Can I sue the hospitals
Get Legal Help Today
Compare Quotes From Top Companies and Save
Secured with SHA-256 Encryption
Can I sue the hospitals
I’ve been going to the hospital for a few years with the same symptoms over and over again. Every time I went to the hospital they always said everything looked fine and they didn’t find anything so I would go to the other hospital out here and they would tell me their isn’t anything they can do cause the other hospital already saw me. So I stopped going to that hospital but kept going back to the other one. A few days ago I was diagnosed with severe sleep apnea which all the symptoms I was going to the hospital for matched that. Now I have to be on a breathing machine any time I go to sleep because I stop breathing a lot in my sleep. I feel as though if it would have been caught earlier when I kept going back and forth to the hospital then it wouldn’t be this bad.
Asked on January 16, 2018 under Malpractice Law, Indiana
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 6 years ago | Contributor
If a reasonable medical care provider would have correctly diagnosed you under those circumstances, then this may well have malpractice--medical negligence, or unreasonable carelessnes--and you may be able to sue. But that doesn't necessarily mean it would be worthwhile to sue.
In a lawsuit, you can only recover compensation if, and to the degree that, the malpractice hurt you. Therefore, unless you can show by medical testimony--i.e. by the testimony of a doctor whom you hire for the lawsuit, which can be expensive--that the failure to diagnose you sooner caused your apnea to become worse, you are not entitled to any compensation. (I.e. if your apnea would be more or less the same regardless of when diagnosed, there is no compensation, because the failure to disagnoses did not harm you.)
Even if the apnea was worsened by the failure to diagnose, if it's not significantly worse for that reason, then the amount of compensation you'd get may still not be worth the time, effort and costs (medical expert; attorney; etc.) of a lawsuit.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: The Answer(s) provided above are for general information only. The attorney providing the answer was not serving as the attorney for the person submitting the question or in any attorney-client relationship with such person. Laws may vary from state to state, and sometimes change. Tiny variations in the facts, or a fact not set forth in a question, often can change a legal outcome or an attorney's conclusion. Although AttorneyPages.com has verified the attorney was admitted to practice law in at least one jurisdiction, he or she may not be authorized to practice law in the jurisdiction referred to in the question, nor is he or she necessarily experienced in the area of the law involved. Unlike the information in the Answer(s) above, upon which you should NOT rely, for personal advice you can rely upon we suggest you retain an attorney to represent you.