Emergency rooms are crowded and fast. That explains some mistakes. It does not excuse them. A hospital must have the staff and the systems to treat patients safely.
Errors We Investigate
- Sending a patient home without ruling out a heart attack, stroke, or infection
- Long delays in triage while a patient gets worse
- Medication errors: wrong drug, wrong dose, known allergy
- Failure to monitor after surgery or sedation
- Falls from beds and stretchers
- Bedsores and infections from poor nursing care
- Test results that were never read or never passed on
Who Is Responsible
A hospital is responsible for the carelessness of its employees, including nurses, residents, and technicians. Hospitals also answer for their own failures, such as too few staff, poor supervision, and broken systems for reporting test results.
Individual doctors may be separately responsible. We identify every provider involved from the chart.
How We Evaluate a Case
- We obtain the complete hospital chart, including triage notes, orders, nursing notes, and medication records.
- Physicians and nurses in the relevant fields review the care.
- We tell you plainly whether there is a case and why.
What You Can Recover
- The cost of corrective and future medical care
- Lost wages and loss of future earning ability
- Pain and suffering
- In death cases, the financial losses to the family
Deadlines
Malpractice deadlines are shorter than other injury cases. The lawsuit generally must be filed within two years and six months of the malpractice, or of the end of continuous treatment for the same condition.
Claims against a public hospital have shorter deadlines and their own notice requirements. Every case is different, and the rules that apply depend on the facts, the parties, and the insurance involved. Once we discuss your claim and complete the necessary research, our office will confirm which deadlines and coverage apply to you.
If you are not sure whether the hospital is public, treat the 90 days as if it applies and call us.
Common Questions
I signed forms when I was admitted. Did I give up my right to sue?
No. Admission and consent forms do not excuse care that falls below accepted standards.
The hospital will not tell me what happened. What can I do?
Request the complete records. Patients have a right to them, and we can make the request for you.
Is a bad outcome enough for a case?
No. There must be a departure from accepted care that caused harm. A records review answers that.
Talk to a Lawyer Today
The consultation is free. There is no fee unless we win, and we advance the costs of the case. You speak with your attorney directly, not a call center.