Define: Medical Malpractice

Medical malpractice refers to professional negligence or misconduct by healthcare providers, including doctors, nurses, surgeons, and other medical professionals, that results in harm to a patient. It occurs when a healthcare provider fails to meet the accepted standard of care, leading to injury, illness, or death. Examples of medical malpractice include misdiagnosis, surgical errors, medication errors, birth injuries, and failure to obtain informed consent. Victims of medical malpractice may suffer physical, emotional, and financial harm, and they have the right to seek compensation through legal action. Medical malpractice cases often involve complex legal and medical issues, and successful claims require demonstrating that the healthcare provider’s actions deviated from the standard of care and directly caused the patient’s injuries or damages.

Medical malpractice is the area of law which refers to any injury from the negligence of a health care professional which causes injury or death to a patient. To prove medical malpractice you would have to prove the doctor was negligent in their “duty” towards you and did not treat you in a fashion which is similar to what another doctor would have done in a similar situation.

Common medical malpractice errors includes: misdiagnosis or failure to diagnose, which means your doctor failed to diagnose a condition or disease, or treated you for the wrong disease which made your condition worse, anaesthesia errors, which have lead to brain damage or death, surgical errors such as amputating the wrong limb or leaving gauze in the body, leading to injury or death, defective products, or medication errors for overprescribing or prescribing the wrong medication.

This site contains general legal information but does not constitute professional legal advice for your particular situation. Persuing this glossary does not create an attorney-client or legal adviser relationship. If you have specific questions, please consult a qualified attorney licensed in your jurisdiction.

This glossary post was last updated: 29th March, 2024.