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Who can be sued for birth injury and medical malpractice?

On Behalf of | Apr 8, 2016 | Uncategorized |

New Mexico residents go to healthcare facilities for a variety of reasons. Sometimes, they may visit a hospital to get themselves checked out by a doctor after falling ill. Other times, they may visit a health care facility after going into labor in order to give birth. In both cases, patients usually expect to be handled with the utmost care. However, the unfortunate reality is that sometimes doctors act negligently, resulting in a patient suffering a worsened condition or a birth injury occurring. When this happens, victims may want to know who may be held liable.

Following an incident of medical malpractice, there a number of parties who may be sued. For instance, the hospital itself may be found liable. In situations where the health care facility fails to ensure that an adequate number of registered nurses were on duty, for example, that health care facility may be held liable. If one of the health care facility’s employees acted negligently during treatment or childbirth, that health care facility may also be held vicariously liable.

However, if the employees were independent contractors, the health care facility may not be able to be held responsible for the worker’s actions. Sometimes, too, a pharmaceutical company may be held liable in a medical malpractice case when a drug results in a patient being injured and the manufacturer neglected to warn the physician about the drug’s side effects.

There are many variables in birth injury and medical malpractice cases that can affect the outcome. Attorneys can tailor a legal strategy that takes into account these variables. Although a medical malpractice lawsuit can never undo the damage that occurred, it may allow victims to obtain compensation for the negligence of a health care provider.

Source: FindLaw, “Medical Malpractice: Who Can Be Sued?,” Accessed on April 4, 2016

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