Maryland Medical Misdiagnosis Lawyer
The following is information on medial misdiagnosis cases and how they differ from other types of medical malpractice claims. If you think you may have been misdiagnosed and have been harmed as a result, call today and schedule a consultation with a Maryland medical malpractice lawyer to discuss your claim.
What Makes Misdiagnosis Cases Unique?
The misdiagnosis part of it is the idea that the doctor either should have known or should have acted in a certain way, but didn’t. Doctors are trained to perform a differential diagnosis to rule out certain possibilities before landing on a conclusion.
So in this case, you’re relying on the conventional medical wisdom that if you see something occur, then you’re supposed to take the proper steps, and the doctor should take those proper steps.
That makes it more complicated because you don’t know how the doctor has taken these proper steps, in solving the problem.
So that makes it a very complex kind of case as well compared to other medical malpractice cases. However, there is a great body of knowledge about what proper steps to take in a certain situations. And so, if the doctor truly didn’t act in accordance with his duties, then that’s a cause for medical malpractice.
Many of these cases boil down to the surrounding circumstances the doctor’s decisions were made in.
What Are The Harms in Misdiagnosis Cases?
The harm is that a small problem can grow much bigger and can lead to severe, lasting and permanent injuries and potentially death, if they are not taken care of at the optimum time.
And that can cause harm that can serve as a basis for a medical malpractice claim against these doctors who fail to do what they’re supposed to do, who fail to exercise the level of skill and care that they should utilize in those situations.
What Should People Know About The Process of How These Types Of Cases Work?
Well, medical malpractice cases in Maryland, which includes misdiagnosis cases, are very complex, are very hard fought, and are contested each step of the way by the doctors. Typically, they do not want to settle these cases unless it’s absolutely clear that that doctor made a mistake because they want to protect their reputation.
They want to protect their insurance premiums; they want to protect their ability to get future employment, either at a hospital or at a doctor’s office or get privileges in the hospital. So they’ll try and fight like hell to get these cases to trial.
And so it’s a long battle, it’s a hard battle. But the battle can be won in the end if the damages are there and the liability is there, then, the compensation that they can receive can be great.
How Are Damages Calculated In Maryland Medical Malpractice Cases?
Well, if a cause of action arose after January 1st of 2015, there’s a cap on the non-economic damages portion of medical malpractice cases in the state of Maryland. Except for wrongful death actions, the non-economic portion of the case or in other words, the pain and suffering portion of the cases is capped at $750,000.
If there is a wrongful death with two or more beneficiaries combined with the medical malpractice cause of action, the cap on damages rises to $943,750, keeping in mind that this is a total cap on the non economic portion of the damages. Your economic damages remained uncapped.
And in total, your case could exceed the amount of the capped damages. Now, the difference in non-economic and economic is that the economic damages are things that you can actually calculate such as your lost medical expenses, your lost income, your future medical expenses, your future lost income.
So those remain uncapped and remain a component in every damages case along with the non economic damages.