If your doctor has committed medical malpractice, then you may be entitled to compensation for your injuries. If you need legal advice, we can help you. Our attorneys are highly experienced in representing patients in medical malpractice lawsuits (also known as medical negligence claims) against hospitals and doctors. Complete our Contact Form to receive free initial legal advice.
When seeking medical advice, diagnosis and treatment, you are entitled to expect the best standard of care. National studies however indicate that over 98,000 patients die in hospitals as the result of negligence.
Medical Errors
Medical errors can be the result of a failure on the part of the doctor or nursing staff to take a proper history, poor communication, poor quality of medical notes. Sometimes the doctor may fail to conduct a proper physical examination, fail to order the proper diagnostic tests such as radiology. These error can result in the wrong diagnosis being made, which often then results in no treatment being given, or the wrong treatment being given, and/or a delay in proper treatment being given for the specific condition.
Receiving the wrong treatment, can occur for example when the patient is given the wrong medication for their condition, or the wrong type of medical procedure.
A delay in proper diagnosis can result in a delay in getting the correct treatment for your medical condition. Consider for example, a patient whose cancer has not been picked-up. Adequate tests may not have been ordered, or x-rays and other scans have been wrongly interpreted and a cancer has been missed. Meanwhile the medical condition or the cancer continues to spread, and the patient’s symptoms will worsen. Eventually the condition is correctly diagnosed and correct treatment is started. But by then it may be too late- the cancer may have spread and the chances of survival have lessened.
Surgical Errors
Other types of medical malpractice include wrong-site surgery. For example, a woman may need surgery on her right breast, but because of an error in hospital notes and failure on the part of medical staff to check documentation, her left breast may instead be operated upon.
Our lawyers have come across a wide variety of surgery malpractice cases. Although surgery carries its own inherent risks, sometimes what has gone wrong during the surgery is the result of actual incompetence by the surgeon. Our lawyers have dealt with claims involving negligently caused injuries during keyhole surgery, laparoscopy, hernia repair, gall bladder removal, hysterectomy, orthopedic surgery, heart surgery, brain surgery, spinal surgery and many others.
There are also cases where there has been a failure on the part of medical staff to diagnose and properly treat infections after surgery which can lead to all sorts of complications and life-threatening conditions.
Less common are cases where surgical instruments (swabs, medical devices, surgical scissors) are left inside the patient’s body during the operation, because theatre staff have failed to keep a proper count and track of all the surgical instruments used during the operation.
Dr Malpractice Lawyers
A lawyer can determine if there is a case for malpractice, by looking at the hospital notes, operation notes and other medical records, interviewing witnesses involved and seeking independent opinions from medical experts.
If there has been medical malpractice (also known as negligence), you may be able to claim compensation for the injuries, physical and emotional suffering that has resulted.
The law is strict when it comes to timeframes for making a claim. If you don’t make a claim within a specified time period, you will lose your entitlements. The time limits vary between each State, so you should seek legal advice as soon as you become aware that something may have gone wrong with your medical or surgical treatment.
If in doubt get legal advice!
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