Breach of Duty

Did you suffer a serious injury by a medical professional in California? Learn about a doctor’s breach of duty and how you can hold them accountable.

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Question:

What is breach of duty?

Answer:

The other day, a young gentleman came to my office. He believed he had a medical malpractice claim against his doctor. We were discussing his case and he wanted to know what a breach of the doctor’s duty was. I explained to him that a duty is an obligation for the doctor to act like any other doctor would under the same conditions. For example, we had a case where a man went into the ER. He was complaining of shoulder pain, upper back pain, and shortness of breath.Breach of Duty The shortness of breath with the shoulder pain should have been enough to put any reasonable emergency room doctor on notice to test his heart for a heart attack. However, they did not do that and 36 hours later, the heart attack went undetected and, unfortunately, the man died. That’s a situation where a reasonable doctor should’ve seen the shortness of breath and immediately ordered the test to see if he was having a heart attack. In that case, the doctor did not do that and that would be a breach of his duty of care.


Were you or a loved one seriously injured due to the fault of a medical professional and have questions about breach of duty?
Contact our Newhall medical malpractice attorneys at Bish & Cutting, APC today for a free confidential consultation and case evaluation.
Let our experience work for you.

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