WRITING

FOR PUBLIC RELATIONS

DEFINING THE STANDARD OF CARE IN MEDICAL MALPRACTICE

By Alexandra Tubell

Gary Brooks Mims of Sickels, Frei, and Mims Attorneys at Law

Medical negligence is the third leading cause of death in the United States. Every year, there

are 80,000 to 100,000 deaths announced as a result of an error in diagnosis. Medical malpractice,

in simple words, is negligence committed by a healthcare provider, whether that be the doctor,

nurse, hospital, or any person or institution involved in delivering a patient healthcare.

Malpractice also involves that, due to the healthcare provider’s negligence, the patient was

injured in the process. Those damages, like injury, harm, medical expenses due to treatment,

death, inability to work, or even death, are part of the lawsuit. To succeed in a case, it must be

proven that the doctor was negligent and did not follow the steps that a “reasonably prudent

doctor” should and the patient was harmed.

In order to determine if a doctor’s actions were negligent, the plaintiff’s lawyer involved will

obtain the opinion of experts on what is the standard of care. The experts are typically other

medical professionals or professors who testify what the standard of care should have been in the

medical operation or practice. The standard of care is simply one person’s opinion of what they

believe a reasonably prudent doctor should do. In the state of Virginia, it must be what a

reasonably prudent doctor in Virginia would do; standard of care varies from state to state.
 At the law firm of Sickels, Frei, and Mims Attorneys at Law,

Gary Mims has practiced law since 1980 and since 1999 has

developed his expertise in medical malpractice. Since then, Mims

has been named the Medical Malpractice Attorney of the Year,

Super Lawyer and Best Lawyers’. Mims was also given the

responsibility of teaching young lawyers and students about ethics from the state of Virginia.

Mims has had the opportunity to work on a number of cases through his years as both a defense

litigator and now a plaintiff’s attorney. He has represented people who are wrongly diagnosed,

anesthesia misuse, and more. Through his years of experience, Mims knows not only about the

law, but also has a knowledge of medicine. He has been able to blend those two levels of

expertise together and hold the title of Top Attorney since 2007 from the Washingtonian

Magazine, an honor awarded to the top one percent of personal injury lawyers in the region.

Mims’ passion in medical malpractice stems from his want to protect the injured and restore,

“the human toll that was inflicted.” One of his most impactful cases was a routine ACL repair

where a young man went in for an out-patient surgery and lost his life. When the family came to

Mims, they were not intent on suing the hospital, however they just wanted to know what

happened to their son. Mims brought in experts, conducted extensive research, and learned that

the doctor in this case made a mistake that could have been easily avoided. It became clear to

both the jury and Mims that had the anesthesiologist not skipped a step when injecting the young

man with a nerve blocker, he would still be alive.

Mims has spent years searching for and working with leading experts from all over the United

States and accurately defining the standard of care in Virginia. Regardless of legislation
protecting doctors in Virginia, Mims fights for the rights of his clients and the families who have

suffered loss due to carelessness by medical professionals.

Sickels, Frei, and Mims LLC, has been helping the injured since 1975 and with their attorneys

combined they have over 100 years of experience. The firm is well-known for getting cases to

trial and winning. They have established relationships with experts all over the country who are

passionate about accurately outlining the standard of care and how doctors should correctly

practice medicine.