Select your language
+30697 1574383
ATHENS 11471
As in any other injury case, it is the plaintiff's burden in a medical malpractice case to prove that the doctor was negligent. In medical malpractice cases, courts often define negligence as the physician's failure to exercise the degree of care and skill of the average physician practicing the defendant's specialty, taking into account advances in the profession and the resources available to the defendant.
Surgical malpractice cases are among the most complex and difficult to pursue, as they involve proving that: a qualified medical practitioner has behaved in a way that fell below the standards that a reasonable person might expect.
The arguments in such a case will be highly technical and may revolve around the biological and medical details of a complex surgical procedure. This is why it is vital to have a lawyer specialised in medical malpractice surrounded by the relevant staff of technical experts.
Read more: Surgical medical errors: requirement for experience and claim knowledge
European data, mainly from EU Member States, consistently show that medical errors and adverse events related to healthcare occur in 8% to 12% of hospitalisations.
For example, the UK Department of Health, in its 2000 report 'An organisation with a memory', estimates around 850,000 adverse events per year (10% of hospital admissions). Spain (in its 2005 national study on adverse effects) and France and Denmark have published impact studies with similar results.
Read more: Medical errors and adverse events: Data and Statistics