Long Island Medical Malpractice Lawyer
You might think that medical mistakes are rare, given the high level of education and training doctors receive and the intricate set of protocols hospitals put in place to ensure patient safety. However, medical mistakes do occur and they can occur at an alarming rate. In fact, a recent study concluded that medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the United States. Unfortunately, many individuals who are injured each year when health care providers make errors may not know it because medical records are often inaccurate and medical professionals may be reluctant to disclose mistakes. If you suspect a medical error might be behind a personal injury or wrongful death, call Giuffré Law Offices to discuss your concerns with an experienced and successful Long Island medical malpractice lawyer. Attorney John Giuffré has recovered millions for medical malpractice victims and represents injury victims throughout Nassau County, Long Island and New York City harmed by medical negligence.
Medical malpractice takes many forms
Call Giuffré Law Offices for any type of medical malpractice claim, including:
Missed or delayed diagnosis of cancer or other illness. When a diagnosis is missed or unreasonably delayed, an otherwise treatable condition can become incurable and terminal.
Misdiagnosis. Incorrect diagnosis is the number one medical mistake. Doctors should perform a differential diagnosis to rule out incorrect diagnoses, but they often fail to order the necessary tests or conduct due diligence.
Birth injuries, including harm to the mother or child during pregnancy, labor or delivery. Common birth injuries include cerebral palsy, brachial plexus injury, fractures, brain damage, and nerve injuries. When an infant is injured due to medical provider’s negligence in managing a mother’s labor or an infant’s delivery, it can lead to serious and permanent developmental delays that can last a lifetime.
Medication errors. Patients may be given the wrong medicine, or they may be overdosed or underdosed. Many medications look the same or have similar-sounding names, and different drugs might treat the same condition but have different side effects. Some injections should be intravenous, while others should be intramuscular. Doctors, nurses and pharmacists must take care when prescribing and administering medication.
Surgical mistakes. Surgery errors include performing the wrong surgery on the wrong patient, operating on the wrong organ or wrong side of the body, leaving surgical instruments or sponges sewn up inside the patient, or incompetent techniques that inadvertently cut an organ, blood vessel or nerve.
Anesthesia errors. These mistakes include giving too little anesthesia so that a patient is conscious during a procedure and feels pain but cannot move or communicate, or giving too much anesthesia that causes respiratory arrest. Anesthesiologists and nurse anesthetists need to understand the patient’s medical history, drug allergies and drug interactions, and they need to carefully monitor the patient’s vital signs during and after surgery.
Lack of informed consent. Before performing any procedure or initiating a course of treatment, patients should be told about the pros and cons of the procedure as well as alternative options. Treatment performed without informed consent or that goes beyond the bounds of a patient’s informed consent may be considered malpractice.
Put a lawyer’s skill and experience on your side for success in your medical malpractice case
Doctors are held to the standard of care that a qualified doctor would do under similar circumstances. Proving a case of medical malpractice, therefore, requires getting expert testimony from a doctor who can testify that the proper standard of care was not followed and that this failure led to an injury. As an experienced trial lawyer, John Giuffré knows how to work with medical experts to obtain the necessary testimony and convey that testimony in a meaningful, understandable and compelling way to judges and juries.
Additionally, medical malpractice cases are aggressively defended by doctors, hospitals and their insurance companies. After a car accident, the negligent driver and their insurer can pay the damages they caused and then move on with their lives. When doctors and hospitals pay malpractice claims, they face steep rises in their malpractice insurance, damage to their reputation, and potentially the loss of their license to practice medicine. You need skilled, experienced representation on your side to battle the hospitals, their insurers, and their armies of lawyers.
Call today to secure your right to make a claim
The statute of limitations to bring a personal injury claim in New York is three years from the date of the injury, but for medical malpractice claims the rule is two and a half years from the injury. There’s no logical reason for this difference other than to give doctors a break and make medical malpractice cases harder to pursue. There are also many exceptions to this rule. For instance, if the malpractice occurred at a municipal hospital, you only have 15 months to file a claim and must give notice within 90 days. If the medical mistake was a retained medical instrument left behind after surgery, you only have a year.
On the plus side, injured children have until age 20 ½ to bring a claim, and thanks to Lavern’s Law, patients who suffered from a missed cancer diagnosis have two and a half years from the date they found out about or should have learned of the missed diagnosis, up to seven years from the mistake. Mental disability, continuous treatment and other factors can also delay a claim’s deadline.
Given the many complications surrounding the statute of limitations in a medical malpractice claim, it is imperative to talk to an attorney sooner rather than later. It can be frustrating and heartbreaking to lose out on valuable compensation because you waited too long to find out whether you had a claim.
Help is Available to Recover from Medical Malpractice in Nassau County, Long Island & New York City
If you believe that a medical error might have been the source of harm for you or a family member in a New York City hospital, call Long Island medical malpractice lawyers at Giuffré Law Offices at 516-802-9912 for a no-cost, confidential consultation.
