Every year, thousands of patients die because of avoidable medical mistakes, and hundreds of thousands more are seriously injured.

Though most doctors and medical professionals are competent and compassionate people who strive to care for their patients, medical mistakes happen. And the consequences of these mistakes can be devastating.

While many mistakes occur in the operating room, most medical malpractice lawsuits result from poorly managed pregnancies and births, misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis of cancer, diagnostic error, inappropriate anesthesia, or medication errors.

What is Medical Malpractice?

Medical malpractice occurs when a doctor or another medical professional – such as a nurse or technician – does or does not do something that causes an injury to their patient. “Medical negligence” is the medical professional’s act or failure to act.

It might seem that you have a medical malpractice lawsuit if your doctor made a mistake while treating you. Yet much more is involved with pursuing a medical malpractice case than a patient getting hurt and the professional being held accountable for their mistake.

The key factors of a medical malpractice lawsuit involve showing or proving:

1. A doctor or other medical professional made a mistake while treating you; and

2. You were injured by that mistake.

Most malpractice cases are long and complicated legal matters, as it tends to be neither quick nor easy to prove those two factors.

Do you have a Medical Malpractice case?

You may be entitled to compensation if you or a loved one have suffered from medical malpractice, including any of the following:

• Surgical mistakes, which can result in wrongful death;

• Birth injuries or Birth Trauma, which is damage to the tissues and organs of a newly delivered child, including Erb’s Palsy, Cerebral Palsy, and Kernicterus;

• Medication errors, which can result in wrongful death;

• Elder neglect, or Nursing Home Negligence; and

• Failure to diagnose, misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis of Breast Cancer or Colon Cancer, to give a couple examples.

You should not have to suffer as a result of a medical professional’s mistake. With decades of experience, the top medical malpractice lawyers at Phillips & Paolicelli, LLP have handled numerous doctor and hospital malpractice cases in New York, New Jersey, and across the nation. These cases have involved medication error, obstetric negligence, failure to timely diagnose and treat strokes or cancer, inadequate EMS treatment, nursing home neglect or abuse, equipment malfunction, surgical mistakes, anesthesia errors, and wrongful death.

If you’ve been hurt as a result of a medical professional’s mistake, our skilled, experienced medical malpractice lawyers can help you.

How does Medical Negligence happen?

The mistake or “omission” can occur at any point during treatment.  Your doctor, for instance, may make a mistake diagnosing your illness, or fail to give you the correct treatment or medication for that illness.

Importantly, did your doctor follow “standard of care”?  Standard of care refers to the generally accepted practice(s) used by most medical professionals to treat patients in the same or similar circumstances.  The standard varies, depending on the patient’s age, medical problem, and where that patient lives.  If you can prove that your doctor failed to follow the standard of care during treatment, you might have a strong medical malpractice claim.

Proving causation

Next, you must prove that your doctor’s mistake caused you injury or harm.  To give a few examples, such injuries might include brain damage after an operation, amputation of the wrong limb, a medical condition or disease that got worse after treatment, or even resulted in death. In other words, if you’re the injured patient, you will have no medical malpractice case unless you can prove that you were harmed.

As the injured patient, you must then prove “causation,” that your injury was caused by your doctor’s negligence. Proving this is often the most challenging factor of any medical malpractice case. Generally, you’ll need at least one expert witness – usually another doctor or medical professional – on the stand explaining to the jury how the doctor’s mistake caused your injury. Experts also help to explain how the standard of care applied to your case and that your doctor “breached” that standard of care.

The legal battle

Any medical malpractice case is a complex matter, and the process can require years. You must prove your case, as the defense naturally does not want to pay up or admit wrongdoing. In fact, the doctor or medical professional you hope to sue – and their insurance company’s lawyers who will aggressively defend them – will do all they can to uncover doubt that any mistake was made. And the defense will use their own experts to prove their side of the story.

Also importantly, you must not wait to file your case; the “statutes of limitations” limits the period of time you have to file a lawsuit, including medical malpractice claims. While the window varies from state to state, victims generally have up to two years following the date of the injury to take action.

Further complicating matters, cases tend to be expensive. Experts cost thousands of dollars, discovery requires hundreds of hours, and filing and court costs add up, too.

The good news is that you may not need to worry about these costs, as Phillips & Paolicelli, LLP usually takes medical malpractice cases on a “contingency fee” basis. By that, we mean that we will pay most of the costs of your case upfront, and we will not assess fees unless we win your case. If we win, we will then take a portion of the money you win as attorney’s fees and reimbursement for the costs we covered for you upfront.

If you’ve been injured by a medical professional’s mistake or failure to act, please don’t let the potential costs and complexity scare you away. Talk with one of our experienced attorneys, and we will determine together if you have a good case. If your case is strong, you can get money or “damages” for medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering, and you can also help to ensure that the same mistake doesn’t harm someone else.

How our Medical Malpractice lawyers can help you

It’s crucial that you speak to the lawyers at Phillips & Paolicelli, LLP as soon as possible after you’ve been hurt, as you may lose your opportunity to pursue justice for your injuries due to “statutes of limitations.”

To sum up, we can help you by:

• Using our decades of experience and developed expertise to evaluate your case;

• Investigating the incident and then determining fault;

• Arranging for expert medical testimony to call out where mistakes were made in your treatment;

• Handling insurance companies;

• Developing a winning case in the court room; and

• Fighting for you in the negotiating room.

Finally, our initial consultations are confidential and free of charge, and our medical malpractice lawyers will be delighted to lend you a hand. If you or a loved one have suffered a devastating personal injury as a result of a medical professional’s mistake, speak to our experienced medical malpractice attorneys as soon as you can.

Please contact Phillips & Paolicelli, LLP today to set up a free consultation at (855) 220-6770.