Medical malpractice doesn’t just impact your physical health, it can also take a toll on your mental health. Many victims of malpractice experience severe emotional distress following traumatic events like this.
Fortunately, in Ohio, victims may be able to recover compensation for the emotional impact.
What Is Emotional Distress?
Emotional distress refers to the mental pain and suffering that occurs as a result of someone else’s negligent actions, such as medical malpractice. Throughout this article, we will be covering how emotional distress can be proven in a malpractice lawsuit after suffering severe injuries.
Proving Emotional Distress in a Medical Malpractice Lawsuit
To prove you are suffering emotional distress after medical malpractice, evidence for both claims needs to be gathered. This means you will need to prove that medical malpractice occurred and that it led to emotional distress.
Malpractice Evidence
Medical malpractice occurs when a medical provider breaches the standard of care, causing severe injuries to the patient.
To establish a medical malpractice claim, you must prove:
- The medical provider breached the standard of care.
- The breach of care directly caused severe injuries.
- These injuries led to physical, emotional, and financial damages.
Evidence of malpractice is gathered through reviewing medical records and consulting with medical experts to identify who and what caused the injuries.
Emotional Distress Evidence
Emotional distress claims are more challenging to prove because emotional harm is less tangible than physical injuries. This makes it hard to put a value on it.
However, five types of evidence can be used to prove emotional distress:
- Seeking Mental Health Treatment. If you’re experiencing distress, it is important to receive mental health treatment from a qualified psychologist or psychiatrist. This treatment will aid in the recovery process, but it can also be used as evidence to support your claim. Medical records can be pulled to show you received a diagnosis of distress and received mental health treatment after what you experienced. Your mental health professional may also be a valuable witness during the trial because they can give insight into how you were affected.
- Getting Expert Testimonies. Your attorney will hire expert witnesses, such as a mental health or grief specialist, to testify on your behalf. Experts will review the evidence and explain how your symptoms and diagnosis demonstrate mental suffering.
- Documenting Your Thoughts & Emotions. Writing down your feelings and thoughts daily is also very helpful. You can do this by journaling or even just by writing notes down on your phone. These personal notes can be additional evidence used to show your emotional challenges.
- Getting Statements From Loved Ones. Your attorney may seek input from your close friends and family to give an outside perspective on how you’ve changed since the malpractice. They will ask about any changes in your behavior or emotions since the traumatic event. This can be used in trial to show the greater impact that negligence had on your life and your loved ones’ lives.
- Requesting Medication Records. If you started taking antidepressants or antianxiety medications after the malpractice, your attorney may use these records as evidence. This proves that your mental health has been affected enough to need medication.
Your medical malpractice attorney will work with you to gather this evidence and other information needed to file a claim.
Symptoms of Emotional Distress
Emotional distress can cause mental, physical, cognitive, and behavioral changes. This is because trauma can change the brain’s stress response and structure. Unfortunately, for medical malpractice survivors, these effects can be permanently debilitating, in some cases.
Mental Changes
- Anxiety: Feelings of fear and worry that the traumatic event will happen again, leading to extreme stress and panic.
- Depression: Persistent feelings of sadness and loss of enjoyment of activities.
- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): Reoccurring thoughts or flashbacks after experiencing a traumatic event.
- Mood Swings: Extreme shifts in mood for no clear reason.
- Intense Fear: Developing an extreme fear of medical providers or going to the doctor’s office or hospital.
- Irritability: Frequent anger and frustration towards friends, family, and co-workers.
Behavioral Changes
- Withdrawal: Being closed off from loved ones and distancing from those who care about you.
- Avoiding Social Situations: Avoiding social interaction or doing everyday activities.
- Relationship Strain: Experiencing tension or conflict in relationships with family, friends, or co-workers after the trauma.
Cognitive Changes
- Memory Issues: Difficulty recalling memories from before and after the traumatic event.
- Issues Concentrating: Unable to focus on tasks, often starting but unable to finish them.
Physical Changes
- Sleep Disorders: Developing sleep disorders like insomnia, nightmares, or night terrors, making it difficult to sleep.
- Fatigue: Constantly feeling tired and having a lack of energy.
- Appetite Change: Extreme changes in appetite, such as overeating or undereating, compared to usual eating patterns.
Can You Receive Compensation For Emotional Distress in Ohio?
In Ohio, you can receive compensation for emotional distress by recovering non-economic damages. These damages are meant to compensate victims for intangible losses, such as mental anguish, pain, suffering, and the loss of enjoyment of life.
Determining the exact amount of compensation can be challenging because it is ultimately decided by a jury at trial. Since emotional damage is subjective, jurors may disagree on how much compensation the victim should receive.
Under Ohio law, non-economic damages are capped, meaning they can’t exceed a certain amount. The cap is either $250,000 or three times the economic damages, up to a maximum of $350,000, whichever amount is greater.
Get Legal Help Now
Have you or a loved one experienced emotional distress due to a negligent medical provider? If so, our team is here to help you hold them accountable by filing a medical malpractice claim.
At The Mellino Law Firm, we have over 40 years of experience handling medical malpractice cases. We have reached settlements and verdicts against every hospital system in Cleveland. Our team of attorneys is dedicated to fighting for you and your family every step of the way.
Call our Cleveland office at (440) 333-3800 or complete our online contact form to schedule a free initial consultation.