Causation
A medical professional may have been negligent in providing care to a patient,
but sometimes that negligence is not the cause of the injury suffered by a
patient. Because the law requires a connection between fault and injury, not all
instances of birth injury allow for an award of damages. Determining
causation in birth injury cases often is very complicated and usually
requires the assistance of expert witnesses.
Expert witnesses are usually required in birth injury cases to establish
the standard of medical care in the geographical area or in the area of medical
specialty at issue. In addition, expert testimony is required to establish that
the birth injury caused the patient's injuries, unless the cause is obvious to a
layperson.
In many cases, the cause of injury is less clear, and can be spread among many
health care providers. For example, a patient may be treated by a number of
doctors, nurses, and medical technicians in the course of a hospital stay.
Determining which of these practitioners may have been negligent, and how that
negligence may have caused a patient's injury, can be extremely complex. The
first doctor may have incorrectly diagnosed a patient, but a subsequent doctor
may have been negligent in failing to correct the diagnosis. A subsequent
series of mishaps in the operating room, each by a different technician, may
require naming each technician as a defendant because each mishap contributed to
the injury. Additional injury may have been caused by the use of a defective
medical device or drug, or the negligence of an operating room doctor. In such
cases, experts are needed to determine the cause of injury in light of the
unfortunate sequence of events.
In birth injury cases it is essential that measures be taken promptly to
preserve evidence, review the medical procedures in question, and to enable
physicians or other expert witnesses to thoroughly evaluate the birth record and
injuries. If you or a loved one is a victim of birth injury, call Buchanan & Buchanan, P.L.C.
now at (616) 458-2464 or Toll Free: (800) 272-4080 or CLICK
HERE TO SUBMIT A SIMPLE CASE FORM. The initial consultation is free of
charge, and if we agree to accept your case, we will work on a contingent fee
basis, which means we get paid for our services only if there is a monetary
award or recovery of funds. Don’t delay! You may have a valid claim and be
entitled to compensation for your injuries, but a lawsuit must be filed before
the statute of limitations expires.
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