Spotsylvania Medical Malpractice Lawyer

Every year, thousands of Americans are seriously injured and even die from medical negligence. Spotsylvania medical malpractice lawyers can help protect injured victims when healthcare professionals fail to meet the accepted standards of care to which they are held.  Additionally, an experienced Spotsylvania lawyer will be able to help with a variety of other personal injury cases as well.

What is Medical Malpractice?

Victims of malpractice suffer more than physical injuries.  Often mental and psychological harm is done as well.  In order to succeed in a malpractice claim against the negligent defendant, victims and their attorneys must prove that the healthcare provider did not meet the medically established standard for the care rendered.  Family doctors can commit malpractice.  So can surgeons, emergency room physicians, nurses, lab or equipment technicians, pharmacists, and sometimes even nursing homes and hospitals themselves can be liable.

But getting to the bottom of malpractice is a very intricate task that requires diligence on the part of patients, attorneys, medical professionals, and highly trained investigators acting on the behest of the injured persons. Your Spotsylvania medical malpractice lawyer can harness the resources of his or her law firm to accomplish all of the tasks that must take place in order to file a successful claim.

How Medical Professionals Breach Their Duty to Patients

We all have various duties to keep others safe.  Since medical professionals are specially trained and licensed, and make many crucial decisions every day, their legal duty is extremely important.  Unfortunately, there are several ways in which medical professionals may breach their duty:

• Misdiagnosis – Doctors can fail to properly listen to patients when they communicate their symptoms. Or they can misinterpret diagnostic data.  Misdiagnosis can happen in the doctor’s office, a pathology lab, an emergency room, or an outpatient surgical center.
• Medication Errors – These occur when the wrong dosage of the right medication is administered to a patient (or prescribed for the patient to take themselves). The wrong drug can also be administered by a nurse, prescribed by a hospital pharmacy, or filled by a neighborhood drug store.  Over 1.5 million medication errors occur in the U.S annually.
• Surgical Errors – These happen when a doctor fails to perform a procedure properly. For example, an inattentive nurse (or surgeon) can leave a foreign object in a patient, such as a sponge.  This can lead to serious post-operative infections.  Maybe instruments are not properly sterilized.  Or during the pre-operative stage, incorrect patient information may have been communicated to the surgical team by hospital support staff leading to the wrong type of surgery or the correct procedure on the incorrect part of the party.
• Anesthesia Errors – Patients seldom even visit with their anesthesiologist before surgery. But this specialist can be the most important person in the room because when the patient is unconscious, the anesthesiologist is holding a patient’s life in their hands.  One mistake can permanently disable or even kill the patient.  Anesthesia errors can occur before, during, and after Not every mistake related to anesthesia is malpractice, but when tragic errors occur during the operative process, anesthesiologists are subject to careful scrutiny.

If you are unsure of how your personal injury may have been caused, your Spotsylvania medical malpractice lawyer can conduct a thorough investigation of your case to identify where negligence or errors occurred.

Proving Medical Malpractice Claims

Not all medical injuries occur as a result of medical malpractice.  Defective medical devices or drugs may be the cause of the injury, independent of the standard of care offered by the medical professional administering care.  In such instances, the defendant could be the manufacturer of the defective product or defective or dangerous drug.  But if the medical professional was aware of such defects, then used the device or prescribed the drug, both manufacturer and medical professional can be liable.  Your Spotsylvania medical malpractice attorney needs to investigate all evidence to determine who is at fault.  To succeed in a malpractice suit, the following elements of the case must be clearly proven:

• The defendant health care provider failed to meet their established standard of care.
• This failure injured you, or your family member.
• The injury caused damages, such as patient injury, financial loss, and psychological injury.

The insurance lawyers who protect malpractice defendants are quite skilled at unraveling this chain of malpractice proof.  And the carriers themselves are equally adept at denying malpractice insurance claims or “low-balling” settlement offers, especially to victims who are not represented by seasoned injury lawyers.

To overcome vigorous arguments against fair compensation, your lawyer utilizes a cadre of medical experts to review documents and all other evidence surrounding malpractice cases.  Sometimes this can take several months because investigating such claims is tedious and time-consuming.  Malpractice investigators are usually specialists in the field of the defendant.  In Virginia, medical experts are required at the trial stage to establish both the standard of care and the causal connection between the defendant’s negligence and plaintiff’s damages, so a positive working relationship with a variety of experts is crucial for a successful medical malpractice attorney.

Medical Malpractice Damages

Rightful malpractice damages may include:

• Payment for all past, present, and future medical bills
• Pain and suffering
• Lost income (current and future if the malpractice causes permanent disability
• Lost employment benefits (such as healthcare and retirement)
• Disability
• A variety of additional damages if the malpractice leads to the wrongful death of a family member

Any medical professional can commit malpractice and cause permanent, debilitating injures or wrongful death. And yet, filing a claim or civil case is no guarantee of compensation.  But an experienced Spotsylvania medical malpractice lawyer can help you determine whether your damages constitute a valid case, and effectively present your fair damage claims.

The amount of time plaintiffs have to file Virginia medical malpractice claims can be two years, and as much as 10, depending on the type of malpractice and when it’s discovered [Va. Code Section 8.01-243(A) and (B) and Va. Code Section 8.01-244].  There are some exceptions that can extend the time limits.  The most common are when the plaintiff is a minor or if the defendant committed fraud in an attempt to hide his or her liability.  This statute of limitations information is a general guideline, however, and does not necessarily apply to the facts of your specific case.  If you have a question about the applicable statute of limitations, contact a medical malpractice attorney right away.

A Spotsylvania Medical Malpractice Attorney is on Your Side

Despite the trying circumstances of your particular medical malpractice claim, the attorneys at our firm are able to guide you through the legal nuances of your case. We understand your desire for justice and due compensation, and we’ll work with you to try and achieve those goals in a court of law. Our team of Spotsylvania medical malpractice lawyers are standing by to conduct your free initial consultation, so contact us today.