Summary
The current case concerns the death of a 46-year-old man due to medical malpractice of the responsible physician. Nevertheless, to prove the violation of the law, it is necessary to provide sufficient evidence regarding a negligence claim. In other words, the court must prove that the physician’s actions did not meet the professional standards and led to the demise of the patient. The current paper attempts to analyze the lawsuit outcomes in case the death was the result of an overdose.
Analysis
In general law practice, negligence refers to a violation of certain ethical guidelines and professional standards. In court, the negligence claim can be described as a legal theory that attributes fault to the defender due to particular behavior and malpractice (Lawyer. zone, 2021). The purpose of the negligence suit is to acquire monetary compensation for the injuries of the second party (Lawyer. zone, 2021). Nevertheless, to determine the negligence claim, the fault of the defender should be sufficiently proved by addressing the elements of negligence. The four primary elements are the duty of care, breach of duty, causation, and estimated damages (Findlaw, 2019). Thus, only by addressing the aforementioned components, the plaintiff party can prove the fault of the defendant.
Duty of Care and Breach of Duty
The first element, the duty of care, refers to the legitimate responsibility of the defendant to provide certain services for the plaintiff (Findlaw, 2019). In the current case, the duty of care meets the criteria since medical service is the legal duty of the physician. Breach of duty refers to a violation of the professional standards and assessment of whether a ‘reasonably prudent person would do the same as the defendant (Findlaw, 2019). In the current case (death from overdose), the physician lacked critical information on heroin and alcohol intake since the patient kept it secret. Thus, the physician followed the protocol, just as a ‘reasonably prudent person would, but would have acted differently if he or she knew about the drug use. Ultimately, the physician cannot be accounted for breach of duty if the cause of death is indeed overdose.
Causation and Damages
The third element, causation, is addressed by providing sufficient evidence concerning the cause of damages. In the current case, the plaintiff should prove that the granted medical service was the cause of death. However, as mentioned before, the responsible physician was not provided with sufficient information regarding the heroin and alcohol intake of the patient. Furthermore, the clinician could not predict the lethal outcome of the patient; thus, if the injury was unforeseeable, the defendant was not liable (Findlaw, 2019). The last element concerns the damages to the patient and the estimated monetary compensation (Findlaw, 2019). In the current case, the plaintiff party can seek compensation for the death of the patient; however, since other elements are not addressed, the physician is not at fault.
Other Causes of Death
The current paper has critically analyzed the case from the perspective of death from overdose. However, if the cause of death is established to be different, the possible outcomes of the lawsuit would differ as well. If death was due to the absence of blood transfusion, the defendant is not accounted for negligence claim due to assumption of risk. According to this practice, the defendant is not found guilty if the patient voluntarily took risks associated with the activity (Findlaw, 2017). However, if death was the result of subdural hematoma, it is considerably easy to prove the medical malpractice by the responsible physician. Subdural hematoma is a life-threatening injury that is frequently caused by head traumas (Cassoobhoy, 2020). After an automobile accident, the accountable clinician should have utilized either computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to eliminate the chances of subdural hematoma. The absence of the aforementioned procedures has led to the death of the patient; thus, the physician is responsible, and the negligence claim should be successful.
References
Cassoobhoy, A. (2020). Subdural hematoma. Web.
Findlaw. (2017). Assumption of risk defense. Web.
Findlaw. (2019). What are the elements of negligence? Web.
Lawyer.Zone. (2021). Elements of negligence (Overview: Elements to prove in law). Web.