What if an injury was not a doctor’s fault?

Many people in Pennsylvania have the tendency to think of doctors as infallible. After all, these are professionals with stringent licensing requirements who take years and years of school to obtain their degrees. However, the fact is that medical malpractice is not always a doctor’s fault. You could have a case even if the doctor did nothing negligent or otherwise in breach of an ethical code.

If you suspect that your case or that of your loved one was mismanaged in such a way that resulted in a serious injury, then it could be a good idea to further investigate the details of what happened. You may trust your doctor, but do you trust everybody involved in the process of organizing documents, establishing schedules, administering medication and so on? As explained on FindLaw, a number of different parties could be liable for injuries you suffered.

Hospitals and specialty clinics focus heavily on meticulous record-keeping for the very reason that mistakes could potentially lead to serious consequences for patients. If a medical caregiver lapsed in their responsibility towards you, it is not always obvious from the start who is at fault. This is one of the purposes of a personal injury or medical malpractice case — to determine who made mistakes, if any were made, and to direct that person or entity to make you whole to whatever extent is possible.

Simply a poor outcome of a surgery or procedure may not be an indication of medical malpractice. Major mistakes involving record-keeping or other institutional processes may not necessarily fall into any one category. However, some common examples include wrong-site surgeries, surgery on the wrong patient and mistakes in medication. As you might imagine, these types of errors could conceivably stem from negligent record-keeping on behalf of the hospital.

It would take a detailed analysis of any case to determine if a claim were feasible. Please do not regard this as legal advice. It is only general information.