What Are The Consequences Of Not Filing A Stroke Medical Malpractice Claim In Tampa?
Tampa is one of the most beautiful cities on the Gulf Coast of Florida, United States. On the city’s northern border lies the north shore of Tampa Bay, and to the east is the beach of old Tampa Bay. As per the census of 2022, the population of Tampa was 407,104, with the average household income being $87,818.
In Tampa, people suffering from strokes are common. In America, stroke is becoming a leading cause of disability in adults and the fifth cause of death. Every forty seconds, someone in America suffers a stroke. Around 795,000 people suffer from stroke symptoms each year.
Stroke can occur to anyone at any time, at work, with family, or while doing errands. Their occurrence is unpredictable. The doctors sometimes fail to diagnose the attack, leading to further complications. If a patient feels they were misdiagnosed, then seeking legal relief can be done rightfully with the help of Tampa stroke attorneys.
Medical Malpractice Consequence
There could be a devastating effect if an attack is misdiagnosed. Around two million brain cells die per minute when a person gets a stroke. Failure to administer the clot-busting drug “tissue plasminogen activator (tPA)” within three hours of a patient suffering from a stroke could also be one reason for medical malpractice.
Stroke patients can also claim medical negligence when there has been incorrect treatment without proper medication and when they are discharged from the hospital without adequate treatment.
To Prove Malpractice
Malpractices relating to stroke are medical-related cases and are usually based on the claim that a hospital or the consulting doctor failed to determine the attack on time.
Depending on the patient’s condition, tPA is administered. Usually, the medical treatment should start at the onset of the stroke symptom, as there will be only a short window to help the tPA medicine break up the clot. Otherwise, the damage to the brain cells becomes permanent. An attorney should be able to prove the following points to win a medical negligence case.
- The patient suffered a stroke, and with the consulting doctor, the patient had only a patient-doctor relationship.
- As per the medical code and ethics, the treatment given to the patient was negligent when caring for stroke-related patients.
- The patient’s permanent disability was due to the doctor’s negligence.
- The patient incurred losses due to lost wages, extra medical costs, or the need to consult a doctor due to disability.
- An expert medical practitioner’s testimony will be required in court to prove the negligence that occurred while treating a stroke patient; for this, a skilled attorney should be consulted.
Consequences Of Not Filing For Malpractice
Proving the case of medical malpractice wins financial compensation, and failure to file a medical negligence claim will result in economic damages. An experienced medical malpractice attorney can file for the monetary damages the victim owes the doctor.
The most common financial damages include both economic and non-economic damages. Sometimes even punitive damages are awarded to the victim in medical negligence cases.
Economic Damages
It covers financial damages related to the medical malpractice claim—expenses like visiting doctors for medical treatment, surgeries, and other medication.
Present and future wages lost due to the inability to work due to disability. You can hire a maid for household services, which also falls under this economic damage. But it cannot be claimed until and unless a legal case for medical negligence is filed in court.
Non-Economic Damages
These damages are more personal than economic damages. They make up for the harm caused due to mental agony, pain due to suffering and emotion, long-term disability, and loss incurred due to other personal reasons. The injuries caused here are severe. Even this claim can only be made by filing a legal case against medical malpractice.
Punitive Damages
When it becomes evident to the court that negligence occurred due to the doctor’s negligence, it awards punitive damages.
Medical Malpractice Claim
For filing a medical negligence claim, there is a statute of limitations wherein the victim should file for medical malpractice within two years of the incident. Statute 95.11 of Tampa, Florida, emphasizes this legal point.
In the event of a death that’s unlawful, the victim’s family should file a lawsuit. In a few rare cases, medical malpractice is not apparent immediately. Then, here, the discovery rule applies. It states that a legal suit should be filed in a court of law when discovering a stroke due to medical malpractice within two years of this discovery.
Conclusion
In America, a person dies every three and a half minutes due to a stroke. According to a report by the American Heart Association, stroke is the fifth-highest cause of death in the United States.
But unfortunately, doctors sometimes make errors that cause patients heavy medical, financial, and mental losses. As per a few reports, doctors misdiagnose
around nine percent of stroke victims. Patients can file medical malpractice claims in this regard.
The litigation concerning medical malpractice leads to substantial financial losses. Most of the cases filed for malpractice are due to the failure to diagnose and treat the patient with the tPA drug. By taking legal action, the healthcare providers can be held accountable.
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