When doctors make mistakes, they should be held accountable. Oftentimes, evidence that is central to a malpractice complaint is destroyed, or hard to prove. We work with a nationwide network of medical professionals in order to provide our clients with the absolute best care and expertise, so that they can get better and prove what went wrong.

ANESTHESIOLOGY ERRORS

Errors committed in the administration of anesthesia are relatively rare in comparison to the number of surgical procedures performed each year. But when mistakes occur, they can be devastating. Anesthesiology errors can result in death or permanent injury, including brain damage.

The most common examples of errors committed in the administration of anesthesia are the following:

• Administering the wrong dose of anesthesia

• Administering the wrong type of anesthesia

• Improper induction or failure to put a patient under anesthesia

• Failure to properly manage the administration of blood, fluids and medications

Beyond errors in the administration of anesthesia, anesthesiologists have a duty not to participate in surgeries that are unnecessary or that they believe is too dangerous under the circumstances. An anesthesiologist also must ensure the patient has fully recovered from the anesthesia prior to being transferred from the operating room or discharged from the hospital or surgical center.

If an anesthesiologist committed a mistake that harmed you or a loved one, you may have grounds to bring a medical malpractice claim.

BIRTH INJURY

Birth injuries occur in approximately one to three percent of births in the United States, depending on what is characterized as a birth injury.  Many of these injuries go unreported, largely due to a lack of awareness of the causes and symptoms of birth injuries.  They may occur during the mother’s pregnancy, at the time of delivery, or in the course of newborn care.

Common causes of birth injuries include improper pre-natal care, failure to diagnose a disease or misdiagnosis of it, improper delay in inducing labor, failure to perform a c-section when required, improper handling of the baby after birth, failure to respond to apparent fetal distress, and improper monitoring and care of the baby following a delivery.

If you or someone you know has suffered a birth injury, speak with an experienced medical malpractice lawyer today to learn more.

CEREBRAL PALSY

Cerebral palsy is among the most devastating of birth injuries. Sometimes it is the result of birth injury negligence, although other times it is not. Cerebral palsy describes a group of disorders involving movement, learning, hearing, seeing and thinking that result from problems with brain development of a fetus or infant.

Together with our medical experts, we can assist you in determining whether medical malpractice was the cause of your child’s cerebal palsy. Concerned parents should be alert to these symptoms, and seek professional assistance where appropriate:

• Abnormal movements

• Abnormal sensations

• Abnormal muscle tone

• Decreased intelligence

• Difficulty sucking or feeding in infants

• Hearing problems

• Increased drooling

• Irregular breathing

• Learning disabilities

• Limited range of motion

• Pain

• Partial or full loss of movement (paralysis)

• Peg teeth

• Problems swallowing (at all ages)

• Seizures

• Speech problems (dysarthria)

• Urinary incontinence

• Vision problems

• Vomiting or constipation

CORRECTIONAL CARE

Correctional facilities are required to provide certain levels of medical care to inmates pursuant to both Arizona law and the U.S. Constitution. 

We have the skills, experience and resources necessary to navigate the added complexities of handling a malpractice claim that arises from medical care provided in prisons and other correctional facilities.

If you know someone who has been a victim of medical malpractice while in jail or prison, please reach out to an experienced medical malpractice lawyer to learn more.

EMERGENCY ROOM

Medical mistakes happen more frequently in emergency rooms than any other medical setting. Although one reason for this is the frantic pace of ERs and the wide range of medical conditions evaluated in this setting, other institutional factors affect the care provided in hospital emergency rooms.

Approximately 60 percent of emergency room mistakes are a result of human error. This sometimes occurs because emergency rooms often are staffed with part-time healthcare providers who lack the experience or training to work in an ER. Decisions must be made quickly and under pressure and this relies on sound decision-making from the doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals.

If you or someone you know has been injured due to negligence in an Emergency Room, reach out to an experienced medical malpractice lawyer today to learn more.

FAILURE TO DIAGNOSE

If properly and timely diagnosed, most forms of cancer have a high recovery rate. The prognosis worsens the longer the cancer progresses without medical intervention. Early detection is critical to survival rate and allows less-invasive treatment options.

Advances in medicine allow doctors to detect cancers at very early stages. In spite of these technologies, some doctors dismiss reported complaints or do not order appropriate tests necessary for early detection. Because any delay can be costly, a medical professional who fails to diagnose cancer leaves the patient at risk of a bad outcome.

The majority of medical malpractice claims allege that a doctor fell below the standard of care by failing to diagnose a serious medical condition. The most common diseases that are not diagnosed are breast cancer, colon cancer, melanoma and lung cancer. Failure to diagnose these conditions in a timely manner often results in death.

If you or someone you know has suffered injury or worse due to a failure to diagnose, reach out to an experienced medical malpractice attorney to learn more.

OPIOIDS

Opioid addiction is not new in the United States. In the late 1800s, more than 300,000 people were addicted to injected morphine and smoked opium. Now, between 2½ and 5 million Americans are addicted to opioids. The problem is so well hidden that it is impossible to accurately determine the extent of it.

Our current opioid crisis began in the 1990s, when the prescription painkillers Vicodin and Oxycodone gained traction among doctors. Some pharmaceutical companies improperly claimed these opioid painkillers were not addictive, and were, therefore, safe for patients. Many doctors were influenced by “incentives” provided to them by opioid manufacturers and distributors to prescribe these medications beyond their approved uses.

To date, our lawmakers have done very little to combat this serious public health problem. Federal funding for prevention and treatment programs has been woefully inadequate to meet the need. As with many serious health problems in the past, lawyers working within the civil justice system may be the solution to the opioid crisis.

The doctors who profited from the opioid epidemic at the expense of their patients caused harms that cannot be fixed. But since professional medical boards and government regulators have controlled this crisis, lawyers will make these healthcare providers pay for the damage they have caused.

Reach out to an experienced Medical Malpractice attorney today to learn more.

PRESSURE ULCERS

Bed sores—also called decubitus ulcers and pressure sores—may develop on people with limited mobility when caregivers fail to properly adjust their positions in beds or chairs, do not regularly clean them, or neglect to adequately feed or hydrate them. These wounds are serious medical conditions which can result in infections, sepsis and death, and they always are preventable.

When pressure from a bed or chair impairs blood flow, the affected tissue dies. These injuries commonly develop on buttocks, hips, elbows and heels. Serious pressure ulcers can be prevented by turning the patient on a regular schedule, proper feeding and hydration, and early detection of potential problems. If a patient in a hospital, nursing home or other long-term facility develops serious bed sores, it is virtually always the result of neglect by staff.

If you or someone you know has suffered from pressure ulcers or bed sores due to a medical provider’s negligence, speak with an experienced Medical Malpractice lawyer to learn more.

RADIOLOGY ERRORS

Radiologists play a critical role in the delivery of medical services by interpreting x-rays, CT scans and MRIs to assist physicians and other healthcare providers in diagnosing conditions and providing medical treatment. Inaccurate interpretations of diagnostic films can lead to a misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis of serious diseases or medical conditions.

If you or someone you know has been misdiagnosed due to radiology errors, reach out to an experienced Medical Malpractice lawyer to learn more.

SURGICAL ERRORS

Mistakes during surgery can cause devastating effects for patients. While some injuries are temporary, many are very serious and carry lifelong consequences. Studies demonstrate that about one-third of patients who are victims of surgical error will suffer a permanent injury, while more than six percent do not survive.

THE MOST COMMON SURGICAL ERRORS

The most common surgical errors include the following:

• Foreign Object Left Behind. The most common surgical mistake occurs when a foreign object is left in the patient during surgery. These often include a sponge, towel or even a medical instrument. These cases often involve negligence against both the surgeon and the nursing staff assisting the surgery.

• Wrong Procedure. One consequence of assembly line medicine is that surgeons sometimes will perform the wrong procedure on a patient.

• Wrong Site. It is not uncommon for a surgeon to operate on the wrong part of the body.

• Unnecessary Surgery. This occurs both as a result of misdiagnosis and also when a doctor puts his or her financial interests above the interests of the patient.

• Lack of Informed Consent. A doctor must inform the patient of information which is important to his or her decision to undergo the surgery. This includes complications arising from a surgery if those complications would be serious enough to affect the patient’s decision to proceed with surgery.

• Anesthesia Errors. The most common examples of errors committed in the administration of anesthesia include incorrect dose, wrong type, improper induction and failure to properly manage the administration of blood, fluids and medications.

URGENT CARE

In recent years, the number of urgent care facilities have exploded. The business model for urgent cares is not conducive to quality patient care. Urgent care centers employ “assembly line medicine” by prioritizing high volume over patient care. Urgent care facilities generally are staffed with less qualified personnel than hospital emergency rooms the medical evaluations often are done by nurse practitioners or physician’s assistants without adequate supervision.

Medical mistakes are common at urgent care facilities and often include misdiagnosis, delays in diagnoses or failure to timely refer to patients to an emergency room or specialist.

MEDICAL EVALUATIONS AT URGENT CARE FACILITIES OFTEN ARE HURRIED AND UNFOCUSED

Doctors and other medical professionals at urgent care facilities are under enormous pressure to rush through evaluations in order to accomodate high volumes of patients. This may lead to a physician or nurse practitioner to rush a diagnosis without considering “differential diagnoses” that may represent a life-threatening condition. A rush to judgment may cause the medical practitioner to ignore or downplay patient complaints or not order appropriate tests to rule out more serious medical conditions.

URGENT CARE FACILITIES OFTEN LACK THE EQUIPMENT TO PROPERLY DIAGNOSE ILLNESSES OR INJURIES

An urgent care visit may be attractive to a patient as more convenient and timely than an emergency room visit, but it may come at an enormous cost: urgent care facilities often do not have the equipment to properly diagnose or treat emergency conditions. A patient often will not recognize when a medical condition requires a higher level of care, but medical professionals at urgent care facilities must promptly make that determination.

URGENT CARE FACILITIES MAY NOT RECOGNIZE URGENT MEDICAL ISSUES THAT REQUIRE INTERVENTION

Because doctors and nurse practitioners frequently rush through patient examinations, they do not always recognize the seriousness of a particular illness or injury. A patient may be discharged with a prescription for pain medication when referral to an emergency room was necessary. When the doctors fail to comply with the standard of care, the results can be disastrous.

If you or someone you know was the victim of medical malpractice, reach out to an experienced medical malpractice lawyer to learn more.

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