Name
Institutional affiliation
The appellant filed a dental malpractice against the defendant. The suit arose from an incident where a tray containing material used to make dental impressions stuck in the patient’s mouth. It required considerable effort to dislodge it. The force used to dislodge the tray allegedly injured the patient’s neck. The appellant went to the dentists to have her teeth cleaned. The dentist decided that she also needed an impression and instructed his dental technician to clean her teeth and make the impression. The technician made the impression by inserting a tray filled with a dental compound into her mouth. When the technician attempted to remove the impression, it could not dislodge from …show more content…
It noted that a plaintiff could establish a medical malpractice case by showing that the defendant had a duty to observe a certain standard of care to prevent unreasonable injury, the defendant failed to observe this standard, the breach of the duty resulted in an injury and the breach of duty was a proximate cause of the injury. The court also reasoned that an expert witness could only establish medical malpractice unless a lay person could infer the negligence as a matter of practical experience or common sense. This liability is founded on the failure to provide the required standard of care. The success of a plaintiff’s case rests on the opinion of medical experts. The expert witness must show the objective standard of care and establish that the injuries suffered by the plaintiff were a proximate result of the breach of the duty (Ferreres, …show more content…
This can be done by using the testimony of another medical practitioner who is qualified in the same area as the defendant to show the standard of care expected from a qualified and competent practitioner. The expert will also have to show that the defendant failed to observe this standard of care. Medical professionals are held to a higher standard of accountability expected from professional practitioners. The doctor in this case was not held accountable because the plaintiff failed to establish the elements necessary for a medical malpractice case. The malpractice case would have a similar impact on health care providers from different cultural backgrounds. A reasonable standard of care is required to prevent unnecessary harm to patients (Ferreres, 2014).
Reference list
Eloy, J. A., Svider, P. F., Patel, D., Setzen, M., & Baredes, S. (2013). Comparison of plaintiff and defendant expert witness qualification in malpractice litigation in otolaryngology. Otolaryngology--Head and Neck Surgery, 148(5), 764-769.
Ferreres, A. R. (2014). Ethical issues of expert witness testimony. World journal of surgery, 38(7), 1644-1649.
Jenkins, D. (2014). Defense from Within: A Guide to Success as a Dental Malpractice Defense Expert. CRANIO: The Journal of Craniomandibular Practice, 32(1), 75-77.
Johnston, J. C., & Sartwelle, T. P. (2013). The expert witness