What Are the Elements of a Wrongful Death Claim?

Medical records are essential for establishing the elements of a wrongful death claim. These documents provide a paper trail that might reveal negligence or maltreatment by healthcare providers toward your client. 

Use this guide to quickly identify and leverage medical records to support your subsequent wrongful death lawsuit. 

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Elements of a Wrongful Death Claim

A wrongful death claim is a civil suit initiated by surviving family members or the estate of a deceased person. It may allege that negligence, malpractice, or other intentional and reckless behavior caused the death of a patient. 

Wrongful death claims must prove the following elements:

1. Duty of Care: The defendant owed a duty of care to the deceased.
2. Breach of Duty: The defendant breached that duty.
3. Causation: The breach of duty directly caused the death.
4. Damage or Loss: The surviving family members suffered measurable damages.

In this article, we’ll discuss how fast retrieval of medical records can help legal professionals identify these elements and build a wrongful death case.

Check Medical Timelines For Evidence of Wrongful Death

Diagnostic errors result in the death or permanent disability of 795,000 Americans each year. Tracking the sequence and progression of patient care is crucial in establishing the elements of a wrongful death claim. 

Medical records provide a clear timeline of the patient’s health, from initial diagnoses to treatments and interventions leading to death. Following the timeline can help you spot patterns of negligence.

Check the following elements when reviewing a medical timeline if you suspect wrongful death:

• Timeliness of interventions and treatments 
• Sudden or unexplained changes in treatment without justification
• Instances where staff ignored or inadequately addressed the patient’s concerns
• Failure to act on critical test results
• Poor care coordination that contributed to treatment mismanagement

The medical timeline highlights pre-existing conditions, and it helps identify whether the death was wrongful or unpreventable.

Read Physician Notes and Treatment Decisions

Physician notes explain the rationale behind the treatments they administer. If a doctor’s decisions deviate from standard care without justification, it can indicate malpractice — one of the critical elements of a wrongful death claim.

Look for the following details when reviewing physician notes:

• Misdiagnoses or unnecessary delays in care
• Incorrect care procedures or inappropriate treatment
• Documentation issues, which are present in nearly one out of five diagnosis-related claims

Failure by the doctor to recognize clinical deterioration accounts for up to 13% of hospital deaths. If the provider does not provide adequate care, the health record might support a wrongful death claim by highlighting a breach of duty.

Check For Documentation of Complications or Errors

Medical records will document any complications, adverse reactions, or procedural errors that contributed to the death of a patient. These records offer evidence of where care goes wrong, helping you prove preventable mistakes led to a wrongful death.

Look for the following red flags when reviewing medical records:

• Unaddressed drug reactions that led to worsening conditions
• Surgical errors, such as operating on the wrong body part or using incorrect techniques
• Failure to rescue when the patient’s condition suddenly worsened during or after treatment
• Lack of timely response to alarming symptoms
• Procedures performed without the patient’s or family’s consent

To identify errors, you may need to cross-reference records of complications against the patient’s medical history. For example, identifying that a known patient allergy was overlooked during treatment.

Seek Proof of Communication Among Providers

Effective communication between healthcare providers is essential for delivering quality care. Medical notes often document conversations between physicians, nurses, specialists, and other care team members.

These notes are vital in determining whether someone shared and acted upon critical information.

Miscommunication during transfers between departments may lead to missed diagnoses and delayed or improper treatments. In the worst-case scenario, these errors can lead to wrongful death claims.

According to Joint Commission data, 80% of adverse events stem from miscommunication during handovers.

Review Autopsy and Post-Mortem Reports

Autopsy and post-mortem reports provide a clear lens into the cause and manner of one’s death. Reviewing autopsy and post-mortem reports can help you:

• Determine the cause of death
• Link the death to negligence
• Prevent bias or manipulation

By cross-referencing autopsy and post-mortem reports with medical records, you can best identify whether the elements of wrongful death are strong enough to build a winning case.

Cause of Death Determination

An autopsy report can confirm the exact cause of death. It provides critical details about:

• Injuries sustained 
• Pre-existing medical conditions
• Other factors that contributed to the individual’s death

By comparing the cause of death with any other medical records about the patient’s treatment, you can identify the accuracy of the physician’s assessment. Working backward from causation can help you determine whether a breach of duty occurred.

Linking Negligence to Wrongful Death

Autopsies can uncover undetected conditions or complications that might have been treatable if identified earlier. These findings can support claims of medical misdiagnosis or care mismanagement, which is necessary for establishing elements of a wrongful death claim.

Autopsy reports can confirm whether the medical treatment provided was appropriate in the first place. It can also pinpoint mistakes that occurred during surgery, such as a surgical instrument left inside the patient’s body.

Objective and Independent Evaluation

An autopsy offers an impartial assessment of medical facts because independent professionals conduct it separately from the care team. This advantage of objectivity reduces the risk of bias or manipulation in court. 

ChartRequest Automates Retrieval to Help You Build a Wrongful Death Case

Medical records can uncover the elements of a wrongful death claim. Analyzing these records will help you identify patterns of negligence and build a strong compensation case. The faster you can get your hands on the right records, the better your chances of success. 

Schedule a consultation today to learn how CaseBinder helps you cut costs, save time, and get records quickly.