Opinion ID: 1707689
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Medical Malpractice: The Law[11]

Text: Recovery in a negligence action requires proof by a preponderance of the evidence of the conventional tort elements: duty, breach of duty, proximate causation, and injury ( i.e., damages). Phillips v. Hull, 516 So.2d 488, 491-92 (Miss. 1987); see also Latham v. Hayes, 495 So.2d 453 (Miss. 1986); Hammond v. Grissom, 470 So.2d 1049 (Miss. 1985). Mississippi physicians are bound by nationally-recognized standards of care; they have a duty to employ reasonable and ordinary care in their treatment of patients. Hull, 516 So.2d at 491; Hall v. Hilbun, 466 So.2d 856 (Miss. 1985); King v. Murphy, 424 So.2d 547 (Miss. 1983). [G]iven the circumstances of each patient, each physician has a duty to use his or her knowledge and therewith treat through maximum reasonable medical recovery, each patient, with such reasonable diligence, skill, competence, and prudence as are practiced by minimally competent physicians in the same specialty or general field of practice throughout the United States, who have available to them the same general facilities, services, equipment and options. Hall, 466 So.2d at 873. Case law generally demands that in a medical malpractice action, negligence cannot be established without medical testimony that the defendant failed to use ordinary skill and care. Hull, 516 So.2d at 491; see also Walker v. Skiwski, 529 So.2d 184, 187 (Miss. 1988) (Our general rule is that the negligence of a physician may be established only by expert medical testimony.) (citing Cole v. Wiggins, 487 So.2d 203, 206 (Miss. 1986)). Expert testimony is required unless the matter in issue is within the common knowledge of laymen. Walker, 529 So.2d at 187; Hull, 516 So.2d at 491; Cole v. Wiggins, 487 So.2d 203, 205 (Miss. 1986); Clayton v. Thompson, 475 So.2d 439, 443 (Miss. 1985); Hall, 466 So.2d at 856; Kilpatrick v. Mississippi Baptist Medical Center, 461 So.2d 765 (Miss. 1984). An expert is necessitated to identify the action or inaction which allegedly constituted a breach of duty and which proximately caused the patient's injury. Hull, 516 So.2d at 491; Hall, 466 So.2d at 870-73. Once a witness is determined to be qualified to render expert testimony, questions of weight and credibility of the testimony are determined by the trier of fact. See, e.g., Brown v. McQuinn, 501 So.2d 1093 (Miss. 1986).