If you visited a healthcare provider and suffered an injury, you may be able to file a medical malpractice claim in Ohio. However, in order to be eligible to file a lawsuit, you will need to determine whether the harm you have experienced resulted from medical negligence. To be clear, patients can sustain injuries and procedures may not go as planned in situations where medical negligence is not to blame for the harm. One of our experienced Ohio medical malpractice lawyers can assess your case for you and discuss your options with you for moving forward with a claim. In the meantime, we want to provide you with more information about what constitutes medical malpractice under Ohio law.
Understanding the Elements of an Ohio Medical Malpractice Claim
In order to win a medical malpractice claim in Ohio, you will need to prove four general elements:
- The healthcare provider against whom you are filing a claim owed you a duty of care, which is typically easy to prove simply by showing that a doctor-patient relationship (or related relationship existed);
- The healthcare provider breached the duty of care by acting negligently;
- You suffered damages; and
- Your damages or injuries were caused by the healthcare provider’s breach of the duty of care.
While you will need to prove all of these elements to win a medical negligence claim and to show that your injuries constitute medical malpractice in Ohio, it is important to pay particular attention to the second element: that the healthcare provider breached the duty of care owed to you. Proving negligence in a medical malpractice case will require you to show that the healthcare provider failed to act as another provider in a similar medical field, and in the same geographic region, would have acted.
For example, if you sustained an injury because of a medication error resulting from your primary care provider in Toledo prescribing the wrong dosage of a medication, you will need to ask: would another primary care provider in the Toledo area believe that your PCP acted reasonably under the circumstances, and would another primary care provider in the Toledo have behaved differently?
For a free legal consultation, call (419) 930-3030
Know That Injuries Do Not Always Result from Negligence
Some medical procedures come with risks, and an injury may not necessarily be an indication of negligence. As such, it is important to have a medical malpractice lawyer in Ohio assess your case. Yet we do want to emphasize that you cannot be asked to assume risks associated with negligence. While you might assume certain risks associated with particular procedures, a patient never assumes the risk of a healthcare provider making a mistake.
Personal Injury Lawyer Near Me (419) 930-3030
Contact Our Ohio Medical Negligence Lawyers
If you have questions about what constitutes medical malpractice in Ohio, an experienced Ohio medical negligence lawyer at our firm can speak with you today. It can be difficult to know with certainty whether you have a medical malpractice claim until you have spoken with an attorney, but our firm is here to help. Contact Groth & Associates for more information.
Call or text (419) 930-3030 or complete a Free Case Evaluation form