Medical Malpractice
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Alabama |
2 years after date giving rise to injury, or within six months of the date the injury should have been discovered. In no event may a suit be filed more than four years after the date of the act giving rise to the injury occurred. This limitations period applies to minors over four years of age. However, in the case of a minor under four years of age, that minor has until his or her eighth birthday to file a medical malpractice action. |
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Alaska |
2 years within discovery |
|
Arizona |
2 years within discovery |
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Arkansas |
Actions based on foreign objects left in body - 2 years |
|
California |
3 years from date of injury |
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Colorado |
2 years from date of injury |
|
Connecticut |
2 years from date of injury |
|
Delaware |
2 years from date of injury |
|
Florida |
2 years from date of injury |
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Georgia |
Actions based on a foreign object left in body - 1 year from date of discovery |
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Hawaii |
2 years from date of discovery. Maximum 6 years |
|
Idaho |
2 years from date of discovery |
|
Illinois |
2 years from date of discovery |
|
Indiana |
2 years from date of injury |
|
Iowa |
2 years |
|
Kansas |
2 years from time of discovery |
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Kentucky |
5 years maximum |
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Louisiana |
1 year from date of injury |
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Maine |
3 years from date of discovery |
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Maryland |
5 years from date of injury |
|
Massachusetts |
3 years from date of discovery. maximum 7 years |
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Michigan |
2 years from date of act giving rise to injury |
|
Minnesota |
4 years from date of discovery |
|
Mississippi |
2 years with Discovery Rule, but no more than 7 years after occurrence. These time limits apply to minors six and older. In the case of minors under six years of age, medical malpractice actions must be filed within two years of the date of the child�s sixth birthday. Mississippi also requires all persons who intend to file a medical malpractice action to give a 60-day written notice of action to the defendant |
|
Missouri |
2 years from date of discovery |
|
Montana |
3 years from date giving rise to injury |
|
Nebraska |
Actions against health-care providers - within 2 years of the date that the act giving rise to the injury occurred. If the injury is not discovered within the two-year period, then the action must be filed within one year from the date that the injury was, or should have been, discovered, whichever is earlier. Can not be filed more than 10 years from the act giving the injury had occurred |
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Nevada |
4 years from date of act giving rise to injury |
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New Hamphire |
2 years from date of act giving rise to injury |
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New Jersey |
2 years from date of act giving rise to injury |
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New Mexico |
3 years from date of injury |
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New York |
2 years and 6 months from date when injury occurred |
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North Carolina |
3 years from the date of the incident |
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North Dakota |
2 years from date of incident |
|
Ohio |
1 year from date injury occurred |
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Oklahoma |
2 years from date bodily injury occurred |
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Oregon |
2 years from date of injury |
|
Pennsylvania |
3 years from date of discovery |
|
Rhode Island |
3 years from date of injury |
|
South Carolina |
2 years |
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South Dakota |
1 year from date of injury |
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Tennessee |
2 years from date of injury |
|
Texas |
2 years from date of injury |
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Utah |
3 years from date of injury |
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Vermont |
2 years from date of injury |
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Virginia |
3 years from date of injury |
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Washington |
3 years from date of injury |
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West Virginia |
3 years from date of injury |
|
Wisconsin |
2 years from date of injury |
|
Wyoming |
Medical malpractice is an act or omission by a health care provider which deviates from accepted standards of practice in the medical community and which causes injury to the patient. Simply put, medical malpractice is professional negligence (by a healthcare provider) that causes an injury.
Upon graduation, many medical students take a modern version of the oath written by Louis Lasagna, Academic Dean of the School of Medicine at Tufts University, and used in many medical schools today.
The oath goes as follows;
I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant:
I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow.
I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures [that] are required, avoiding those twin traps of overtreatment and therapeutic nihilism.
I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon's knife or the chemist's drug.
I will not be ashamed to say "I know not," nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed for a patient's recovery.
I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God.
I will remember that I do not treat a fever chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being, whose illness may affect the person's family and economic stability. My responsibility includes these related problems, if I am to care adequately for the sick.
I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure.
I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm.
If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life and art, respected while I live and remembered with affection thereafter. May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of healing those who seek my help.