New Jersey Medical Malpractice Lawyers
Medical malpractice is when the negligence of a medical professional occurs in serious health complications in the patient, or death.
It is the #1 reason why patients sue doctors, and can definitely cause a lot of drama in the courtrooms when the doctors’ lawyers swear that the doctors are innocent. Proving that a health care professional was responsible for the worsening of someone’s health is a delicate issue. Doctors are as human as everyone else, and can make mistakes.
It can be tragic when one bad mistake during a surgery or an incorrect prescription can lead to a death, and this is why it’s a lawyer’s job to ask the big questions including:
- Whether or not the doctor was qualified to treat the patient
- Whether or not the hospital should also be charged if the patient’s health problems was the fault of the doctor in the facility
- Whether it was the right doctor who was selected to treat the patient
A lawyer who doesn’t ask the right questions and comes unprepared in the courtroom is often setting himself or herself up for a losing case once the other side determines that the patient may have been at fault, and not the doctor. So if you’ve been treated wrongly by a medical professional, and you’re certain you have a case, you might start thinking about your evidence, witness testimony, and overall reason for going to court, because this will only make the lawyer’s job easier in terms of getting you the settlement that you deserve.
Prescription Problems
There are famous cases where physicians prescribe medicine that kills their patients, as with the case of Michael Jackson’s doctor, who went to jail for two years for involuntary manslaughter. Medication errors harm approximately 1.5. million people in the U.S. each year, and are one of the common types of medical malpractice cases in court. Oftentimes a doctor just writes an incorrect dosage on the prescription, which leads to health problems right away when the patient takes too much. But sometimes the prescription is correct, but the nurse administers the incorrect amount (therefore patients sue the nurse instead of the doctor). Sometimes the equipment that administers the drug can malfunction, such as when a defibrillator has a dead battery or an intravenous pump has a dislodged valve. If suing a doctor for a prescription-related offense, you will need to establish that you took the medication in strict accordance with the instructions provided to you. You must also prove in court that the doctor did not properly advise you of the side effects and complications that you experienced after taking the medication. If your claim is based on a dispensing error, you must prove that the pharmacist (or whoever was responsible for dispensing the drug) gave you something different than what the doctor intended to prescribe.
Anesthesia Accidents
Have you ever heard of a patient getting too much anesthesia? Sometimes anesthesiologists can commit medical practice even before they began administering the amnesia, by:
- Giving too much anesthesia to the patient
- Failing to check the patient’s medical history for possible complications
- Not telling the patient of the risks involved if preoperative instructions (like eating for a certain period of time prior to surgery) aren’t followed
- Failing to monitor the patient’s vital signs
- Using defective equipment
In order to prove the anesthesiologist’s negligence, a lawyer will usually hire an expert medical witness who was present during your operation or procedure, who will consider details like your pre-surgical risk factors for anesthesia, and the known complication rate of the type of anesthesia used during the surgery.
Delayed Diagnosis
Sometimes the patient can get the wrong prescription because he has the wrong disease. A doctor can misdiagnose a patient’s condition, and the patient can get the right drug, but for a disease he doesn’t have. A doctor can also fail to diagnose a serious disease for some time, which causes the patient to miss treatment opportunities, which can lead to serious harm to their body or even death. Questions such as the doctor’s training or professionalism will definitely arise in court if the patient was damaged because of a doctor’s faulty diagnosis.
Medical Malpractice Attorney Near Me
If you’re certain that you’ve been sick or damaged because of a surgeon, anesthesiologist, or diagnostician who did you wrong, no worries. Our attorneys at Ellis Law are trained to handle all kinds of medical malpractice cases. Contact us online or call us now at 732-298-6664, and we’ll hear your story and try to get you the best deal in court for your damages.
