When you suffer further illness or become injured when you receive treatment designed to make you feel better, physicians and other medical professionals will often try to explain away these conditions as being risks associated with the treatment or medical procedure.
However, this may not always be the case. If your healthcare provider’s negligence was the cause of your illness or injury, you may be entitled to financial compensation. Medical malpractice is much different from the risks of treatments you may receive when injured or ill.
Below, we go into further detail about what informed consent is; its role in the healthcare industry; and what the difference is between informed consent, treatment risks, and medical malpractice. To learn more, contact our team at Wilt and Thompson, PLLC.
When your nurse, physician, or healthcare provider is suggesting a certain treatment for a medical condition, they are obligated to inform you of the risks.
For example, if you are suffering from depression and your doctor suggests you begin taking a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), they should also let you know that there are very serious risks to medications like these, such as insomnia, mood swings, headaches, and even the development of suicidal thoughts.
Generally speaking, a healthcare provider will recommend these medications (and other treatments) only if they believe the benefits of the treatment outweigh the risks. Your consent to move forward with a prescribed treatment after having been informed of the risks is known as informed consent.
Many patients who are given any kind of treatment for any condition will experience side effects (i.e. the risks of the treatment). However, experiencing a side effect of the treatment is not the same as medical malpractice.
Medical malpractice occurs when a healthcare provider fails to uphold their duty of care. For example, if you went in to see your doctor for chest pain and they sent you home without doing any testing. If you later suffer a heart attack, you may have grounds for a medical malpractice lawsuit.
Another example of medical malpractice could be if you went to see your doctor for symptoms of depression and they failed to inform you of the risks of the medication they described, or even failed to schedule a follow-up appointment to see how the medication was working.
There are countless ways that medical malpractice can occur, but errors on the part of the healthcare provider is what sets medical malpractice cases apart from side effects and risks associated with a particular treatment option. You can further discuss your options for financial recovery with your medical malpractice lawyer.
To learn more about whether you have the right to pursue a medical malpractice lawsuit, reach out to an experienced Kentucky medical malpractice lawyer at Wilt and Thompson, PLLC. Schedule a free, no-obligation consultation when you give our office a call at 502-253-9110 or visit our website.
The legal team at Wilt and Associates, LLC , leverages the background that our attorneys and their staff have in defending doctors and insurers to benefit plaintiffs in medical malpractice and personal injury lawsuits. Wilt and Associates, LLC , represents clients across Kentucky, as well as select personal injury clients in Ohio. We will fight to earn you the settlement you deserve.... View full business profile here: Wilt and Associates, LLC
