Can you sue for what might have happened during a medical procedure?

There are four elements that need to be satisfied in order to prove medical malpractice.

• The first is establishing a physician patient relationship. Since we are talking about a medical procedure, it should not be hard to establish that a physician patient relationship existed.
• The second is showing that negligent conduct occurred. Negligence exists when a defendant medical professional’s conduct breached the medical standard of care.
• The third element focuses on establishing that the plaintiff’s injury was caused by the negligent conduct.
• The fourth element requires that the plaintiff sustained actual, quantifiable damages.

A medical professional’s duty of care does not begin when the procedure begins and it does not end when the procedure ends. Negligent conduct may occur before or after a procedure as well as during the procedure. Patients need to be informed of procedural risks and alternatives before deciding to have the procedure. They also need to follow up care after the procedure to ensure that they are adequately recovering and healing, and to make sure that they do not suffer any post-procedure complications.  See below for examples of negligent conduct that can occur before or after a procedure:

• Performing an unnecessary procedure – A case for medical malpractice can be made when a medical professional performs an unnecessary procedure and a patient is injured.
• Failure to discover or delayed discovery – When a post-surgery complication arises and a medical professional negligently fails to discover the complication or discovers the complication after he or she should have reasonably discovered it and the patient is injured, a case for medical malpractice can be made.
• Failure to inform patient – A patient should be fully informed of the risks and any alternative treatment before agreeing to a procedure. If the patient is not informed, he or she was not able to make an informed decision in electing to go through with the procedure. An injury resulting from the procedure may be enough to make a case for medical malpractice.
• Failure to properly treat – A medical malpractice case exists when a post-procedure complication is discovered, but not properly treated in accordance with the medical standard of care and as a result, the patient is injured.