How to Sue a Hospital

By eHow Health Editor

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When something goes wrong during a medical procedure, its important to hold people accountable for their actions. What happened to you could happen to somebody else if whoever caused the problem isn't disciplined. Sometimes suing a hospital is the only way to get that done.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Challenging

Step1

Gather evidence to support your allegations against the hospital. Your evidence should include any documents, photos, video or autopsy reports that support your case.

Step2

Obtain a lawyer. Bring your proof and schedule an appointment to discuss your lawsuit. The lawyer you recruit should specialize in medical malpractice. Check whether he's won the majority of his cases, and make sure to get his rates before signing anything.

Step3

Go over your testimony. Before going to court, you and your attorney should discuss exactly what you plan to say and what evidence is to be presented when you sue the hospital. Ask him to give you a list of questions you may be asked, so that you can practice answering them and prepare for the trial. Learn how to keep your cool under aggressive questioning.

Step4

Recruit witnesses. If someone saw the deed being done, or heard the doctors discussing it, you'll want them present at the trial. Either you or your lawyer should contact them and tell them that you are suing the hospital and would like them to testify. If they agree, your lawyer will need to go over their recollection of events and make sure it coincides with yours. Any witnesses should also learn how to withstand being questioned.

Step5

Start the court process. When you're ready, the attorney should file papers and officially sue the hospital. Some time after that, you should be appointed a court date where each side will get to state their case.

Comments

onlinedesign said

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on 6/17/2008 Yet another "Unhappy with Trident Hospital SC" experience! "My question now is what can I do, other than continue to prevent the emergency, to help myself, at any hospital if this emergency happens again?

How can I make a difference? How can I bring attention to the fact all of the emergency room doctors, at Trident hospital, are rather clueless to the problem of blocked stoma with gastric bypass patients?" - that cam from: http://carolinadreamz.blogspot.com/2007/08/trident-hospital-emergency.html

It is quite shocking to me that more people do not take adequate measure to ensure their rights. More worried about offending: those who have dedicated their lives to "helping" others by working in a hospital then their own pain and suffering.

Guess what? Just because you work in a hospital as a doctor or a nurse does not mean you don't give crappy care to others.

If you are receivi

onlinedesign said

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on 5/27/2008 Thank you for the valuable advice. It is brief and to the point. I am going to attempt to sue Trident Hospital of Charleston, South Carolina for their gross negligence related to their infection control.

I contracted a horrible case of MRSA on my face while my husband was being treated there for the same! They never quarantined him. they let me sleep in his bed with him. They never restricted me from touching him...they never left us with one piece of printed information about this horrible, contagious infection.

My face is now scarred am taking strong antibiotics for the next 2 months....Trident Hospital's infection control was lackadaisical to non-existent in our case.

I put up a Blog with pictures. Warning: disturbing photos of MRSA at work: http://trident-hospital-mrsa-infection.blogspot.com/

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