People often think about doctors when they think of medical malpractice cases and may not know that this area of the law extends to a wide range of healthcare practitioners who may treat you. If any of your medical practitioners has acted in a negligent manner, you should speak to a medical malpractice attorney to ascertain whether you have grounds for a malpractice case. Seeing a physical therapist after an injury is often a way to speed up your recovery, but issues can sometimes arise. If your physical therapist's negligence has led to problems for you, a malpractice case may be your best option. Here are three things that can lead to this situation.
New Injury Suffered
When you're going to physical therapy for the treatment of an injury, the last thing that you want to happen is to suffer another injury. However, if a physical therapist makes a bad decision about how to treat you, it's possible that you could develop a different injury as a direct result of your therapy sessions. For example, perhaps the therapist is working on your lower body and moves you in an awkward position that hurts your back. While your attorney's investigators will need to prove that the therapist was negligent in the way that he or she moved you, you could have a case.
Improper Home Exercises
Physical therapy involves going to scheduled appointments and working on specific exercises on your own at home. You count on your physical therapist to give you an at-home exercise regimen that will help you to recover from whatever injury you've suffered. There could be a time, however, that your therapist gives you improper exercises to practice at home, and they lead to complications. Such an issue could be a simple oversight, but also a serious one. For example, the therapist may have given a few pages of exercises designed for another patient with a different injury.
Worsening Of Existing Injury
You count on your physical therapy to speed up the time that it takes your existing injury to heal, but you may encounter a situation in which these sessions actually worsen it. This could potentially happen for a wide range of reasons, but a common scenario is that the physical therapist is inadequately trained to deal with your injury. This may be the case if you have an uncommon injury, for example. Talk to your medical malpractice attorney, who will gather the facts and determine if there's enough cause to move forward legally.
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