Depending on the nature of the injury, a person injured from medical malpractice may be able to bring several types of claims against a doctor or other health care provider. These claims are generally:

• Failure to Follow Accepted Procedures (Substandard Care)
  
• Failure to Diagnose Cancer
  
• Wrongful Birth

Failure to Follow Accepted Procedures (Substandard Care)

An injured person can claim in a lawsuit that the doctor or health care provider did not follow the accepted procedures for providing treatment or care. In any industry, including the medical profession, certain procedures are recognized to be standard in the handling of a specific task. Likewise, in the medical profession, there are generally accepted procedures that are standard for diagnosing and treating certain conditions or illnesses. If a doctor or health care provider does not follow these accepted procedures in diagnoses or treatment, the person injured as a result can make this claim in a lawsuit for medical malpractice.

Failure to Diagnose Cancer

A person not properly diagnosed as having cancer can claim in a lawsuit that the doctor or health care provider failed to diagnose cancer. This is a relatively new area of medical malpractice law that is usually associated with a failure to diagnose lung cancer.

Failure to diagnose lung cancer can include the following types of claims:

• A doctor did not prescribe tests to diagnose cancer when a patient's background and symptoms show that cancer may be a possibility; or
  
• A doctor misinterprets an x-ray or other diagnostic test; or
  
• A doctor did not prescribe additional, more specific diagnostic tests, such as CT Scans or MRIs, when x-rays indicated the possibility of cancer.

Birth Injuries

Another type of medical malpractice claim involves birth injuries. A child and the child's parents can sue a doctor or other health care provider if a child is born with a disease or condition, such as cerebral palsy or spina bifida, or if the child is injured during childbirth. This claim usually involves the failure of a doctor or other health care provider to diagnose, advise and potentially treat the child to prevent or minimize injuries.