With Major League Baseball playoffs now underway, baseball fans around Baltimore are cheering for their favorite teams, if they were fortunate enough to make the playoffs. Those teams will be doing whatever they can to try and win it all. One player is now making waves off the field, however, after suing his team's doctor for medical malpractice.
Yankees player Alex Rodriguez, who has seen his share of headlines this year, recently filed a medical malpractice action against the Yankees' team doctor and a hospital. The suit focuses on the doctor's alleged misdiagnosis of Rodriguez's hip injury last year, which allowed Rodriguez to keep playing during last year's playoffs. By not informing Rodriguez of the superior labral tear in his left hip, Rodriguez alleges that he sustained further injury, which required additional surgeries that forced him to miss a great deal of time this season.
While the lawsuit may seem somewhat unique, in that professional sports players do not often sue their team's doctors, this suit illustrates that multiple individuals may be sued for medical malpractice when their negligence causes personal injury to a patient. For instance, in addition to the doctor himself or herself, patients may sue nurses, anesthesiologists, or other medical professionals who were involved in the treatment of the patient.
Besides those directly involved in the care, patients may also sue the hospital or other facility itself that provided the services, or even pharmaceutical or other companies who provided medications and other medical devices to the patient. Accordingly, there are a wide variety of individuals and entities that may be held accountable for medical malpractice, depending on the facts and circumstances surrounding a particular case.
