Believing that a doctor or hospital made a mistake is not enough to establish a medical malpractice claim. The evidence must show that the healthcare provider failed to meet the appropriate standard of care and that the failure caused an injury.
The West Virginia medical malpractice statute of limitations generally requires a claim against most healthcare providers to be commenced within two years of the medical injury or death, or within two years of when the injury was discovered or reasonably should have been discovered, whichever occurs later. West Virginia law also generally prevents these claims from being filed more than 10 years after the medical injury, subject to specific exceptions.
When medical treatment causes an unexpected injury, patients and families are often left wondering whether something simply went wrong—or whether a healthcare provider made a preventable mistake.