Nowadays, the medical world's new developments
have resulted in patients receiving appropriate treatments with a high chance
of survival. Any patient approaching a doctor is expected to get the best
expert medical treatment due to the knowledge and skills they possess. Due to
the interaction, a doctor owes the patient certain duties, and when these
duties are breached, then there arises a cause of legal action. When a doctor
fails to provide treatment to a patient, the consequences may be fatal. But if
a doctor fails to treat an illness or a condition that doesn’t mean that one
has a medical malpractice claim. However, when a patient's condition worsens
because they never received treatment either due to delayed diagnoses, one may
have a valid medical malpractice claim.
Why
Should A Doctor Fail To Treat Me?
Since not every outcome may give rise to a
medical malpractice claim, it's always a good idea to consult a personal injury attorney in Alaska
to guide whether the doctor's actions fell below the required standard of care.
Generally, a doctor has to obtain prior informed consent from the patient
before they start any treatment. There are many reasons why a doctor may fail
to treat a patient. Again, no doctor should fail to treat a patient because of
racial, ethnic, or religious reasons. Also, they cannot discriminate based on
sex unless where patient's sex is relevant to the doctors' specialty. Outside
of any protected area, doctors have significant latitude for failure to treat
patients. But again, this must be in order with the law. Below are some of the
reasons why a doctor may fail to treat a patient:
·
The doctor delayed diagnosis and hence
failed to treat
·
Patient’s inability to pay for the
necessary medical service provided
·
Victims of car accidents whose result is
litigations
·
Patient behavior. Some patients are
extremely difficult.
·
Placing unrealistic responsibilities on the
doctor
When Failure To Treat May Amount To Medical Malpractice
If your doctor
delayed diagnoses and failed to treat a condition that later escalated, causing
harm that would not have normally been there, this may amount to medical
malpractice. For instance, the doctor may have delayed diagnosis, failed to
treat the first stage of cancer, and later the patients had to undergo
chemotherapy. The progress may result in a negative impact upon the later
treatment. For any medical malpractice claim, the patient should prove failure
to treat resulted in more harm. The fact is that it’s extremely difficult
for a judge to accept any explanation of why a patient who needed urgent care
should not be attended to but turned away. All in all, for failure to treat to
become medical malpractice, it must be well established that the doctor failed
to exercise reasonable care, and as a result, the patient suffered more harm.
In other words, it must be established that:
·
There
was medical negligence: For medical negligence to amount
to medical malpractice, several situations must be involved. For instance, the
doctor may have failed to diagnose the patient's condition, and through failure
to treat. Besides, the doctor could have failed to advise the patient on the
risks associate with failure to treat. The fact is that no law requires a
doctor to be perfect, but they should conduct themselves in a manner that
doesn’t deviate from the standard of care expected of them. If one
believes to have a case, they should turn to medical experts to try to boost
their arguments.
·
The doctor delayed diagnosis since
he/she was not well experienced.
·
Working
under the influence of drugs or alcohol: In some cases, a the doctor may diagnose a condition and then fail to provide the relevant medical information
either because he/she was under the influence of drugs or alcohol. To prove
medical malpractice, the doctor must be negligent with the diagnosis, which led
to the patient’s condition getting worse.
Proving That Failure To Treat
Providing evidence
for failure to treat that may result in medical malpractice is tough. One must
prove how negligence occurred. You must be in a position to show that:
·
The doctor failed to adhere to the
required standard of care when evaluating the treatment.
·
As a result, you suffered more harm.
The
above requires in-depth experience for both Alaska medical malpractice laws and the medical
situation at hand. The fact is that negligence is a tort. Every doctor has to
act with reasonable care and skills toward any patient. The test is always
based on how an ordinary skilled man would behave if in the
same circumstance.
Getting Legal Help
Though treatment failure is a complex issue, not all
cases of failure to treat are illegal. Suppose you believe a doctor failed to
diagnose your disease or delayed diagnosis and there was no treatment given immediately,
hence the condition worsened. In that case, you may consider looking out for
medical malpractice lawyers to evaluate your case and help you understand
whether you may have a valid claim, which is possible through a free
consultation.
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