What can I do if I was injured to to negligence at my periodontist’s?
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What can I do if I was injured to to negligence at my periodontist’s?
My periodontist was performing a gum graft on me last week, he was taking a graft from the left side of my palate, after he took it and sutured the site he left to take a call. When he returned the assistant accidentally sucked the graft up with the aspirator. He had to take another graft from the right side of my palate! So now I have 3 wounds instead of 2. What should I do?
Asked on October 13, 2014 under Malpractice Law, Kansas
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 10 years ago | Contributor
Does the additional wound impair your life in a significant and long-lasting way? Or did you incur large *additional* medical costs due to it? Unless the answer to one or both of these questions is "yes," you do nothing--except possibly file a complaint with the state board regulating dentists and periodontists. That because in a medical malpractice case, you can only recover compensation for additonal medical costs or significant, long last life impairment; without one or the other, you could not recover money, even if you show that the periodontist was negligent, or careless. At the same time, medical malpractice cases are very expensive to bring--you MUST hire a medical expert--so you could easily spend far more on the case than you would get.
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