Doctors earn a tremendous amount of respect for what they do every day because it is so difficult. They literally hold the lives of many of their patients in their hands, and as such, they need to make the difficult decisions in order to save them. However, often these aren’t simple or even easy decisions. One wrong choice could mean that your loved one passes away, and for many, the first look to the doctor that treated them. Sometimes these things just happen, your doctor could have made all the right choices, but they just couldn’t save them. However, what do you do if you discover that your doctor may have been responsible for what is now a “wrongful” death because of their actions.
Wrongful death and medical malpractice cases against doctors are difficult. Often the family of someone who passed away just wants to accept that a doctor provided the best possible care, but that doesn’t mean it was the right care. Doctors have an ethical responsibility to abide to a certain standard of care set by medical standards. This means that any other doctor would have taken the same actions if faced with the same situation. If your doctor chose more risky behavior and that resulted in death, then this transcends the hard decision making that a doctor does each day and drifts into the realms of medical malpractice and wrongful death.
Similarly, if your doctor chose to take no action in situations where there is a clear standard that would have dictated that they take action in terms of treatment, this can also be considered medical malpractice. This also includes testing that might have uncovered an underlying condition that was responsible for their passing. However, these cases can be a little bit more difficult to prove depending on the symptoms displayed in your loved one before their passing.
Unfortunately, the burden of proving a doctor’s wrongful actions or inaction lies with you and your lawyer. As medical malpractice and wrongful death suits are often expensive, and at times can completely ruin an entire hospital, you can be sure that you will be met with much push-back on the issue. Hospital administrators will “circle the wagons” so to speak not so much to protect the doctor in question, but in an effort to protect the entire hospital for what could be a expensive lawsuit. For this reason, if you suspect medical malpractice and wrongful death, it is crucial you get in contact with a lawyer quickly in order begin your case and gather evidence before the hospital can decide on how to explain it away.
One of the most crucial tools in these sort of lawsuits is to gather evidence on the treatment that your loved on received, and then seeking out expert witnesses on the issue. If a respected medical official can attest that the care that the doctor provided was not in line with the standards of care that they or any other doctor would have taken, then it will serve as the best possible proof for your case.
If you have lost a loved one and believe that their doctor’s care was suspect, contact us today. The Law Office of Swor & Gatto knows how painful wrongful death cases can be, especially when it comes to investigating them and finding out that the doctor you trusted with their care may have been responsible. Let us look into the case to see if the care provided by their doctor was more reckless than beyond simply making medical decisions. We can help make sure that your loved one’s wrongful death as the result of medical malpractice gets the justice that they deserve.