Medical malpractice occurs when a doctor, nurse or other provider of medical services fails to do what is expected of them in treating a patient, or does something which should not be done while treating a patient, AND when that failure or incorrect act causes damage to the patient being treated. Another word for medical malpractice is medical negligence.
It is the job of a good medical malpractice attorney to investigate, analyze and assess what caused the patient's injuries, to determine if medical negligence was responsible, and, if so, to locate and secure the services of qualified medical experts. These experts help the attorney explain to a jury what should have been done by the defendant health care provider (called the standard of care), and how the provider's failure to meet the standard of care caused the specific injuries that were suffered. A malpractice case cannot be filed in Court without such an expert witness.
Medical malpractice cases are difficult. They require a great deal of legal time and have high costs because of necessary, expert witness fees. Because of this, not every law firm and not every attorney is willing or has the capacity to take-on such cases.
At the Haymond Law Firm, we are both willing and able to fight and win medical malpractice cases, despite their difficulty. We are proud of our record of having helped malpractice victims obtain the justice they deserve thru competent, caring and compassionate lawyering.
We understand through experience that the physical consequences of medical malpractice often are compounded by strong feelings of anger, helplessness and even betrayal, because so much trust must be placed in medical providers whenever a patient must put his or herself completely in their hands. In our representation, we seek to restore our clients' abilities to trusts by keeping them informed about their cases, by listening carefully when they speak to us, and by speaking clearly to them about what we are doing and why.
Our objective throughout is to obtain a full measure of justice for each of our clients. We pursue that objective with zeal and hard work, and in the belief that, by insisting on accountability for bad medical practices, we and our clients are helping to raise the level of medical care for us all.
Medical malpractice can occur whenever and wherever a patient receives care, attention or treatment for a medical professional. Among the medical mistakes which we have seen occur most frequently are the following:
1. Obstetric/birth-related injuries
a. Failure/delay in recognizing and/or responding to need for c-section;
b. Failure/delay in recognizing/treatment intra-uterine infection;
c. Failure to have appropriate specialists on-hand for high-risk delivery;
d. Failure to correctly intubate new-born to prevent worsening hypoxia;
e. Failure to anticipate/guard against shoulder dystocia during delivery;
f. Inadequate response to problems presenting during pre-natal care.
Damages associated with these medical errors can range from uterine loss and even death of the mother, to miscarriage, functional impairment, cerebral palsy and/or death of the baby.
2. Delay diagnosis/treatment of:
a. Breast cancer
b. Lung cancer
c. Bowel cancer
d. Infection/sepsis
e. Non-healing/failure of fracture repair/treatment
f. Skin cancer
3. Surgical errors
4. Hospital/nursing home errors
a. Anesthesia errors;
b. Failure to adequately monitor/report worsening vital signs;
c. Medical errors;
d. Falls due to inadequate safety precautions.
If you have any questions, or would like to discuss a potential medical malpractice claim with us in a free consultation, please call 1-800-429-6663. A Connecticut Medical Malpractice Attorney is here to help you.