Not every bad or negative result or consequence from the treatment of a patient by a doctor, nurse or physician’s assistant means that the healthcare provider or the hospital failed to give the patient proper and medically acceptable level of care. Every healthcare professional is required to provide the patient with the level of care that is equal to the accepted or normal standard of care that same medical specialty would commonly provide to you in the community. This means that when the initial diagnosis is made, did the examining doctor take the correct cultures, X-rays or diagnostic precautions to rule out life threatening causes for the symptoms presented at the time of treatment. However, sometimes mistakes happen and that may have caused or contributed to a loved one’s death, injury or disability.

Medical Malpractice cases are very expensive cases to work up for trial and to take to a jury verdict. This is because of the expert testimony of doctors which is required to be presented by the Plaintiff to support the evidence that the doctor or hospital failed to provide the accepted normal level of care when the client was treated, is costly.  Lets face it, every time you have surgery there is a risk of infection when your body is cut by a scalpel. Performing surgery and the risk of a patient coming up with some infection from doing the surgical procedure is an ACCEPTABLE RISK! The issue is whether the doctor or hospital did everything necessary to minimize the risk of infection before the surgery and after the surgery. The same is true for post surgery follow up care and efforts to prevent infection. Did the doctor provide sufficient after surgery care or was the doctor’s follow care below the accepted standard of care in the community.

The standard of care requires that a doctor makes sure that all of the staples,surgical instruments and tools are accounted for after the surgery is done and before closing the wound. When you presented to the emergency room in pain and you don’t know why you are in pain, it is up to the emergency room doctor to run the correct lab work, urine test, and other commonly ordered tests to rule out life threatening issues that could be causing the symptoms. Unfortunately, an examination has to be made as to whether the hospital made a decision to do less for the patient based on that patient’s lack of resources and/or lack of health insurance to cover the expensive tests.

NOT ALL INJURIES IN THE HOSPITAL ARE MEDICAL MALPRACTICE CLAIMS

Many times injuries occur to a patient or even a family member that are not subject to the restrictions and limitations of the medical malpractice act but are otherwise simple negligence cases that are not as expensive to litigate. For example, injuries which are suffered by the patient getting up and going to the bathroom or walking down the hall. Sometimes, the patient is injured when “transferred”  for transport. Those injuries are often the result of simple negligence unconnected to medical care or treatment but are premises liability cases where the owner and /or occupier has a duty to maintain the premises in a reasonably safe condition or in failing to train and / ore supervise employees. Failing to secure bed rails at night or during the period that the patient is agitated. Sexual assault cases or molestation cases which unfortunately occur, not outside of the medical malpractice act.

Injuries occurring when the patient is moved from bed to gurney or worse yet, when dropped, are simple negligence cases. If a patient is left unattended in X-ray or in the bathroom and falls, this is a simple negligence case. Often injuries occur when the patient is transported by ambulance or by wheel chair from one part of the hospital to another, attendants fail to anticipate the right type of transport device, the age of and disabilities of the patient. Simply stated, the employee may have not been trained or not properly trained and / or supervised on how to safely pick up or transport this specific type of patient. If you don’t plan to safely transport a particular type of patient with the particular type of injury or disability, new injuries or damage can occur.

Often times the emergency medical personnel injure the patient at the time of treatment or during transport even failing to follow the transport company’s very own protocols that are required of every EMS employee to follow in every case. Not every EMS attendant is a paramedic. Not every EMS worker is properly trained or supervised to do the procedures which are being performed. The run sheet will often times document how long it took from the time of a call to the time of arrival and what treatment was provided. More will be revealed when records are reviewed and statements are taken.

Sometimes physicians are impaired by drugs or alcohol. Sometimes, the hospital looks the other way or even is aware of the doctor’s issues, but he is a “money maker for the hospital.” Life is messy and these issues sometimes adversely affect the outcome of a surgery.

The types of cases which may arise in day-to-day medical treatment are :

1. Medical errors involving surgery or negligently performed surgery
2. Failure to diagnosis heart attack or cancer
3. Emergency room errors including late diagnosis or failure to make proper diagnosis
4. Patient or nursing home neglect
5. Medication errors or failure to take complete and accurate medical history
6. Brain injuries and / or birth related injuries from delivery errors

The first step in any such case is to secure all of the treatment, medical and admissions records from all hospitals. An expert will then be hired to review the records for red flags in the records to determine if all the tests that were required to be performed were performed.