagine that it’s all we’d hear and read about in the news. You might imagine that all your friends would be talking about it and posting it on social media. Yet, it’s a topic I rarely see addressed at all. Most people have no idea how big of a problem it is in our country.
That’s why I call medical malpractice a “silent epidemic.”
Contact Brooks Law Group
If you or a loved one has been the victim of a medical professional’s negligent act, we recommend you seek out legal guidance immediately. There are strict statutes of limitation on medical malpractice in the state of Florida, so time is of the essence. At the Brooks Law Group, our staff and attorneys are dedicated to providing you with the best client experience possible. We have the experience and skills you need to seek justice in your medical malpractice case. Call our offices at 1-800-LAW-3030 or visit us online today to request your free, no obligation case evaluation. Don’t wait; start your journey to justice today!
