Doctors make mistakes just like everyone else. Whether that mistake rises to the level of medical malpractice depends on whether the doctor deviated from the accepted standard of care. The accepted, or established, standard of care refers to the degree of skill and care that the average doctor with the same qualifications would have provided to a patient who sought care under similar circumstances and who had similar symptoms. A South Carolina medical malpractice attorney can evaluate the specific circumstances of your case to determine whether the mistake made by your doctor was actually medical malpractice.