A patient is seriously injured during surgery, and the appointed attorney brings a medical malpractice lawsuit against a number of different doctors. However, he lets off one doctor, the anesthesiologist, during the course of the lawsuit.
A patient is seriously injured during surgery, and the appointed attorney brings a medical malpractice lawsuit against a number of different doctors. However, he lets off one doctor, the anesthesiologist, during the course of the lawsuit.
More Facts are learned during the Deposition
As part of this lawsuit, the lawyer is claiming that the doctors have violated the basic standards of medical and surgical care, and because of their carelessness, the patient has suffered significant injuries. One of the doctors who were brought into the lawsuit was an anesthesiologist, who was involved in resuscitating the patient.
The lawyer had an opportunity to question this doctor, the anesthesiologist, during pre-trial testimony, known as a deposition. It was only after questioning the doctor, the plaintiff’s lawyer calls over the doctor’s attorney, and has a frank and honest discussion with him.
Based upon the testimony given by the anesthesiologist, and based upon the review of the records by an expert, the plaintiff’s lawyer feels this doctor should not be in the case, and tells the doctor’s lawyer that he is going to strike this doctor’s name off of the suit. Your lawyer does this for a reason.
All Defendants may not be Guilty
When you bring a medical malpractice lawsuit, you have to evaluate and determine who was careless, and responsible for your injuries. In the beginning of the case, you may not have a clear understanding about what each doctor and each health care professional did, to cause or contribute towards the injuries. In this case, all the doctors were brought into the lawsuit that the attorney felt was responsible for the patient’s injuries.
Pure Enlightenment
Now having had a chance to question the anesthesiologist, the lawyer had a chance to learn key information that he never had before, which was not recorded in the records. Once the lawyer learned this information, it became quite clear that the anesthesiologist had nothing whatsoever to do, with the patient’s injuries. Therefore, the right thing to do was to allow this doctor to walk and continue the case on with the remaining doctors and defendants.
In a medical malpractice case, the main thing is to prove that somebody’s negligence or carelessness has caused you harm. The case will be filed on the hospital staff or doctors, who are suspected of committing the negligence that has caused your injuries. After filing the case, and much before the start of the trial, there is deposition, which is a question and answer session held under oath.
A Revelation
During this session, both parties have the opportunity to question the main witnesses. If during deposition, it becomes obvious that one of the defendants was not involved in causing injury or was not negligent then there is no point of keeping him in the case. It will simply waste the time and resources of the plaintiff’s lawyer.
This does mean the case is over with. This does not mean that justice still will not be pursued. This just means the target of the lawsuit has been narrowed a bit.
