Standard of Care

Answer:

I had a woman contact my office who believed that she had a pretty serious claim against her doctor for medical malpractice. I, unfortunately, had to have a conversation with her and explain to her that although she was very injured, the doctor didn’t actually do anything wrong because his standard did not fall below the standard of care. For example, this woman needed surgery and they scheduled the surgery for about a month out. She believed that the surgery should’ve been performed on an emergency basis and had the surgery been performed on an emergency basis, she wouldn’t have gotten as sick as she did.
There was nothing to indicate to the doctor that her condition was serious or life-threatening, so he waited. The moment she started showing signs that perhaps she was in a life-threatening situation or condition, he did what every doctor is supposed to do – he told her to go immediately to the emergency room. The fact that he scheduled the surgery for a month out didn’t fall below any medically acceptable standard of care, and he did everything that he was supposed to do. It was just unfortunate that her illness came before the date of the surgery.