When it comes to a wrongful death or medical malpractice injury claim, one of the hardest parts may be determining what a serious injury or loss of life is worth. When a loved one is lost, not only does the family suffer financially, they also suffer from the loss of companionship on the individual. When someone is seriously injured, they may require a lifetime of medical care and experience a decrease in the enjoyment of their life due to their injuries. One way that injury claims are measured is in relation to previous payouts received by other victims.

According to Forbes Magazine, the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB) recently published their annual compilation of medical malpractice payouts in the United States. Anyone who receives a payout from a written demand of payment sent to a medical practitioner must report their payment within 30 days to the NPDB. While this data is very reliable, it does not include all malpractice payouts. Hospitals and other institutions, which are not considered practitioners, are not included in the payout data, for example.

Diederich Healthcare states that $3,733,678,100 was paid out for medical malpractice claims in 2013. This is a 4.7% increase from the previous year and the highest that payouts have been since 2009. The data also shows that the majority of malpractice cases were due to diagnosis error. The breakdown of malpractice payout causes were as follows:

• Diagnosis errors 33%
• Surgery errors 23%
• Treatment errors 18%
• Obstetrics errors  10%
• Medication errors 5%
• Anesthesia errors 5%
• Monitoring errors 4%
• Equipment errors 2%
• Other 1%

Additionally, New Hampshire was the state with the ninth highest per capita malpractice payouts in 2013. The data shows that in 2013, 96% of payouts where the result of a settlement rather than the verdict of the trial. The average per capita payout for New Hampshire in 2012 was 17.02 and 16.99 in 2013. This is a lot higher than some other states of similar size, for example, the per capita payouts in New Hampshire were almost 4 times the payouts of Vermont in 2013. While many factors contribute to these numbers, it is important to speak to an experienced injury attorney in order to understand more about what you may be eligible to receive.

When a person suffers wrongful death or serious injury due to a mistake made by a medical professional, they have the right to seek compensation. When a doctor makes an unreasonable error or fails to treat or diagnose a serious condition in an adequate amount of time, they can be held liable for that medical bills and wrongful death expenses of the patient who suffers due to their negligence. This is called medical malpractice and victims can seek damages for medical bills, loss of income from inability to work and wrongful death.

If you or a family member has been the victim of a medical malpractice case in New Hampshire, contact an injury attorney right away to find out more about your rights. The professionals at Russman Law will work hard to get you the compensation that you deserve. Call us now for a free consultation.