Find the right medical error lawyer

Medical errors have flooded the courts since the implementation of the Kouchner law of March 4, 2002 on patients' rights. Between the seriousness of the consequences and the hyper-complexity of medical law, they often leave the victims destitute and powerless. So how do you act in the event of a medical error?

What to do in the event of a medical error?

Chronology of the different steps to follow to act in the event of a medical error. For any medical error you can get help from medical malpractice lawyer.

Distinguish medical error and fault

What is commonly called a medical error actually covers two separate cases.

The medical error source of a fault

2 types of medical errors are caused by a fault:

Technical fault: it is a breach of the rules of the art of medicine constituted by a bad diagnosis, negligence, recklessness, or clumsiness. Example: injuring your patient during surgery.

The lack of humanism: most often, it is linked to a failure to respect the patient's consent or a failure in the doctor's duty to inform. Indeed, the doctor must inform you of all the risks, banal as exceptional, related to an operation, a treatment but also of all the diagnoses and the possible care for your disease. Example: not informing your patient of the dangerous effects of prescribed drugs.

These 2 medical faults can engage the responsibility of the doctor.

Non-faulty medical error

What complicates matters is that the medical error may also not be at fault.

A medical error does not originate from a fault on the part of the professional. Example: difficulty in making a reliable diagnosis because of the current state of scientific knowledge or the patient's symptoms that are too contradictory despite extensive investigations.

Therapeutic hazard: for example, nosocomial infection of the Staphylococcus aureus type contracted following a surgical operation.

However, determining the responsibilities of all the people involved in a medical error case can turn out to be much more complex than it seems ...

For example, you are undergoing an operation. During this operation, the surgeon is absent for a few minutes. At this point, you have a hemorrhage which will leave you with lifelong consequences. The problem in this case: who is responsible?

The doctor can of course be responsible if he decided to go for a coffee at that time. He left you under the supervision of a medical intern or nurse who did not have the skills or the power to respond appropriately.

But, the hospital can also be held responsible. For example, the doctor was absent because he had to supervise two delicate operations at the same time that day. Indeed, a colleague is on sick leave, he could not be replaced due to lack of diligence on the part of the management or sufficient funds released by the State to pay the replacement doctors. In this case the fault of the doctor is not the one and only cause of the damage and we will also put into question the responsibility of the State!

In short, if you already suspect that you have been the victim of a medical error at this stage, the expertise of a professional is essential to analyze the situation!

Recover your medical file

The first thing to do is to try to recover your medical file (results of examinations, prescriptions, reports, etc.) from the health establishment in question.

To do this, contact the liberal professional concerned or the health establishment directly to obtain a copy of your medical file. Know that it is an obligation for them to deliver it to you.

What timeframe? 8 days to obtain a response if the file is less than 5 years old and 2 months if it is more than 5 years old. In theory, a care establishment keeps a file for 20 years!