Massachusetts Personal Injury Library
Anesthesia Errors Due to Negligence (Part A)
When you’re recovering from surgery, anesthesia errors might not be immediately apparent, especially if the effects build over the long term. That’s bad news in the case of anesthesia injuries caused by negligence.
Statute of Limitations
Most states have a 2-year statute of limitations for filing lawsuits related to medical malpractice. This controls the number of claims in the courts. So does the high expense of bringing a malpractice suit to trial – most lawyers can only take cases that have a good chance of financial success.
That means that you must compile the facts surrounding your anesthesia-related problems with care and weigh them against legal criteria for negligent behavior by a care provider.
Proving Negligence
Negligence may be proved when:
- A duty of care was promised in exchange for a fee, AND
- The care provider failed to perform to accepted standards, AND
- This failure caused a physical or mental personal injury, AND
- The injury damaged the individual financially, mentally or physically.
Steps to Satisfying Negligence Criteria
To satisfy these criteria in court, you’ll need to present medical bills or copies of insurance premium payments.
Your attorney will have to locate an expert witness or two to define accepted standards and the deviance from them. More medical testimony may be necessary to show that the behavior caused your specific injuries.
You may need further professional corroboration to demonstrate that the injuries left physical or mental debilitation. If you lost money or peace of mind over it all, you can request economic reparation over and above your medical bills.
If you believe that your injuries warrant this type of effort, you may be able to sue individual medical professionals, the hospital and/or product manufacturers. As you consider the facts of your surgical experience and elements of your claim against the provider, remember the criteria for negligence that they must fulfill. Without satisfying them, a jury cannot make a decision in your favor.
A personal injury attorney that specializes in medical malpractice in Massachusetts can advise you on the legal issues relevant to your claim. It is important that the lawyer has handled these types of cases and that the attorney understands complex medical malpractice issues.
Continue to Anesthesia Errors Due to Negligence (Part B) >>
