Emotional Trauma Without Physical Harm May Qualify As Medical Malpractice

Law Blog

You know that medical malpractice can lead to serious injuries, and even causes fatalities. After what happened to you at a medical facility, you're wondering whether malpractice also addresses emotional trauma, even if no actual physical harm was done. Attorneys who include malpractice in their areas of expertise work to gain financial compensation for patients dealing with post-traumatic stress after an ordeal during surgery or other medical care.

Emotionally Traumatic Malpractice

Any type of medical malpractice is likely to cause emotional trauma, but long-lasting psychological disturbance can occur even without a physical injury. Some examples of experiences that can cause post-traumatic stress include:

• regaining consciousness just before or during an operation
• not receiving adequate pain medication for surgery
• being told in error that a loved one had died in the hospital
• receiving a terminal diagnosis in error, especially if it led the patient to make drastic life changes such as quitting a job or selling property

These types of malpractice are not entirely uncommon. For instance, of every 1,000 surgical patients, one or two will regain awareness while under general anesthesia. This experience is strongly connected with lingering emotional trauma.

Your Post-Traumatic Stress Diagnosis

To successfully claim financial compensation from the medical facility, you will need a confirmed diagnosis of mental health problems resulting from the harmful incident. That diagnosis should be made by a clinical psychologist or a psychiatrist. Examples of symptoms that indicate long-lasting emotional trauma include:

• nightmares
• flashbacks of the traumatic event
• feeling unusually depressed
• feeling nervous, anxious or scared for no apparent reason
• self-medicating to regain a sense of calm, such as drinking alcohol excessively
• having strong negative reactions to anything that reminds you of the traumatic episode
• avoidance behavior, such as refusing to continue with any health care or even to drive by the medical facility

These symptoms may be considered indicative of post-traumatic stress if they have lasted at least 30 days. 

What Can You Do Now?

Contact a medical malpractice attorney like Poulos & Coates, LLP for a free consultation. If you decide to hire this lawyer, he or she will seek financial compensation that covers aspects such as emotional pain and suffering, inability to enjoy life fully, difficulties with relationships, and job problems. If you have missed a lot of work or have even lost your job because of your mental health issues, the compensation should cover lost wages as well.

The medical facility also should pay for as much psychological counseling as you need to recover from the trauma. 

18 December 2014