Medical Malpractice Attorneys

We trust healthcare professionals with our lives, our health and our well-being. When doctors, medical personnel, nurses, or hospitals err in judgment or fail to perform a procedure or provide treatment at the level that is expected by their professions, then the consequences for patients can be devastating.

Medical malpractice is defined as “Professional negligence where the healthcare provider deviates or departs from the accepted standard of care.” Doctors are legally required to provide medical care according to the accepted standard of practice in the medical community. When a doctor fails to provide care and treatment pursuant to that standard of practice which causes an injury to the patient, the physician has committed medical malpractice.

Common areas of medical malpractice are:

Birth Injuries:

Cerebral palsy – a twisted umbilical cord; failure to perform a cesarean section even though your body was in fetal distress; breech birth; low amniotic fluid; undetected or improper pregnancy dating; difficult or premature delivery; a baby too large for its gestational age; oxygen deprivation

Erb’s Palsy, Klumkes Palsy, Brachial Plexus injuries – impacting of the baby’s shoulder on the mother’s pelvis during the baby’s birth; stretching or tearing of the nerves through improper meanuevers during delivery; failure to monitor certain rule factors.

Failure to Diagnose or Diagnosis Errors such as:

  • Failure to diagnose a medical and/or life threatening condition
  • Diagnosing a condition that does not exist and then unnecessarily treating it
  • Misinterpreting medical imaging, x-rays, CAT scans, MRIs, or pathology slides
  • Failure to send a patient for necessary tests and procedures
  • Failure to screen an at-risk patient correctly
  • Failure to diagnose, delay of diagnosis, or misdiagnosis of an illness such as cancer, traumatic brain injury, subdural hematoma and cerebral palsy
  • Failure to notify and/or follow up with a patient regarding the significance of the patients test results
  • A benign tumor is misdiagnosed as malignant
  • A malignant tumor is misdiagnosed as non-cancerous
  • A patient with a great-than-normal risk for a specific medical condition is not screened for it
  • A doctor fails to refer his or her patient to a specialist for further testing
  • A doctor fails to understand the seriousness of a patient’s medical condition, or its true nature
  • No follow-up is done for a patient although a medical problem should have been suspected
  • The type or stage of a disease is misclassified
  • Tissue or tumor specimens are misinterpreted or handled improperly by a technician or physician
  • An aspect of the patient’s medical care is delegated to inexperienced or unqualified staff

Failure to timely diagnose and/or treat breast cancer

  • Failing to listen to and heed the significance of the patient’s signs, symptoms and complaints
  • Failing to perform or improperly performing a clinical breast examination which would have revealed a palpable lump or mass
  • Failing to identify an apparent lump or ignoring, misidentifying or misdiagnosing a palpable lump as benign or malignant
  • Failing to monitor the size and shape of a palpable lump during a breast examination
  • Failing to follow-up on an abnormal clinical breast examination
  • Failing to recommend, order or refer patient for a mammogram
  • Failing to properly interpret and read mammogram films
  • Failing to follow-up on an abnormal mammogram finding or failing to react to abnormal mammogram findings
  • When a lump is discovered, failing to timely recommend, order, refer or perform a breast sonogram or ultrasound, a fine needle aspiration, or a biopsy
  • Relying upon a negative aspiration biopsy and failing to perform a surgical biopsy
  • Failing to order follow-up or additional radiological testing, sonogram or ultrasound, or biopsy when appropriate

Surgical Errors such as:

  • Surgical complications due to the surgeon’s failure to operate within the required standards of care for the operation
  • Failure to treat the patient’s condition, or treating a patient for the wrong condition
  • Removing an organ or body part unnecessarily
  • Performing a surgery when it is not necessary
  • Surgery on the wrong limb, at the wrong site, or on the wrong patient
  • Accidents during surgery
  • Leaving a surgical instrument inside a patient after surgery
  • Improper reading of x-rays or other technology such as CAT scans or MRI
  • Failure to have the patient undergo necessary tests or procedures
  • Failure to screen an at-risk patient correctly
  • Failure to obtain the patient’s consent for a medical procedure
  • Failure to refer to an appropriate specialist or refer for required testing
  • Failure to check on the patients; follow up conditions and treat problems and symptoms

Anesthesia Errors such as:

  • The negligent or incorrect administration of oxygen during surgery or childbirth
  • A delay in the delivery of anesthesia
  • Failure to monitor the patient properly
  • Dosage error (too much or too little anesthesia)
  • Administration of the wrong anesthetic agent
  • Injury caused by the intubation of the patient
  • Dangerously prolonged sedation from anesthesia
  • Failure to recognize complications
  • Defective equipment
  • Communication errors before, during, or after the surgery among the medical staff

Medication Errors such as:

  • The administration of the wrong dose of a drug (frequency or strength)
  • The administration of the wrong drug
  • The use of the wrong route of administration for a drug
  • Improper instruction and direction about a drug’s usage

Nursing Errors such as:

  • Giving the wrong medication to a patient
  • Giving the wrong dose of a medication to a patient
  • Giving a medication to the wrong patient
  • Failing to monitor a patient’s condition
  • Failing to follow a doctor’s instructions correctly
  • Misinterpreting a physician’s handwriting
  • Performing a nursing procedure incorrectly
  • Delaying a patient’s care
  • Failure to prevent patient injuries, such as a fall from bed or when walking in the hospital

Doctors and hospitals rarely admit to their mistakes or providing care or treatment which was not in accord with acceptable medical standards, and often resist settlements without a trial. Malpractice lawsuits are very time consuming and costly. Every medical malpractice case requires medical expert testimony, diligent preparation and the resources and will to stand up against the doctors and hospitals who have caused injury or death. The Yankowitz Law Firm team of experienced malpractice trial attorneys, medical experts and doctors are committed to zealously fight and protect the rights of our clients and maximize the compensation they and their families deserve.

Call us at 1-800-LAW-3333, speak to Jack Yankowitz directly. When you retain the The Yankowtiz Law Firm, we represent you on a contingency fee basis i.e. our fee is earned and paid only from the money we recover for you.