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Comparative negligence
The doctrine of comparing degrees of fault among the responsible parties.
Proximate Cause
Proximate cause is defined legally as a cause which, in a natural and continuous sequence, unbroken by any intervening event, produces injury, and without which, the injury would not have occurred.
Cystic Fibrosis
Cystic fibrosis (CF) is an inherited disease that most commonly affects breathing and digestion. Advances in medical treatment continue to improve the outlook for affected children and adults. However, there is no cure
Economic damages
Funds to compensate a plaintiff for the monetary costs of an injury, such as medical bills or loss of income.
Informed Consent
Is the process by which fully informed patients can participate in choices about Their healthcare. It originates from the legal and ethical right the patient has to direct what happens to her body and from the ethical duty of the physician to involve the patient in her health care.
Terminal sedation
Terminal sedation is the use of high doses of sedatives to relieve extremes of physical distress. Its purpose is to render the patient unconscious to relieve suffering until the patient dies from his or her disease processes and their complications.
Causalgia
Pain, usually burning, that is associated with autonomic changes -- change in color of the skin, change in temperature, change in sweating, swelling. Causalgia occurs after a nerve injury.
Arbitration panels
Many states have formed arbitration panels in order to resolve disputes between doctors and their patients.
Noneconomic damages
Damages payable for items other than monetary losses, such as pain and suffering. The term technically includes punitive damages, but those are typically discussed separately.
Medical negligence
Failure of a physician or other medical personnel to meet the standards of conduct for duties relating to the medical profession. Those standards are based on what a reasonable person with the requisite knowledge and skills would or would not do.
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