Blog

A controversial study by Johns Hopkins University concluded that medical errors are the third-leading cause of death in the U.S., killing over 250,000 patients annually. A later study by the same university concluded that as many as 795,000 patients are killed or permanently disabled annually by diagnostic mistakes. 

Even if these statistics overestimate the number of deaths and permanent injuries arising from medical errors, they still highlight the scope of the problem. Doctors, dentists, nurses, hospitals, and other healthcare providers are imperfect, and their mistakes can cause irreparable harm. 

New York law allows injured patients to seek compensation for injuries caused by malpractice. To win or settle a claim, you and your medical malpractice attorney must prove the healthcare provider acted negligently or intentionally in harming you. Your proof often includes evidence such as records, communications, and other documents. 

Medical Malpractice in New York 

Medical malpractice often involves battery or professional negligence. Battery occurs when the medical professional intends to cause harmful contact. This is rare because a doctor usually has good intentions even if they end up injuring you. Battery usually only arises in cases involving sexual assault or physical abuse. 

Negligence is a more useful legal tool because your malpractice lawyer does not need to prove the healthcare provider intended your injury. Instead, they only need to show that your injuries resulted from the provider’s failure to meet the professional standard of care. More specifically, your lawyer must prove the following four elements: 

• Duty of care 
• Breach of the duty 
• Causation 
• Losses 

The duty of care is established by the doctor-patient relationship. Once your doctor accepts you for treatment and you agree to receive treatment, the doctor has a legal duty to provide reasonably competent, skilled, and knowledgeable medical care. 

The provider breaches the duty of care by failing to meet the standard of care. This breach can take many different forms, including: 

• Misdiagnosis 
• Unskilled or incompetent treatment 
• A failure to explain a procedure or its possible side effects 
• Mixed-up records 
• Incorrect drug prescription or administration 
• Erroneous laboratory results 

The healthcare provider does not need to be perfect to meet the standard of care. Instead, the standard only requires providers to avoid doing anything they know or should know will create an unreasonable risk of harm to the patient. 

If your lawyer proves that the provider breached the professional duty of care, they must also prove the breach caused your losses. Thus, a doctor may try to blame your injuries on your medical problems and not their errors. To prove liability, your lawyer must show your injury was a natural and foreseeable result of the doctor’s mistake. 

Documents Used to Support a Medical Malpractice Claim 

Documentary evidence can help your attorney prove each of the four elements of a medical malpractice claim. Specifically, you should retain the following documents for use in your case: 

Duty of Care 

Keep any documents provided by the healthcare provider’s office when you became a patient. Moreover, get a copy of your medical records from the provider’s staff. These documents will prove the existence of the provider-patient relationship. They will also show that you were still a patient when the error occurred. 

Breach of Duty 

Your medical records should show what happened. You may also need your medical records from subsequent doctors who diagnosed the injury caused by the first provider. 

If your case asserts that your healthcare provider failed to warn you of the risks or side effects of the treatment, you should provide any materials provided by the doctor to educate you about it. 

Causation 

Again, the most persuasive evidence of causation might come from your medical records. The records will include your doctor’s notes. These notes will often describe what happened.  

This description will either admit the link between the doctor’s actions and your injury or provide a starting point for an expert witness to analyze and establish the causal link. 

Losses 

An insurer or jury can only compensate for economic losses supported by evidence. You prove these losses using financial records, including: 

• Medical bills for treatment to remedy the injury caused by malpractice 
• Physical and mental therapy bills 
• Wage records showing the income you lost due to your injuries 
• Receipts and statements showing your out-of-pocket expenses for your injuries 

You can use your medical records to show any future treatment or therapy you will need. 

Contact Us for Help Documenting Your Case 

One of the most important roles of an injury lawyer is to help you understand and document your case. Silberstein, Awad & Miklos has successfully recovered over $1 billion in financial compensation for our clients. Contact us for a free consultation to discuss your case and the evidence we will use to support it.