With Major League Baseball playoffs now underway, baseball fans around Baltimore are cheering for their favorite teams, if they were fortunate enough to make the playoffs. Those teams will be doing whatever they can to try and win it all. One player is now making waves off the field, however, after suing his team's doctor for medical malpractice.

Yankees player Alex Rodriguez, who has seen his share of headlines this year, recently filed a medical malpractice action against the Yankees' team doctor and a hospital. The suit focuses on the doctor's alleged misdiagnosis of Rodriguez's hip injury last year, which allowed Rodriguez to keep playing during last year's playoffs. By not informing Rodriguez of the superior labral tear in his left hip, Rodriguez alleges that he sustained further injury, which required additional surgeries that forced him to miss a great deal of time this season.

While the lawsuit may seem somewhat unique, in that professional sports players do not often sue their team's doctors, this suit illustrates that multiple individuals may be sued for medical malpractice when their negligence causes personal injury to a patient. For instance, in addition to the doctor himself or herself, patients may sue nurses, anesthesiologists, or other medical professionals who were involved in the treatment of the patient.

Besides those directly involved in the care, patients may also sue the hospital or other facility itself that provided the services, or even pharmaceutical or other companies who provided medications and other medical devices to the patient. Accordingly, there are a wide variety of individuals and entities that may be held accountable for medical malpractice, depending on the facts and circumstances surrounding a particular case.

When Baltimore residents go to the doctor, they expect that the doctor will provide the best care possible. Part of providing the best care, or even standard care, is for the doctor to make a proper diagnosis of a patient's ailment. When the doctor makes mistakes or there is a misdiagnosis of a patient's condition, it can lead to devastating consequences for the patient.

Take, for example, the case of a man who is pursuing a medical malpractice case against a physician for the physician's failure to diagnose and treat a large epidural abscess. The lawsuit alleges that the doctor missed the diagnosis, which caused the patient to suffer severe and permanent pain and suffering, both physically and mentally. Part of the man's injuries included permanent paralysis.

The lawsuit illustrates the essentials of a medical malpractice suit. In order to prevail in such a case, the plaintiff must show that the doctor had a duty to provide proper medical care and treatment, and that the doctor breached that duty by not providing the care that a reasonable and prudent physician would do. As a result, the breach of the duty of care must have caused injury or damages.

In the case above, the man is seeking compensatory damages, including damages for loss of his income that was caused by his injury. While it remains to be seen how the case will turn out, it shows how patients have options when their physician fails to provide the proper care, and that the physicians can be held accountable for their medical errors.