Medical malpractice can have devastating consequences, not only for the patient but also for their families. When healthcare professionals fail to provide the standard of care expected, it can result in serious injuries, long-term health problems, and even death. It’s important to know the effects of medical malpractice on yourself, your friends, and most importantly, your family.
What Is Medical Malpractice
Medical malpractice occurs when a healthcare professional like a nurse, doctor, or surgeon, fails to provide the correct care resulting in injury or even death. While highly skilled, doctors are only human. Mistakes might happen and while some are harmless, some are also life-changing. Some examples include surgical errors, misdiagnosis, incorrect medicine, and birth injuries. Mistakes like these can cause life-altering consequences for both patients and families.
How Medical Malpractice Affects Families
Life-altering injuries will affect the individual and also their loved ones. If someone you cared about was disabled by someone else’s mistake, think about how that would make you feel. Both family and victim would be affected not only physically, but also financially and emotionally.
Emotional Side Effects
Stress and Anxiety: The first emotions to hit loved ones of victims are stress and anxiety. While normal to have in life, being uncertain about the future and health of one they care about can be incredibly overwhelming,
Depression: Dealing with the aftermath of medical malpractice can lead to sadness, hopelessness, and depression for all.
Anger and Frustration: It’s natural for anger and frustration to come to the forefront when you realize that medical malpractice is completely out of your hands. Trusting someone else with your or your family’s well-being is already difficult enough, let alone accepting they were wrong.
Emotionally, medical malpractice can be crushing and drive victims and their families into a deep depression full of anger.
Financial Burden
Financial burden is a very real concern for most of us in today’s society. Without amazing healthcare or simply being unemployed, getting checked up can already be expensive let alone the ramifications of medical malpractice. There are people who would rather get an Uber to the hospital rather than an ambulance simply due to cost.
Some forms of financial burden include:
Medical Expenses: Despite coming to a healthcare professional to get medical help in the first place, you now need medical help because of them. The cost of hospital bills can quickly add up and families living paycheck-to-paycheck can run dry very quickly. Visits to the emergency room cost an average of $2,200 per visit for uninsured individuals.
Lost Income: Your employer can be nice, but not nice enough to keep paying you when you’re not at work. If a person is unable to work, it can cause a large strain on the family. In today’s world, inflation has taken off, making it very difficult for a single person to financially take care of a family. Not having an entire person’s worth of income can make it very difficult to afford necessities such as food, rent, and utilities.
Long-Term Costs: Aside from hospital visits, long-term care might also be necessary depending on the injury or disability. Specialized equipment might need to be purchased, reducing the finances even further.
Medical malpractice can cause many unforeseen costs to pop up. It’s best to be aware and prepared for this possibility beforehand. As qualified as our doctors and surgeons are, our families are always at risk.
Coping With Medical Malpractice
Coping with the aftermath of medical malpractice can be challenging, but there are steps families can take to find support and move forward. Seeking justice through legal action is crucial. Families affected by medical malpractice may be entitled to compensation for their injuries and losses.
By pursuing legal action, they can hold the responsible parties accountable and secure the financial support they need to cover medical expenses and other damages. If you are thinking of starting a medical malpractice case, medical malpractice lawyers from Knapp & Roberts recommend you get in touch with an attorney to receive help and professional opinion.
Finding support is also essential. Families should seek support from friends, family members, and different healthcare professionals. Counseling and therapy can help them cope with the emotional trauma of medical malpractice, while support groups can provide a sense of community and understanding. Moving forward as a family is possible. Healing from the trauma of medical malpractice takes time, but with the right support, families can begin to rebuild their lives. By advocating for change and raising awareness about medical malpractice, they can help prevent similar tragedies from happening to others.
We are not lawyers and this is in no way intended to be used as legal advice . We cannot be held responsible for your results. Always do your own research and seek professional legal help.
Meg is an author at Cinnamon Hollow. She writes on a variety of topics sharing tips and ideas for daily life.