Medical Negligence

mille100piedi

I want to make a claim for medical negligence, the doctor at the metabolic unit for adults at the Mater hospital is not taking care of my case. that unit is the only one in Ireland and I don't have other options. A doctor in USA is following my case and helping me with a diagnosis and treatment and now I can see some improvement after years.
The doctor at the Mater hospital is not doing his job and it is not taking my case seriously, after one year waiting to see him he wanted to know how much money I spent on the doctor in USA I didn't wanted to tell him, but he insisted and when I say I spent 500 Euro he was laughing at me?I was waiting one year to meet him again and finally I decided to search for help somewhere else! I felt hurt. This man has no respect for me. I need to do an expensive DNA test and he doesn't want to do it, the doctor in USA has a different opinion and thanks to the funds my family a friends collected for me I will be able to do the genetic test. But what about the people the don't have the money to search for help abroad?He also doesn't want to support my appeal for the invalidity benefit.
He even told me there is no point to look for a diagnosis because if we find one there will be no cure?is this the right approach of a specialist that work in a center of rare disease?has anybody made a claim for medical negligence? I don't know what I should do, this is really unfair.

Peregrinus

Don't take this the wrong way, mille100piedi, but "he won't give me the treatment I am asking for" is not, in itself, enough to establish a case of medical negligence. The question of what investigation and/or treatment is appropriate is a matter of clinical judgment, and the fact that you don't like the clinical judgment doesn't mean that it was negligently made. Nor is it enough that another doctor made a different judgment. You'd need to get another doctor, whose expertise and experience was at least comparable to that of the guy you are suing, to say that the judgment made by that guy was negligent - was one which no competent and careful medical practitioner would make.

mille100piedi

I did not ask for a treatment because I didn't know there was one. When the doctor from USA gave me the treatment and my condition improved I was surprised that the same treatment was not suggested by the doctor in Ireland. He suggested to take some supplement and I tried and it didn't work. the problem that he didn't suggested the right doses. anybody can google mito cocktail and see what is it and how can this help people with metabolic condition. I was forced to eat red meat every 3 hours night and day for years and now with the treatment I can sleep 8 hours and I don't need to eat all that meat. My carnitine level was low and this is also the reason I needed plenty of red meat in my diet. It is not that I don't like his clinical judgment, the problem that he is not making any effort to make one. why should spend my life eating every 3 hours and not sleeping when there are things out that might help my condition?
I already found a doctor with obviously more expertise and experience than the one in Dublin and I will definitely ask her too cooperate. The doctor in Dublin doesn't want to do any test, how can he find a diagnosis if is not doing any test?maybe it is not right talking about negligence but maybe omission, because he is doing nothing. Meanwhile the doctor in USA is taking her time to investigate my problem. Both doctors are geneticist but only the doctor in USA asked information about my family tree. Metabolic and mito condition are inherited condition and in my family there are cases of people born disabled, blind and so many other problems, when my DNA will be tested the lab will study also the DNA of the other symptomatic members of my family. The doctor in Ireland call me once in a year and he talks me for 15 minutes. I assure you it doesn't take 15 minutes understand and looking for a diagnosis for rare disorder like mine. the doctor is just lazy and think I am stupid.

mille100piedi

medical negligence can be:
Error or delay in diagnosis
Failure to act on test results
Error in performance of a procedure
Failure to fully communicate the risks associated with procedures
Error in administrating treatment or administrating drugs
Inadequate follow up

the doctor at the Mater didn't do one thing right

Peregrinus

His treatment of your case didn't have the outcome that your other doctor's treatment has had.

But that doesn't necessarily mean that his treatment was negligent, which is what you would need to show to have any chance of succeeding in a legal action.

Perhaps the way forward would be to ask your US doctor (a) whether he things the handling of your case by the Mater doctor was negligent, and (b) whether he would be willing to give evidence to that effect in a legal action that you might take. If the answer to both questions is "yes", then it might be time for you to talk to a lawyer.

A separate question, and one we haven't touched on so far, is what damages you might claim. Medical negligence cases are hugely expensive to run. (Your US doctor might be willing to give evidence, but he won't be willing to give evidence for free, and paying for evidence from witnesses who have the earnings expectations of medical consultants is an expensive business. And that's before you think about your lawyer's fees.) In general people only run them where they have huge losses that they need to cover - off work for years, need expensive and often ongoing medical treatment that they would not have needed if the illness had been properly managed, etc. On top of that you are running a big financial risk; if you take a medical negligence case and are not successful, you will be ordered to pay the costs of the defendant's insurerance company, which will be large.

You have suffered from poor sleep and the need to eat more might than you might wish to and I don't want to minimise the impact that that has had on your quality of life and general well-being, but usually you would need a lot more than could form the basis of a claim before it would be realistic to think of running a medical negligence action. But this is something on which a lawyer, if you get to the point of talking to one, could advise you in more detail, and with a better grasp of the facts than we have.

hullaballoo

Legal advice is not allowed on this forum or website. You are asking whether you can substantiate a claim in medical negligence in a given set of facts that apply to you personally and that constitutes a request for legal advice.

Thread closed.