Doctors have set procedures and protocols they must follow to ensure each patient gets the best care possible. If they fail to follow the proper standard of care, a patient can suffer serious injuries, worsening health conditions, or even death. When a doctor’s negligence causes harm, this is medical malpractice.
New York malpractice laws are complex. You need a skilled medical malpractice lawyer on your side before you pursue one of these claims. At Gacovino, Lake & Associates, P.C., our medical malpractice attorneys can help you understand if malpractice occurred, identify expert witnesses to support your claim, and fight for the full value of compensation you deserve for your injuries. Call our office today at 631-600-0000 to set up your free consultation with a medical malpractice lawyer in Sayville, Long Island.
What Are Some Common Examples of Medical Malpractice?
Not every mistake a doctor or other medical professional makes qualifies as malpractice. Physicians are only human and sometimes they make mistakes. Most of these mistakes are relatively harmless and do not represent a deviation from the high standard of care the medical profession requires.
If an error steps outside of the expected standard of care, however, it does constitute medical malpractice. Our attorneys have experience identifying the signs of malpractice and can help determine if it occurred in your case.
Some of the most common ways we have seen medical malpractice occur include the following situations.
Communication Errors
Communication errors are at the heart of many medical malpractice incidents. Whether the breakdown occurs between caregivers or between doctor and patient, this can mean serious trouble. Miscommunication and misunderstanding can cause surgical errors, medication errors, and other issues in treatment.
Failing to Follow Protocol
Each situation has its own procedure to follow to ensure patients receive appropriate triage, diagnosis, and treatment. Without this, there would be little standard of care from hospital to hospital and doctor to doctor. We consider whether a doctor followed accepted protocol to determine if an incident was a mistake or malpractice.
Failing to Diagnose
If a competent doctor could easily recognize a misdiagnosed health condition or would have ordered different tests based on the patient’s symptoms, this may be malpractice. Since an early diagnosis means a patient would receive targeted treatment as soon as possible, any delay in diagnosis or misdiagnosis can lead to more severe symptoms and advanced disease.
Problems With Treatment and Medications
Almost every health condition you can name has prescribed treatments and medications doctors utilize during the course of treatment. If your doctor veers away from these recommended protocols, administers the wrong treatment, or offers the wrong dosage of a medication, you may have a viable malpractice claim.
Failure to Warn of Risks
Your doctor has a duty to inform you of the risks of any tests, treatments, and medication. Failure to do so may result in a medical malpractice claim. For example, if your doctor prescribed a drug known to cause heart attacks but failed to tell you of this side effect, you would not be paying close attention and might shrug off the chest pains you felt until you were in the middle of a serious cardiac episode.
Do I Have a Viable Medical Malpractice Claim?
Because malpractice incidents vary so widely, it is impossible to determine if your situation warrants a medical malpractice case without first discussing the details of your illness or injury with us. We can help you understand what happened to cause your damages and how the New York state malpractice laws would apply. We can help you understand if the care you received fell below the accepted standards and how this led to your injuries. We can also prove your financial damages, as well as document your pain and suffering.
The standard of care plays a key role in every medical malpractice claim. Each medical practitioner must always provide the highest standard of care possible. Falling below the accepted standard of care can cause serious injury. We will identify another doctor with similar training and experience working in the Long Island area and determine what they would have done in the same situation. This allows us to see the proper protocols and identify any areas where your doctor acted negligently.
How Can We Recover Compensation In My Case?
When you enlist our help with your medical malpractice claim, we immediately launch an investigation into what happened and how the malpractice occurred. Once we collect all evidence and determine the strength of your case, we will file the claim. Evidence in these claims differs from case-to-case, but often includes testimony from a number of expert witnesses to describe how your physician veered off course or fell far below the acceptable standard of care.
After filing the claim with the doctor’s medical malpractice insurance provider, we have to identify another doctor in the area with similar credentials and experience to the doctor who caused your injuries. We will sit down with this practitioner to discuss your case in-depth. We will then complete our certificate of merit, which certifies that we met with a physician who agreed your doctor committed medical malpractice.
Often, the hospital or doctor’s legal team will conduct their own investigation soon after we file our certificate of merit. After they have a better understanding of what happened, they often come back to us with a settlement offer. Negotiations may continue for several weeks or even months. Usually, we eventually reach a settlement agreement. If they refuse to offer a fair settlement, we are not afraid to take them to court to fight for the full value of your case.
How Can I Discuss My Case With a Medical Malpractice Lawyer in Sayville, Long Island?
The knowledgeable medical malpractice team at Gacovino, Lake & Associates, P.C., understand how these complicated laws work and can help you determine how they apply in your case. Let us offer legal advice and support for your medical malpractice claim. Call us today at 631-600-0000 to schedule your free case review.
