Ask The Expert: What is Medical Malpractice?

Ask the Expert is sponsored by Gideon Asen. Medical mistakes can happen, but when is it medical malpractice? Ben Gideon with the Gideon Asen Law Firm is here to tell us a little bit more. Thanks so much for having us today. Let's just start with the basics. What exactly qualifies as medical malpractice? So the legal definition of medical malpractice is just unreasonable medical care. But of course, most of us aren't doctors, most of us didn't go to medical school, so how do we know if the medical care was reasonable or unreasonable? So what I tell people is look for something that was out of the ordinary. If somebody goes in for a standard or routine procedure and has a terrible outcome from that, that's worth looking into. If somebody goes into the hospital and never comes out, even though they're relatively healthy, something happened, it's worth looking into. And finally, sometimes you're going to get cues from doctors or nurses who will say, You should probably talk to a lawyer about this. What happened here shouldn't have happened. Those are things we hear a lot from clients who call in. So if a patient or a family member feels like something went wrong, what really is a good first step for them? The first step for them is to just give us a call. We talk to people every day who have questions about medical malpractice, and we help them think through the issues. We go through a detailed timeline. And then if we believe there was malpractice or we can't rule it out based on a discussion, the next step is we'll get the medical records for that patient and carefully review them, and then we can advise the client as to whether there might be a case. Is there a time frame in which you have to file a claim? In Maine, there's a three year statute of limitations to bring medical malpractice cases. That extends to six years for minors. So for little babies or children that might have been victims of malpractice, have a longer period of time to pursue those. If anybody would like more information and really just isn't sure if they have a case or not, what is the best way to get in contact with you or your team? Yeah, just give us a call at the phone number listed here or you can visit us on our website and there's a way to contact us through the website. Excellent. Ben, thank you so much for having us and your expertise. And I should mention we will have more information on wgme dot com as well.