Can You Sue a Hospital for Emotional Distress
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Seeking treatment in a hospital can be a trying feel. The delays, uncertainty, and costs involved tin can all seem similar too much for many people to bear. Despite this, however, near patients get the treatment they need and they are eventually able to motility on with their lives.
But what if your hospital feel is worse? What if yous suffer from emotional distress as a event of your experience? Or, what if you are forced to spotter a loved one endure unnecessarily due to the negligence of the hospital's personnel?
In these cases, you lot may exist able to sue the hospital for emotional distress.
When Can Yous Sue a Infirmary for Emotional Distress in California?
There are 3 main circumstances in which a hospital may be liable for causing patients and their families emotional distress. Under California law, these situations include:
- Medical malpractice resulting in physical and emotional harm
- Medical malpractice resulting in emotional distress prior to death
- Being a "directly victim" of negligent infliction of emotional distress
1. Medical Malpractice Resulting in Physical and Emotional Impairment
If you lot believe you were harmed by medical malpractice (or any other form of negligence) in a California hospital, yous tin file a lawsuit against the hospital to recover financial compensation for your physical and emotional damage. You may exist entitled to compensation for emotional distress, which encompasses damages related to:
- Anguish and suffering
- Feet
- Grief
- Nervousness, fearfulness, and horror
- Post-traumatic stress
- Shock
- Shame and humiliation
When patients suffer injuries, illnesses, and other complications due to medical negligence, it is not unusual to experience all of these emotions. It can be difficult to accept that you have unknowingly misplaced your trust, and it can be fifty-fifty more difficult to accept that you may have to live with the consequences of someone else'southward mistake for the rest of your life.
If you endure harm due to medical malpractice, yous are entitled to seek compensation for all of the effects of your healthcare provider's error. Given the serious, long-term consequences of errors in a healthcare setting, emotional distress could account for a pregnant portion of the damages in your claim.
2. Medical Malpractice Resulting in Emotional Distress Prior to Death
If your loved i passed away due to medical malpractice in a California infirmary, you can seek financial compensation for the emotional distress your relative endured prior to death. In wrongful expiry claims, family unit members effectively pursue the compensation a loved one may have recovered had he or she survived.
More often than not speaking, family members cannot recover fiscal compensation for the emotional distress they experience as a event of witnessing a loved one'southward passing due to medical negligence. While California police force allows "bystander" claims in some cases, this generally isn't a possibility in the infirmary setting.
3. "Direct Victim" Claims Involving Negligent Infliction of Emotional Distress
While medical malpractice claims crave evidence of physical impairment, infirmary patients in California tin also pursue claims without testify of concrete harm in cases of negligent infliction of emotional distress. These are known as "direct victim" claims (in dissimilarity to the "bystander" claims referenced to a higher place).
In social club to pursue a merits against a hospital for negligent infliction of emotional distress without testify of physical impairment, a patient must exist able to prove that:
- The hospital owed the patient a duty of care (i.east., there was a doctor-patient relationship);
- The hospital (or, equally is oft the example, the patient's dr. specifically) was negligent; and
- The negligence of the infirmary and/or the doctor caused the patient to endure serious emotional distress.
As a practical matter, negligent infliction of emotional distress claims against hospitals are relatively rare. In most cases, patients suffer from emotional distress as a result of the concrete effects of their doctors' negligence (i.e., learning that their condition has progressed due to a delayed diagnosis).
Yet, patients tin can pursue these claims in appropriate cases. If you lot accept experienced emotional distress every bit a issue of negligent care in a hospital under whatever circumstances, you should absolutely speak with a lawyer about your legal rights.
Are You Entitled to Bounty for Emotional Distress?
Nobody wants to go to the hospital. Most visits are occasioned past a sudden injury, worsening health, and other unforeseen issues. When yous go to the hospital, you await the doctors and staff to employ the utmost care in diagnosing and treating your condition.
Unfortunately, medical errors tin can lead to significant trauma. Malpractice tin can harm you physically and result in emotional distress for yous and your family.
Attorney Mickey Fine has more than thirty years of experience handling a wide range of personal injury claims. When you rent the Law Offices of Mickey Fine, we explore all options for recovering the full compensation you deserve.
Please call (661) 333-3333 today for a complimentary instance evaluation. The Law Offices of Mickey Fine handles claims involving infirmary negligence in Bakersfield and other areas of California.
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Source: https://www.personalinjurybakersfield.com/blog/hospital-liability-emotional-distress/
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