Failure to Monitor

Caring for patients is a multi-faceted undertaking, and competent health care providers must not only diagnose and treat patients, but must also monitor their patients’ conditions to assess any concerning health changes. If you sustained damages because a healthcare provider failed to monitor your condition, you may have a right to pursue compensation. The compassionate Baltimore medical malpractice lawyers of Arfaa Law Group are dedicated to helping people injured by insufficient care seek recourse for their harm. If you engage our services, we will advocate tirelessly to help you pursue any damages you may be able to recover.

There are many scenarios in which a healthcare provider’s failure to monitor a patient can result in harm, but some are more common than others. For example, if a woman is in labor and her healthcare providers do not properly monitor her condition, they may not notice if the woman or her child suffers a dangerous change in vital signs, which may necessitate an emergency C-section. As such, many birth injuries are caused by insufficient monitoring. Patients undergoing surgery are at risk for harm caused by inadequate monitoring as well. Specifically, they must be thoroughly monitored before, during, and after surgery, as they can unexpectedly suffer a drop in body temperature or blood pressure, or go into respiratory distress, requiring emergency treatment. People also frequently suffer harm due to their primary care physicians’ failure to monitor their symptoms, which can result in a failure to diagnose an acute condition such as a heart attack, or an underlying illness such as cancer.

Generally, a patient pursuing a medical malpractice claim against a healthcare provider due to harm caused by a failure to monitor must prove the provider acted negligently. In Maryland, a plaintiff asserting a negligence claim must establish both that the defendant deviated from the standard of care and that the deviation proximately caused the plaintiff’s harm. In a medical malpractice lawsuit, the standard of care that applies is the level of care that a reasonable practitioner in the same specialty, with similar training and skills, would render in a similar situation.

Because what constitutes appropriate care is typically beyond the understanding of the average person, in the majority of cases the plaintiff will need to retain an expert to testify as to the parameters of the standard of care and the manner in which the defendant’s actions constituted a breach of the standard. Expert testimony is also usually necessary to demonstrate how the defendant’s breach led to the plaintiff’s harm. In other words, the expert must explain that the plaintiff would not have suffered harm if the defendant complied with the applicable standard of care. A seasoned medical malpractice attorney can assist you in working with experts who can testify in your case.

A plaintiff that successfully proves a defendant’s failure to monitor caused his or her harm may recover compensation for the cost of any medical treatment needed due to the harm caused by the defendant, and if the plaintiff could not work due to his or her injuries or illness, compensation for lost wages. The plaintiff may be awarded damages for the pain and suffering he or she endured as well. If the plaintiff was married when he or she suffered damages, his or her spouse may also be owed compensation.

When a healthcare provider fails to monitor a person’s health, changes in the person’s condition are likely to go unnoticed, which can lead to grave harm and even death. If you were injured by your healthcare provider’s negligence, you can consult an attorney regarding your options for seeking damages. At Arfaa Law Group, we take pride in helping people harmed by medical malpractice pursue compensation for their losses, and we will aggressively advocate on your behalf. We have an office in Baltimore, where we regularly represent people in medical malpractice lawsuits. You can contact us through our form online or at 410-889-1850 to set up a confidential and free meeting.