Can You Sue for Emotional Distress in Medical Malpractice Cases?

Not all injuries from a traumatic event are physical injuries. Medical malpractice can also leave you with emotional scars. Negligent health care providers are liable for their victims’ damages. This means compensation for medical negligence and malpractice can provide for both physical and emotional injuries.

You can recover emotional distress damages in a medical malpractice lawsuit. However, damages for emotional distress vary by state. For legal advice about emotional distress damages, talk to a local medical malpractice lawyer.

What Is Emotional Distress?

Emotional distress is a human response to traumatic events. People suffer emotional distress after witnessing or experiencing trauma. Traumatic experiences can include accidents, violence, or natural disasters.

Negligent medical treatment causes long-term emotional harm. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, signs of emotional distress include:

• Difficulty sleeping
• Eating too much or too little
• Anger, irritability, or severe anxiety
• Depression
• Lack of interest in things you enjoyed previously
• Losing touch with friends and loved ones
• Unexplained aches and pains
• Substance abuse
• Thoughts of suicide or self-harm

Thinking about legal options can be challenging after something as stressful as medical malpractice. Many victims of medical malpractice never pursue an emotional distress claim for damages, but compensation could be available.

How Does Medical Malpractice Cause Emotional Distress?

Everyone experiences stress. But most stress is temporary. Severe emotional trauma can cause these feelings to last for weeks, months, or even years. Medical errors can cause severe emotional distress because your physical pain can leave you with fear and distrust.

Emotional distress is a survival mechanism to help people deal with future traumatic experiences. For example, if medical malpractice leaves you with physical scars, this can be a daily reminder of your trauma. A cancer misdiagnosis will make you hypersensitive to the signs and symptoms of other health conditions. It can also make you mistrust doctors to the point you avoid getting medical care in the future.

In short: Emotional stress takes a severe toll on your mental health.

Who Is Responsible for Emotional Distress?

In an emotional distress lawsuit, you have to prove that surgeon, nurse, doctor, or other medical professional who treated you is liable for your injuries. To prove liability, you have to show:

• The doctor owed you a duty of care as the patient
• The doctor deviated from the medical standard of care
• The doctor’s negligence caused your injuries
• You suffered emotional distress as a result of the doctor’s negligence

Can You Sue a Hospital for Emotional Distress?

You can sue a hospital for medical malpractice, including emotional distress. When you file a personal injury claim, you name the defendants responsible for your injuries. Defendants include doctors, medical professionals, and businesses like hospitals and clinics. A hospital is liable for their negligence and their employees’ negligence.

Employers are vicariously liable for negligence of employees in the course of their employment. If a hospital worker negligently causes your injuries, the hospital is responsible for the damage. Talk to your personal injury attorney about how to sue a hospital for emotional distress.

How Do You Prove Emotional Distress?

You need to prove emotional distress to recover damages in a medical malpractice lawsuit. Proving physical harm is simpler because there are visible signs of damage. Psychological injuries are more difficult to prove because they’re on the inside.

In a medical malpractice lawsuit, victims sue defendants for economic and non-economic damages. Economic damages include medical bills, loss of earning capacity, and future medical expenses. While non-economic damages don’t have a set dollar value, they can be just as damaging. Non-economic damages in a medical malpractice claim include:

• Pain and suffering
• Loss of quality of life
• Mental anguish
• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
• Disfigurement

Medical records and medical bills can prove physical injuries. You can prove emotional distress with expert testimony from a mental health professional. Other evidence of emotional distress includes:

• Changes in school or job performance
• Mental health counseling records
• Journals or diaries
• Videos to show your struggles in daily life
• Testimonies from your family members and loved ones

Is There a Cap on Emotional Distress Damages?

While some states have found damage caps to be unconstitutional, about half of states have a cap on non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases that limits how much you can get in compensation.

In many cases, even the jury doesn’t know about the caps when they give their verdict on damages. A jury in a traumatic wrongful death medical malpractice case may award the victim’s loved ones $1 million in damages for mental anguish. But the verdict will be reduced to the maximum amount allowed under state law.

Some states limit emotional distress damages to $250,000. To find out if your state puts a limit on damages in emotional distress cases, talk to an experienced medical malpractice attorney.

Find a Medical Malpractice Lawyer for Help

A medical malpractice lawyer can help you through these challenging times. They can relieve some of your stress by dealing with hospitals and insurance companies, so you don’t have to. They can explain the process and let you know what to expect.

Most medical malpractice lawyers offer a free case evaluation. You won’t have to pay anything upfront. Contact a medical malpractice lawyer to understand your legal options.