Dear Clients and Client Candidates,
I am Advocate Tugce Gorkem Mesci, a malpractice lawyer in Istanbul, Turkey and founder of MESCI Law Firm that is specialized on health law and medical malpractice lawsuits in Turkey.Upon heavy demands we received from our foreigner clients we have decided to publish this Article, “Malpractice Lawyer In Turkey” in order to provide you key information regarding related law procedures, your rights as a patient and legally assist you.
If you are willing to obtain a detailed evaluation on your case please note that you can obtain legal consultancy from our law firm in order to understand whether if you have a case or not. At this point we would like to kindly remind you that as lawyers we are not able to provide you medical evaluation on your case that only a medical expert, doctor or a dentist can do and as per Code of Practice, it will be unethical to direct and/or send you to a specific clinic, hospital, doctor or dentist we see fit.
Turkish Medical Malpractice Lawyers
As you will see also from the Articles we have shared through our web page regarding health law and malpractice, it is not possible to limit examples of medical malpractice. Actions constituting malpractice shall be evaluated as per characteristics of each case.
But in general: failure to fulfill the promised result (for example, correction of the crooked nose) in aesthetic operations; malpractice related to anesthesia errors such as giving an overdose of one or more anesthesia drugs, dispersing anesthesia drugs to a patient with known allergies; not enlightening patient before the operation in her language before a certified translator regarding risks and complications that may occur during the operation; performing the wrong surgical technique or procedure; misreading the laboratory results; not taking into consideration health history of a patient are some of the examples we can give constituting medical malpractice in Turkey.
Patient has the right to demand diagnosis, treatment and care in accordance with the requirements of modern medical knowledge and technology as per Regulation Regarding Patients Rights previous to the or after the operation.
Doctors (or dentists) and the clinic or hospital are obliged to respect you and treat you well. Apart from this, aesthetic surgeries and dental treatments are deemed to be construction agreements as per Turkish Obligations Code that which the clinic or the hospital is directly undertaking the result it guaranteed.
Turkish Health Law Malpractice Law Services in Turkey
Lets not forget that as a patient you have the right to refuse and stop an operation or a treatment; you have the right to express your thoughts and opinions about the health services provided to you; you have the right to obtain the treatment within a swift and predetermined time period; you have the right to choose another treatment method; receive appropriate prophylaxis treatment; you have the right to select and change the healthcare personnel providing healthcare services to you; you have the right to obtain information and your patient file; you have the right to receive healthcare services in a private environment. Breach of your rights thus Regulations Regarding Patient Rights by a clinic or by the related healthcare personnel will also directly constitute malpractice.
You also have the right to be compensated for the harm caused by negligence of your doctor. If your case can be considered as malpractice, it is possible for you to file a malpractice lawsuit with material and moral compensation claim before the Turkish Consumer Courts.
Before filing a civil malpractice lawsuit in Turkey, you or the lawyer you will authorize through Power of Attorney can proceed by filing a cease and desist letter through notary public first in order to push the clinic or the hospital into default. With such a cease and desist letter you can also demand your patient file and pre-op photos.
After that, upon your instructions your lawyer can proceed by apply for mediation and attend three mediation meetings since this is cause of action in Turkish law system before filing medical malpractice lawsuit in Turkey. If parties are not willing to settle on the amount of compensation and/or revision, it is possible then to proceed with civil and/or criminal litigation phases. Apart from these, you have the right to make administrative complaints before governmental entities such as Social Security Institution, Communications Center of Presidency or Provincial Directorate of Health.
For civil malpractice lawsuits, material damages are being calculated based on the operation, after operation, traveling, accommodation, surgery/treatment and revision surgery/treatment expenses suffered. Loss of earnings for the days you couldn’t work or if you have lost your job can also be demanded as part of your material damages. It is even possible to demand workforce loss in cases where the patient has any type of disability due to defective operation.
After calculating your total material damages it is possible for your lawyer to calculate an appropriate amount of moral compensation too that is not constituting unjust enrichment as per Turkish law system. Cases can be filed as unqualified debt lawsuit meaning that the amount can be increased by the Plaintiff later on.
We generally suggest our clients that became unrecognizable, disabled or suffering from a permanent disease caused by the operation they took, to proceed with both civil and criminal litigation since civil litigation will enable you to collect your material and moral damages while on the other hand, criminal litigation (upon a complaint to be made before the relevant public prosecutors office and issuance of the bill of indictment) will cause the doctor to be put on trial due to -most of the time- Turkish Criminal Code, Article 89, reckless injury.
Still, a legal strategy shall be developed by your lawyer as per characteristics and merits of your case only since we have came face to face with several unique cases bearing more than one crime in it’s nature for example, personnels acting without any doctor license or equivalence certificate to work as a doctor in Turkey OR document and signature forgery especially put on consent letters by related healthcare personnel.
Please note that civil malpractice cases do take around 3-4 years which actually depends on workload of the Judge and the appointment to be taken from the Institution of Forensic Medicine and the reports to be issued by the experts. During civil malpractice cases, we are able to ask the Judge to send the dossier and the patient (the Plaintiff) to the Institution of Forensic Medicine for physical examination. In cases where Client is in urgent need of a revision operation or immediate treatment, it is important to collect your evidences proving your current health condition, results of the previous operation and you were in need of such an urgent treatment since with the revision, it will not be possible for the Institution of Forensic Medicine experts to examine your health condition previous to the revision operation.
If you are willing to proceed with a lawyer, you will need to authorize your lawyer through a Power of Attorney which shall be issued through a Notary Public in Turkey, if you are in Turkey at the time. Our malpractice lawyers in Turkey meet you and assist you personally for issuance of the Power of Attorney if you are still in Istanbul. If you are in a foreign country, Power of Attorney can be issued through Turkish Consulate General or Turkish Embassy.
Our law firm provides to patients that are willing to proceed with litigation a strategic evidence list to be prepared by our Client, a legal opinion prepared based on case (not technical evaluation that can only be made by the doctors), our retainer agreement indicating each phase your medical malpractice lawyer in Turkey will proceed and the draft Power of Attorney with an English and a Turkish content so that Client can understand everything. In case you are willing to proceed with litigation through a lawyer, make sure you ask for each of these. I hope the above information was useful.
We are always here for patients as a leading law firm in Turkey with over ten years of law experience helping our injured people. We are a phone call away from you only, you may reach our malpractice lawyers in Turkey through our contact page. If you are willing to learn detailed information, please read the Article sated hereunder we published via our web page that is prepared by our malpractice lawyers in Turkey which also indicates statutory of limitations and liability articles:
Kind Regards,
Adv. Tugce Gorkem Mesci
