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| Medical Negligence --- For Someone Who Died |
| Introduction |
Medical malpractice or negligence is a term applied to any act of the health care professional, hospital or hospital staff that has deviated from the acceptable standard practice and has caused injury to you. If you believe that the injury caused to your loved one or the one whom you are representing is because of improper medication, diagnosis or improper medical treatment, then you can claim compensation. Most states of US allow 2 years time to file a case for claim. However, if you have not filed a case within the two years from the date of treatment, then you may need to consider meeting an experienced Attorney.
You must however know a few things before you can file a malpractice action against the health care professional, doctor or hospital. In most states you have to file a “certificate of merit”.Certificate of merit is nothing but a certification by another physician that you were subjected to medical malpractice. The physician conducts tests, studies medical records and then gives the certificate of merit.This is very important, as it shows that the attorney has gone through all possible angles before filing a case.
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| The Law Says, |
In order to successfully claim compensation for ‘medical negligence’, you should be able to prove that:
(i) The doctor or other healthcare professional who gave treatment to the person who died, did not follow standard procedures and did not follow his obligations as a qualified medical professional.
(ii) His/her negligence has caused an injury to the person who died. |
You should be falling under the following categories of people to make a claim on the behalf of the deceased in the court of law. You should also fulfill certain criterion before proceeding for the claim.
The categories of people that you can fall under are:
(i) You are the personal representative of the person who died.
(ii) You being wife/husband (spouse) or a former wife/husband of the deceased.
(iii)You are the person who was living as husband or wife with the deceased (but you should have been living with him/her for a period of 2 years before she/he died).
(iv) You were either the parent or the grandparent of the person who died or even if you were treated as his/her parent.
(v) You are the child of the person who died (you can be an adopted child) or grandchild or even great-grandson/daughter, or a child of a spouse of the deceased whom the deceased treated as his/her child.
(vi) You can also claim if you were a brother, half-brother or step-brother, sister, half-sister or step-sister, uncle/aunty. |
If you can prove that medical negligence on the part of health care professional has caused the death of the person who died, you will be able to recover compensation for:
(i) Pain and suffering caused to the deceased.
(ii) The deceased lost earnings due to the death.
(iii) Funeral and medical expenses that you had to incur.
(iv) You also provided care services to the deceased who died because of the injury.
(v) You were deprived of finances that is financial losses because of the death of the person (e.g. loss of his/her future wages, pension etc).
(vi) Emotional trauma, loss of love and affection, depression because of loss of the person.
(vii) Bereavement (provided you fall within certain categories). |
| You can claim interest on your compensation. However, if the person who died was partly responsible for his/her injuries, that is she/he did not take sufficient care for his/her own safety (e.g. she/he did not take sufficient care while taking medication) or failed to comply with any obligations put by the law then your compensation could be reduced. |
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