When you or a loved one is ill, you trust that the health care facility and the professionals therein will help you get back on your feet. The last thing you expect is for the physician attending to you to act negligently or commit wrongdoing that can result in injury or death.
Medical malpractice occurs when a health care provider fails to provide appropriate care or administers treatment that causes an injury, harm or death to a patient. If you have sustained an injury in the hands of a health care provider, it is important that you consider filing a claim against the at-fault party. A medical malpractice law allows victims to recover compensation for damages resulting from substandard treatment.
Here are important factors that can affect your medical malpractice injury settlement.
Your contribution to the injury
Indiana is a “comparative negligence” state, meaning that the amount of damage you can recover following an injury is subject to your contribution to the incident that resulted in your injury. What is more, you cannot claim compensation for damages if your contribution to the injury was 50 percent or more.
For instance, a plaintiff may be found partly responsible for an injury if they fail to make full disclosure of any pre-existing condition or if they fail to follow through with their patient duty thus aggravating their injury.
Failure to mitigate your damages
In Indiana, a plaintiff has a duty to mitigate damages. This means that a victim of medical malpractice is required to make reasonable efforts to limit any harm that might result from the effects of the malpractice. Failure to do so might hinder any recovery that could otherwise be avoided if the patient made reasonable efforts.
Under the defense’s failure to mitigate their damages, a medical malpractice victim may be denied compensation for extra days of missed work because those damages could have been avoided if they followed the doctor’s instruction on the recovery process or timeline.
Medical malpractice can turn your life upside down. Determining what is fair and appropriate compensation for injuries resulting in medical negligence can be complicated. Fortunately, with professional help, you can have peace of mind knowing that you are fighting for the compensation you deserve for your damages.