Personal Injury Lawyer
Medical malpractice happens in hospitals all over the United States every single day. It can be frightening as a patient to realize that your treating doctor has made a mistake, which led to a worsened or newly developed injury. An attorney believes that you should not have to suffer due to a mistake made by a doctor, hospital and/or medical staff. You may be entitled to financial compensation for such an error, which we can help you seek through filing a medical malpractice lawsuit.
Misdiagnosis (or Delayed)
The majority of medical malpractice claims include the doctor having diagnosed the patient with the wrong condition, or diagnosed the patient too late. If a doctor fails to diagnose a very serious illness within a reasonable amount of time, the patient may have suffered a worsened condition as a result of the delay. As for a misdiagnosis, the patient may have gone through the wrong treatment plan long enough to have made a negative impact on his or her overall health.
Medication Mistakes
As an attorney understands, errors in prescription type and/or dosage happen all too frequently. A doctor may have missed potential drug interactions, prescribed the wrong medication, or calculated an incorrect dose. In other scenarios, perhaps a drug was administered to the wrong patient. Here are specific examples of how medication errors on behalf of doctors or medical staff can happen:
- The treating doctor wrote an incorrect dosage for the patient’s prescription
- The treating doctor prescribed the correct dosage and type, but the nurse administered the wrong amount
- Equipment failure which was supposed to give a large amount of medication over a long period of time to the patient
Anesthesia Errors
Even the smallest of mistakes or oversights from an anesthesiologist can cause permanent injuries or death to the patient. Anesthesia errors can happen prior to or during a surgical procedure in the following ways:
- Failing to properly examine the patient’s medical history for risk of complications
- Failing to tell the patient about risks associated with the surgery (including pre and post surgery instructions)
- Failing to attentively monitor the patient’s vital signs during surgery
- Utilizing equipment that is unreliable or defective
- Incorrectly intubating the patient to assist with breathing during surgery
The Key Factor in Medical Malpractice
The main element of medical malpractice cases is whether another competent and knowledgeable doctor would have arrived at the same diagnosis and treatment plan, for a patient with similar circumstances. If a skilled doctor would not have made the same error, then the treating doctor may have committed medical malpractice. If you are unsure whether you have grounds for a medical malpractice lawsuit, an attorney can offer advice based on what happened.
Please book your consultation with a medical malpractice lawyer before filing a complaint with the hospital about the potential medical malpractice. In some cases, the hospital may try to destroy evidence in order to avoid paying a patient compensation for the doctor’s error. Let us help fight to set things right, and get you the retribution you deserve.