When you feel sick or sustain serious injuries, you seek the advice of a medical professional. The hospital should be an establishment for curing and caring for individuals. However, there have been instances when more harm came from seeking professional medical help. In Nevada, the law describes medical malpractice as professional negligence. If you wish to pursue a medical malpractice lawsuit due to professional negligence, you must be able to establish the following elements.
You must establish duty
You must prove to the court that you sought the medical counsel of a health care provider, and because of that, they owe you a legal duty of care. Fundamentally, a fiduciary relationship exists in the form of a doctor-patient relationship. There is a bond of trust that governs this relationship. The patient trusts the doctor to perform their duties professionally. You rely on their professional expertise and judgment.
You must prove there was a breach of duty
A breach of duty happens when the doctor or health care provider fails to meet the standard of care you trusted them to provide. Professional negligence is when the health care provider does not exercise due prudence when providing medical treatment, diagnosis or advice. Another health care provider in a similar field or expertise would have approached your medical concerns differently because they exercised their professional duty of care.
You must have sustained damages from the breach of duty
In any civil lawsuit, the claimant must have sustained damages. You must have evidence that suggests the health care provider’s action or inaction caused you to suffer economic or noneconomic damages and that these were preventable had they not breached their duty.
A doctor earns the trust of their patients by demonstrating professionalism and competence. If your doctor breaks that trust, severe repercussions can happen. If you were the one who suffered from their negligence, then it is no longer medical advice you seek but justice.
