Going to the doctor to get treated for an illness or injury that’s bothering you or hurting your health can be intimidating. You’re putting your trust into the doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals to give you the best possible care and not make mistakes. While the ideal situation includes you walking out of the hospital feeling better than when you entered, that’s not always what happens.
You might fall victim to a practitioner’s negligence, which would be considered medical negligence. When that’s the case, you could use the help of our Glendale, AZ medical malpractice lawyer. At Buckingham Barrera Vega Law Firm, we understand how devastating the effect a medical error can have on your life. We’re here to help you recover compensation for that error.
We’ll investigate how the practitioner was negligent, the error they made, how it injured you, and what you’re owed in damages. You shouldn’t have to choose between physically recovering and recovering financially. With the help of our lawyers, you can do both.
Different Types of Medical Negligence Patients Experience
When your doctor or other medical professional made a mistake that resulted in harm to you, you could be interested in filing a medical malpractice claim against the party responsible. You might be unsure of exactly how the practitioner hurt you, which is why hiring a med mal lawyer can be so important to a strong claim.
One of the first things they’ll do is work to identify exactly what happened. By determining what the act of medical negligence was, they can start figuring out which party was at fault. Here are some of the common types of medical negligence that happen to patients in Glendale:
- Misdiagnosis. A doctor can diagnose you with the wrong ailment, which leads to your actual illness progressing and getting worse while you endure treatments for an ailment that don’t need. This can cause serious damage to your body, and left undiagnosed, some diseases can advance into late stages if untreated.
- Missed Diagnosis. In similar cases, a doctor completely misses an obvious ailment and doesn’t treat you, which leads to serious consequences. For example, if you enter the hospital with clear signs of a heart attack and a doctor sends you home without further tests or treatment, you could die from their missed diagnosis.
- Medication Errors. Prescriptions need to be exact. When someone makes an error with the medication, dosage, or administration, it could have deadly results. If allergies aren’t considered, patients could have allergic reactions.
- Surgical Errors. If a surgeon operates on the wrong body part, knicks a major artery, or leaves tools inside of a patient, it can lead to more surgeries, pain, complications, and infections. You’re already suffering from the surgery you knew you needed, and then you would have to suffer from more surgeries and treatments to fix their mistakes.
- Anesthesia Errors. Anesthesia can be deadly if the proper dosage is not administered to a patient. If they are given too little, a patient could wake up and suffer psychological trauma from the surgery as well.
- Birth Injuries. When babies are born, it can be a traumatic experience if doctors and nurses aren’t careful. Both the baby and their mother can suffer from serious injuries that affect them for the rest of their lives.
There are many more types of medical errors that can occur when you’re trusting medical professionals to help you. If you experienced one of the negligent acts listed above, you could have a med mal claim. Even if you don’t see what happened to you in this list, you still might have a claim.
Our Glendale, AZ medical malpractice attorney is here to help you recover what you’re owed and get to the bottom of what caused your medical injury. We’ll answer all your questions and help you heal.
Proving Negligence in Your Med Mal Claim
Once it’s established what happened that caused your injury, your attorneys will work to prove that the negligent party was responsible. The main way to prove this is by proving negligence was present and caused your injury. There are four elements that your med mal lawyer will have to prove in order to have a solid claim.
Those elements of negligence are:
- A doctor-patient relationship existed, and they owed you a duty of care.
- They breached that duty of care through an act of negligence.
- That breach of care resulted in you suffering from further injuries.
- Those injuries caused you to suffer from damages.
By collecting your medical records, medical bills, and any other relevant billing information, your medical malpractice attorney will be able to prove that the above was present in your situation and that you experienced an act of medical malpractice. They’ll also look to missed wages and future costs of care to determine what you’re owed for your damages.
You might feel intimidated by the idea of filing a claim. That’s where our Glendale, AZ medical malpractice lawyer comes in. We’ll work hard on the legal side of things so that you don’t have to worry.
Important Arizona Med Mal Laws
Most of all, med mal laws in our state will be important to your claim. You’ll need the help of our lawyers to ensure that you case fits within the parameters of the law, because if not, it could be thrown out and you would lose the ability to receive the compensation that you deserve.
In Arizona, one of the most important parts about med mal claims is that you need to attach a certification to your claim filing to state whether you’re including testimony from a medical expert to prove that the other party was negligent. With this certification, you’ll need to submit an affidavit with the medical expert’s opinion on how the medical professional was wrong.
Additionally, you’ll need to follow the statute of limitations to ensure you’re filing within the correct timeline. If you miss the statute of limitations, your entire case could be thrown out because you didn’t file within two years from the date of the negligent act. Arizona follows the discovery rule, meaning that timeline could be extended if you didn’t discover you were injured until later.
This can all be complicated, which is why you need an attorney. Our medical malpractice lawyers are here to answer all your questions and ensure your claim is filed in a timely and proper way.
Hire A Med Mal Lawyer from Buckingham Barrera Vega Law Firm
You don’t have to go through your healing process alone. Our Glendale, AZ medical malpractice attorney from Buckingham Barrera Vega Law Firm is here to support you through your claim and help give you the space you need to recover. Reach out to our office today so we can get started working for you.
