Suing For Medical Malpractice In Delaware
As a Delaware lawyer who represents victims of medical malpractice, I find that many people don’t have a real good understanding of the basics of bringing a medical malpractice lawsuit. This is the first in a series of articles describing the ins and outs of medical malpractice lawsuits in Delaware.
MEDICAL EXPERT WITNESS REQUIRED
When we file a medical malpractice lawsuit here in Delaware, we’re required to also file what’s called an “affidavit of merit” signed by our medical expert doctor. This affidavit must say that in the opinion of this expert, there are reasonable grounds to believe that there’s been medical malpractice, and that the malpractice was the cause of your injuries.
WHAT IS MEDICAL MALPRACTICE?
Medical malpractice occurs when a doctor runs through a medical red light. A medical red light is more commonly referred to as a “standard of care,” and a doctor runs through this red light when he deviates, or fails to adhere to the standard of care.
STANDARDS OF CARE
Standards of care are like the rules of the road. We all know that a driver has to pay attention, stop at stop signs, and yield the right of way under certain circumstances. And of course there are many more rules that drivers have to follow.
Well, doctors have rules of the road (standards of care) that they have to follow. Here’s a standard of care that applies when a CT scan reveals the presence of two ovarian cysts in the patient’s body – the standard of care requires the doctor to (1) inform the patient of the presence of the cysts, (2) refer the patient for a sonogram, and (3) refer the patient for an OB/GYN consultation.
Let’s look at standards of care for back pain.
•A doctor should conduct a focused history and physical examination to help place patients with low back pain into 1 of 3 broad categories: nonspecific low back pain, back pain potentially associated with radiculopathy or spinal stenosis, or back pain potentially associated with another specific spinal cause. The history should include assessment of psychosocial risk factors, which predict risk for chronic disabling back pain.
•A doctor should perform diagnostic imaging and testing for patients with low back pain when severe or progressive neurologic deficits are present or when serious underlying conditions are suspected on the basis of history and physical examination
•A doctor should provide patients with evidence-based information on low back pain with regard to their expected course, advise patients to remain active, and provide information about effective self-care options.
•A doctor should consider the use of medications with proven benefits in conjunction with back care information and self-care.
•A doctor should assess severity of baseline pain and functional deficits, potential benefits, risks, and relative lack of long-term efficacy and safety data before initiating therapy. For most patients, first-line medication options are acetaminophen or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.
•For patients who do not improve with self-care options, a doctor should consider the addition of nonpharmacologic therapy with proven benefits for acute low back pain, spinal manipulation; for chronic or subacute low back pain, intensive interdisciplinary rehabilitation, exercise therapy, acupuncture, massage therapy, spinal manipulation, yoga, cognitive-behavioral therapy, or progressive relaxation
In my next article, I’ll talk about the concept of causation.
