Filing a Medical Malpractice Claim in Atlanta
One of the most common mistakes a person might make when filing a medical malpractice claim in Atlanta is not seeking a lawyer who does medical malpractice cases exclusively. Many lawyers dabble in different areas and do not handle medical malpractice cases on a day-to-day basis. An individual needs an established medical negligence attorney who knows how to work up one of these cases, understand the type of evidence and testimony needed and has the experts on standby to investigate the case.
Common Ways to Discover Malpractice
Before filing a medical malpractice claim in Atlanta, here is usually significant communication before a patient feels that something is not right and gets a second opinion or goes elsewhere. At some point, they may find out from another physician that there was an incorrect diagnosis. In a cancer case, if the doctor does not discover cancer and the person becomes ill and goes to the ER, they might conduct tests and discover cancer.
It is not uncommon for a person to have a misdiagnosis that later turns out to be cancer. A year and a half or two years of complaints should have tipped off the doctor that the person had something that needed to be addressed but the doctor did not take their patient’s issues seriously enough.
Common Cancer Misdiagnosis Claims
In many medical malpractice cases, the harm is the result of negligence. It happens quickly. When a surgeon makes a mess of a surgery, the patient starts suffering from the complications soon after. In a misdiagnosis case, the patient may not know the harm they suffer until much later. With a cancer case, the patient may have mild or moderate symptoms of underlying cancer that are missed.
As cancer gets worse, the patient’s condition deteriorates and their cancer metastasizes. By the time the patient finds out the severity of their diagnosis, the problem is much worse and goes on over a longer period. A misdiagnosis case is different than a medical malpractice case because the harm takes place over a longer period.
What to Know About Medical Malpractice Cases
Filing a medical malpractice claim in Atlanta requires an experienced lawyer who knows the right questions to ask and has experience with these cases. The attorney needs to identify the departures from the standard of care, what the doctor should have done, and the diagnoses that should have been made. They should have experience putting all the pieces together to get a lawsuit filed and successfully prosecuted.
When someone considers filing a claim, the important thing they should know is that the attorney will ask a lot of questions. The attorney needs to get a complete picture of the client’s medical history because the doctor may try to point at other problems in the person’s history that could have made the diagnosis confusing or difficult. The attorney may ask the individual a lot of questions that might not make sense to them, but the information is needed to get a complete picture of the case and of the client’s medical history to properly put together the lawsuit.
