Reduction in medical negligence compensation
When people go to nursing homes, clinics and hospitals they have the right to believe that the medical care they will receive will be at par with all the safety standards.
However, negligence cases occur when the professionals of the medical fraternity fail to meet the set standards.
If a person feels, he or she has been a victim of medical negligence, it is important that the person seeks legal advice from an attorney as soon as possible as there are act of limitations issues which apply.
In case an individual waits too long to pursue legal action, it might prevent the person from being able to bring a case to trial and win financial compensation in a medical negligence case.
Recently, the family of a man received $14 million for medical negligence. The verdict was against a doctor who accidentally punctured the man’s artery during surgery.
The 46 year old attended Memorial Regional Hospital with slurred speech and dizziness in May 2002.
The doctors comprehended that he had suffered a stroke and started treating him. The outcome was his condition improved when doctors administered drugs to break up a blood clot, which was the cause of the stroke.
However, during the medical procedure, Dr. Hoang Dinh Doung punctured the blood vessel causing heavy bleeding into the patient’s brain.
Has there been a loss of justice for many victims of medical negligence?
With increasing discussions regarding the limitations of judgments in the field of medical malpractice, there is a general belief that it might lead to an eventual decrease in legal procedures and involved finances.
However, in Colorado, many people have commented on the results, saying that there has actually been a loss of justice for many victims of medical negligence.
Dan Lipman, a Denver based medical malpractice attorney, says "What these caps do is they essentially tell people that don't make a lot of money: 'You can be malpracticed on, and we're going to make it essentially impossible for anybody to take your case'" he added.
He stated that some of the tort reform proposals being floated now, including special malpractice panels or courts should be of particular concern to budget and fiscal hawks.
He even stated, "It would create a new bureaucracy with governmental oversight; it would need to be funded by the government; it would be a fiscal disaster."
”Under Colorado's current system, someone injured in a car accident, caused by the negligence of a trucker receives more from a court to deal with quality-of-life changes than someone injured just as badly in a case of medical negligence,” said Lipman.
"But to the poor guy who is injured, he has the same amount of damages, he should be able to get the same."
According to him, in many cases, victims of medical negligence never walk, talk or live life like the way they did before.
Updated on 9/24/2009