Attorneys in Health Care Industry

Compensation Payable for Injuries Suffered as the Result of Medical Negligence

If you have suffered injury and damages as the result of a course of treatment, lack of treatment, lack of informed consent, lack of proper medical care, or the incorrect procedure followed by your health care professional, your first step should be to get in contact with attorneys in the health care industry.

It is important to specifically seek guidance from attorneys in the health care industry as medical law is a specialised field of law and any type of medical lawsuit or even claim for compensation is complex. The attorneys working with negligence lawsuits in the health care industry already understand the procedure to follow to claim compensation. They will also provide you with advice on what you can receive compensation.

We briefly take a look below at compensation for damages payable once negligence has been proven. The attorneys in health care industry will advise you in-depth regarding each of the categories for which compensation for damages is payable.

Past and Future Medical Expenses

The past medical expenses relate to costs incurred from the date of the negligence up to the date of compensation. To ensure that you can be compensated for such expenses, you must keep all accounts, invoices, payment receipts, and records of payment for medical expenses directly related to the injury suffered. This includes medicine, doctor visits, hospitalisation, and tests.

Future medical expenses related to the compensation payable for expenses that you will incur to receive treatment, injury rehabilitation and ongoing care must also be considered. For this, medical experts and actuaries will be called in to quantify the compensation payable.

Past and Future Loss of Earnings

You will be able to get compensation for the work days lost and subsequent income loss as the result of the injury. This also relates to future loss of income if you are unable to perform your duties as the result of the injury sustained. Note that you will need to submit salary slips, tax information, bank statements and the likes in support of your claim for compensation related to the damages.

Other Expenses

Note that you can only claim compensation for expenses related to the injury and treatment thereof. Travel costs, phone and internet costs directly related to such can be compensated. We recommend speaking to attorneys in health care industry regarding such expenses and the requirements for successful claiming of compensation.

General Damages

If you have suffered loss of life amenities, disfigurement, emotional shock or loss of life expectancy as the result of the injury suffered, you will also be able to claim compensation for such.  The general damages are non-patrimonial. Since the value of the loss suffered cannot be calculated exactly, the court normally has discretion over what amount is payable. For this the court relies on past awarding of damages by other courts for similar injuries. There are factors that come into play when calculation of general damages is made, such as the pain you will suffer, further invasive procedures that will be needed in treatment of the injury, and thus further physical pain, scarring, and more.

Seek legal guidance from Adele van der Walt Incorporated as one of the experienced medical law attorneys in South Africa regarding the procedure for claiming compensation for damages suffered as the result of medical negligence.

Disclaimer

Information in this article is not intended as legal advice and is only for informational purposes. Please seek legal guidance from Adele van der Walt before relying on this information to make any legal decisions.

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