Medical malpractice victims can face serious injuries that impact their quality of life. As a result, they may experience significant emotional distress. This is partially a result of their injuries and because of the trauma surrounding the experience.
If you plan on filing a medical malpractice lawsuit, you can sue a hospital for emotional distress, among other damages. Read on to learn more, including examples of emotional distress, the evidence you need to file a medical malpractice claim, and how a personal injury attorney can help.
Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers proudly represents many clients in medical malpractice cases, recovering millions in damages. When you are ready to seek justice, we are here to help.
What is Emotional Distress?
Emotional distress is your body’s emotional response to a traumatic event, including medical malpractice. Everyone’s psychological injuries are different and can present in various ways. Typical representations of emotional distress include:
- Anxiety, including severe anxiety
- Deep depression
- Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
- Insomnia
- Fear
- Sadness
- Suicidal ideation
- Isolation
- Physical pain, such as stomachaches
Severe emotional distress tends to cause a more severe reaction. Some patients experience pain as if they have a physical injury. All of these feelings can have a significant impact on your quality of life. You cannot only sue a hospital or doctor for emotional distress. It should be part of a more substantial claim, including other damages, medical expenses, and financial burdens.
Connecting Emotional Distress to Hospital Negligence
So, can you sue a hospital for emotional distress? Yes, but you need to connect the emotional distress to hospital negligence. A personal injury attorney can help you build your medical negligence case.
- First, they will establish care. They will show that you were a patient through medical records and other documentation.
- Then, they will prove that medical negligence occurred, such as hospital personnel failed to provide proper care, and you suffered emotional distress.
- These damages contributed to significant emotional distress that would not have happened without medical malpractice at the hands of the doctor and hospital.
If you cannot connect the emotional distress to the hospital and the doctor, you cannot sue the hospital for emotional distress.
Grounds for Suing a Hospital for Emotional Distress
Hospitals can be found liable for a patient’s emotional distress. There are several different grounds you can sue them on when it comes to emotional distress cases, including negligent infliction of emotional distress (NIED), intentional infliction of emotional distress (IIED), and breach of contract.
Negligent Infliction of Emotional Distress (NIED)
NIED is a tort, a type of civil wrong that occurs when someone causes harm to another through their negligent behaviors. This harm can be personal injury, property damage, or emotional distress. It does not have to be intentional.
In a medical malpractice claim, you must prove that the hospital’s negligence directly caused the psychological trauma that you faced. They provided the following:
- The environment where the negligence occurred
- The lack of oversight to prevent pain and suffering
- The employment opportunities for the doctor or medical professional
State laws vary regarding how damages will be calculated for NIED in a medical malpractice claim, so consult a legal professional to learn more.
Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress (IIED)
IIED is the deliberate cause of emotional distress in a patient. To prove IIED, you must establish four different factors:
- The hospital or medical professional acted with intention or recklessly
- The hospital’s actions were extreme and outrageous
- The actions caused the patient pain and suffering
- The distress experienced was severe
This is another tort, but unlike NIED, you must establish intent for IIED to apply. By suing for IIED, you are saying the actions were done on purpose, and they were meant to cause pain and suffering. It did not happen by accident.
Breach of Contract
Patients expect reasonable care when they are at a hospital. However, victims of medical malpractice may experience the opposite. The hospital or healthcare provider may have violated an agreement, causing significant pain and suffering.
You can prove breach of contract by establishing negligence in medical malpractice cases. Additionally, if the hospital acted wantonly or recklessly and their actions caused harm, you can use those actions to demonstrate a breach of contract.
Proving a breach of contract may be challenging, but medical malpractice attorneys can help guide you through the process.
Examples of Hospital Negligence Leading to Emotional Distress
Hospital negligence can take many different forms. Regardless of its form, hospital or healthcare provider negligence can lead to significant emotional distress. It’s up to you to prove emotional distress, in addition to physical injuries, during a medical malpractice claim.
Medical Misdiagnosis or Delayed Diagnosis
You seek medical attention to obtain a diagnosis and move forward with a treatment plan. However, sometimes doctors make mistakes, resulting in pain and suffering. They may accidentally misdiagnose you or delay diagnosis for any number of reasons.
This can lead a patient to develop:
- Anxiety
- Fear
- Depression
- Loss of quality of life
- Worsened medical conditions
All of these scenarios cause emotional distress in a patient.
Surgical Errors or Medical Mistakes
Doctors and surgeons can make mistakes during treatment. However, they can cause pain and suffering for the patients. Examples of medical errors due to the healthcare provider’s negligence include:
- Surgical errors: Surgeons can operate on the wrong body part or make incorrect incisions that can cause nerve damage, extremely painful recoveries, and more.
- Medication errors: Doctors can give patients the wrong medication or incorrect dosages. This can worsen symptoms or cause new ones to develop.
- Foreign objects: Surgeons can leave foreign objects in a patient’s body. It may need to be removed, requiring additional surgeries, recovery time, lost wages, and more.
Doctors and hospitals are held to higher standards of care. There should be checks and balances that prevent a healthcare provider’s negligence from happening.
Lack of Informed Consent
Patients have a right to understand their medical options. They should be able to choose their medical procedure. It can be partially based on their doctor’s recommendations, personal situation, and other factors.
Unfortunately, sometimes, patients are not given a choice. Instead, they are subjected to medical procedures without their consent. This can violate a patient’s autonomy and cause emotional trauma.
They did not consent to the treatment, but now they are forced to deal with the emotional pain from it for the rest of their lives. Medical malpractice attorneys can help you prove there wasn’t informed consent.
Negligent Discharge or Abandonment
Many hospitals are busy and want to move patients in and out as fast as possible. They need beds for new patients, and they may prematurely discharge patients because they need the beds.
If the patient is still experiencing symptoms, in significant pain, or not ready to leave, a premature discharge can cause emotional suffering and cause a patient to be readmitted. The patient may experience health complications from their original issue and premature discharge, leading to additional financial burdens, recovery time, and lost wages.
Additionally, some patients do not receive proper care at the hospital. Nurses, doctors, and other medical professionals do not check on them. Their care has been abandoned. Over time, this can lead to new physical injuries and emotional trauma. This is grounds for medical negligence cases.
Proving a Medical Malpractice Claim
As you look to file an emotional distress claim, there are steps you and an attorney can take to help you build your medical malpractice case.
Documenting Symptoms and Seeking Treatment
If you are a medical malpractice victim, you must seek additional medical treatment to help address your new health concerns, such as mental health counseling for your psychological injury. Additionally, you may want to seek the assistance of mental health professionals to help provide extra support for the emotional trauma you endured.
Take care of yourself before you start building a medical malpractice case. Once you feel able, you need to document everything. Gather records of the initial diagnosis, treatment plan, and surgery results. Then, pull together what happened afterward, including any physical or mental health care you received and the costs you endured due to the medical mistake.
Turn those over to your attorney when they start building their case. No detail is too small.
Expert Testimony
Mental health professionals can provide expert testimony to prove the hospital’s negligence and the emotional distress damages are linked.
They can share if you developed a psychological or psychiatric disorder after the medical mistake and the impact it had on your life. This expert testimony is in addition to the certificate of merit needed to file a claim initially.
An experienced medical malpractice attorney can help guide you through the process of selecting expert testimony and the impact it can have on your case.
Linking Emotional Distress to the Negligent Act
Most importantly, you need to demonstrate a clear connection between the hospital’s negligence and the emotional distress damages you suffered. Emotional injuries can be hard to prove in medical malpractice claims. Emotional harm is less visible than physical injuries, but they are not less real.
The burden of proof is on you and your medical malpractice lawyer to establish negligence, demonstrate causation, and seek compensation for your mental anguish.
The Role of a Personal Injury Lawyer
Personal injury lawyers play an essential role in an emotional distress lawsuit. They know how to build a case to help you recover compensation for your physical and emotional injuries, including medical expenses.
Evaluating Your Case and Potential Claim
During a free consultation, lawyers can help assess the circumstances of your case and determine if you have a valid claim. They will review the initial information and provide legal recommendations, including how to sue a hospital or healthcare providers for emotional distress.
Gathering Evidence and Building a Strong Case
Once they’ve taken the case, your personal injury attorney will start to build a case. They will gather evidence, such as the clinical diagnosis, interview witnesses, and consult with experts on your behalf. Lawyers often have access to a wealth of information and will leverage that to create a solid case for pain and suffering damages.
Negotiating with the Hospital or Their Insurers
Personal injury attorneys handle all communications so you can focus on healing and recovering from your emotional distress. They negotiate with the hospital and insurance companies, helping to get a fair settlement.
Your lawyer will represent you in court if an agreement cannot be reached. They will do their best to prove emotional distress, pain and suffering, and more to maximize your settlement. Your attorney is your best advocate throughout the legal process.
Get a Free Consultation With a Medical Malpractice Attorney
Hospitals can be negligent in their duty of care despite the best intentions. This can lead to significant emotional, physical, and financial damages. If you are the victim of medical malpractice, you can sue a hospital for emotional distress.
Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers can help you navigate your legal options. We’ve helped hundreds of clients recover compensation for their emotional distress, among other damages. Contact us today for a free consultation to learn more.
Our team is just a call away at (888) 424-5757. You can also fill out the form on our website, and an experienced lawyer will contact you shortly.