It has been recently reported that medical mistakes kill more than 18,000 and permanently disable 50,000 Australians every year. Cost to taxpayers is approximately $4.17 billion annually.

In this area of Personal Injury Law, if you have had treatment or received advice from a doctor, dentist, hospital, nurse, chiropracter, etc:

• where you were not advised about the risks associated with the treatment you received or the advice you were given; or
• where the results of treatment have not been what you were told to expect; or
• where the doctor or Health Care Provider made a wrong judgement in their treatment of you, causing further Injury, when another form of treatment may have avoided this new condition, then you may have claim for compensation.

A "Duty of Care" is owed to patients whilst being treated and/or given medical advice by Health Care providers.

It must be noted, that not every situation where something medically goes wrong is grounds for a "Negligence" or "Malpractice" claim.

At times, a patients condition can change quickly, prompting immediate medical decisions that may not necessarily have the desired end result. However, given all circumstances at the time, a claim of negligence in this instance may still not be warranted.

If grounds for negligence are determined by Legal advice, then you may be able to claim "Damages" for:

• the pain and suffering you have experienced, from both the new medical condition you now have and for the pain of the original injury or illness also;
• income you may have forfeited whilst recovering from the condition attributed to the negligence;
• future income you may lose (known as future economic loss) as a result of the Health care providers negligence; and
• costs associated with treatment, medications, nursing services, rehabilitation courses etc to assist in the recovery and injury repair process;

Like most areas of Personal Injury Law, stringent time limitations are again present. Don't delay. Call or email a Personal Injury Lawyer from our Australia-wide list today.

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