Medical malpractice happens when a doctor’s actions, or failure to act, during patient care do not meet accepted medical standards and cause harm to the patient. To win a medical malpractice case, a patient must prove four things:
- The doctor had a duty to care for the patient.
- The doctor was negligent (careless).
- The negligence caused harm.
- The patient suffered damage because of it.
Read the Case: Weimer v. Hetrick, 309 Md. 536, 553 (1987)
Read the Law: 70 Corpus Juris Secundum, Physicians and Surgeons § 103
Duty refers to the doctor’s legal responsibility to care for the patient. This duty happens as soon as the doctor and patient form a professional relationship. In society, everyone has a duty to act with reasonable care, and for doctors, this means they must provide proper medical care for their patients.
This is assumed when the doctor agrees to treat the patient.
Negligence means that the healthcare professional did not meet the standard of care expected from a doctor in their field, which caused harm to the patient. A doctor is negligent if they:
- Don’t follow the usual practices that other doctors would in a similar situation.
- Fail to run important tests.
- Read the test results wrong.
- Give the wrong treatment.
To prove negligence, the patient must show that the doctor’s mistakes were not small errors, but serious ones that caused or worsened the patient’s condition.
Causation means showing that the doctor’s actions, or lack of action, caused the harm. For example, it asks whether:
- The patient’s death was caused by the doctor missing a diagnosis, or
- The patient’s death was due to other health problems, like heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and smoking.
To prove this, the patient must show either:
- The doctor’s negligence directly caused the harm (actual cause), or
- The harm was a predictable result of the doctor’s actions (proximate cause).
If the patient can’t prove causation, the case will fail, even if the doctor was careless.
Damages refer to the harm the patient suffers because of the doctor’s negligence. This can include:
- Physical injuries or making an existing condition worse.
- Emotional pain, like stress or a lower quality of life.
- Financial losses, like paying for more medical treatment or losing income from not being able to work.
- Wrongful death
Damages are meant to capture all the harm the patient goes through because of medical malpractice.
Read the Law: 70 Corpus Juris Secundum, Physicians and Surgeons § 181.
Wrongful Death Damages
In cases where medical malpractice results in a patient’s death, damages may also include wrongful death claims. These claims are intended to compensate the surviving family members or dependents for their loss. Wrongful death damages can include:
- Loss of Financial Support: Compensation for the financial support the deceased would have provided to their family.
- Loss of Companionship: Compensation for the emotional loss of the deceased’s presence and companionship.
- Funeral and Burial Expenses: Coverage of the costs associated with the deceased’s funeral and burial.
- Pain and Suffering: Compensation for the emotional pain experienced by the family due to the loss.
Read the Case: Spangler v. McQuitty, 449 Md. 33 (2016)
Read the Law: Md. Code, Courts and Judicial Proceedings § 3-904