Under Massachusetts law, a physician or other health care provider is charged with possessing and exercising that reasonable degree of skill, care and learning ordinarily exercised by an average qualified physician or other health care provider in similar circumstances. Medical negligence (commonly referred to as "medical malpractice") is the failure of a responsible health care provider, either by action or omission, to exercise that degree of skill, care and learning under the particular circumstances. It does not matter how good the provider's  intentions were. A Plaintiff may recover on his medical malpractice claim if he proves the following three things, by a preponderance of the evidence:

                 (1)  that the doctor, nurse, hospital or other health care provider undertook the
                 care and treatment of the patient, and therefore had a duty to use reasonable
                 care to avoid causing injury to him;

                 (2)  that the health care provider was negligent in fulfilling that duty; and

                 (3)  that the negligence of the health care provider was the "legal cause" of the
                 injury suffered by the patient, including the worsening of his condition and/or
                 death. Negligence is the "legal cause" of an injury if it directly and substantially
                 contributed to producing the injury.

Ordinarily, unless a health care provider's conduct is readily recognizable by a lay person as causing the patient's injury, expert opinion testimony is required before it can be inferred that the health care provider's want of skill or care, if any, was the legal cause of the patient's injury. A medical expert is permitted to testify as to his or her opinions because of his or her special training in and knowledge of the medical field. 

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