Medical malpractice cases are unlike other personal injury lawsuits in many ways. One of the key differences involves the standard of care.
A typical car accident case, for example, rests on the legal theory that all drivers have the duty of care for others that any reasonable person would have under the same or similar circumstances to avoid the risk of injuring someone else. But in a medical malpractice case, a doctor has the duty to provide care that is up to the standards of their profession.
A recent case from another state helps illustrate this point.
Complications from wrist fracture
The case involves a patient who suffered a fracture in her wrist in 2017. She sought help from a hand surgeon, who decided against performing surgery. After the fracture healed, the woman said she continued to suffer from pain, tingling sensations, a limited range of motion and loss of grip strength in that hand. She filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against the hand surgeon, arguing that his decision against performing surgery worsened her condition.
At trial, the patient presented two prominent hand surgeons as expert witnesses. Both said that the patient could have benefited from surgery soon after her wrist fracture. However, one of these expert witnesses noted that there are multiple ways for a doctor to meet the professional standard of care in a case such as this one.
The lawyer for the defendant seized on this last aspect of the witness testimony, arguing that the defendant’s decision against surgery fell within professional standards, and therefore he did not commit malpractice.
He also noted that the patient’s symptoms were common among patients who had suffered a fractured wrist without surgery. There was no evidence that the defendant had caused the patient’s symptoms, and no guarantee that she would not have experienced them had she undergone surgery.
It’s understandable when the public is sympathetic to plaintiffs in medical malpractice lawsuits — all of us have been patients at some time. But while we feel that sympathy, we should not forget that doctors have the right to a defense. Professional standards are crucial to these cases.