New York City Medical Malpractice

When an individual becomes sick or injured, he or she relies on competent, vigilant medical personnel to treat any ailments. When one visits a medical establishment, he or she fully expects medical professionals to take every precaution to ensure your safety. Unfortunately, even trained medical professionals make mistakes from time to time. However, when established standards of medical care are not met due to negligence, diagnostic error, or lack of communication, patients may suffer serious and lasting injuries.

When a medical professional fails to follow accepted professional medical standards and therefore a breach of duty occurs that is the proximate cause of injury or wrongful death, this negligence is referred to as medical malpractice.

Medical malpractice, causing harm to a patient or the wrongful death of a patient, is the result of acts committed by a medical professional or an agent on his or her behalf.

Victims of medical malpractice need to establish negligence on the part of the medical professional or responsible party. In order for negligence to be established the following conditions must be met:

• A legal duty was owed when the hospital or medical professional undertook treatment and care of a patient.
• When the health care provider failed to provide the proper standard of care proven through expert testimony or medical errors, a legal duty was breached.
• The medical professional’s breach of duty was a proximate cause of the injury or wrongful death of the patient.
• Damages were incurred. There is no basis for claim without damages having been incurred. Damages may be both monetary and emotional.

According to federal officials, substandard medical care is widespread. An estimated 1.3 million patients are injured each year due to medical error, according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Hospital infections, many of which are preventable, result in the death of approximately 100,000 people each year, while medical errors cause another 44,000 to 98,000 deaths annually.

Medical malpractice can occur in various situations. Common scenarios include:

• Labor and delivery-related injuries
• Anesthesia errors
• Medication errors
• Spinal cord injuries
• Failure to diagnose and treat in a timely manner, including cancers, stroke, heart attack, and pulmonary.
• Surgical injuries

Brain injuries are the most common types of birth injury. These ailments typically occur when caregivers fail to adequately assess conditions during or prior to labor. Oxygen deprivation may take place if children are not properly monitored during the birthing process, which can cause severe trauma to the brain, including long-term functional impairments such as Cerebral Palsy.

In a 2010 posting on the WebMD-moderated WebMD Heart Disease Community, a heart broken daughter said she needed answers regarding the recent loss of her mother.  Her mother had been admitted to a cardiac intensive care unit in order to receive a heart catheterization after she had suffered a mild heart attack.  Immediately after the procedure, the doctors reported that the catheterization had gone smoothly and without complications.  Her mother was awake and talking after the procedure. 

Due to a serious lack of communication on the part of the hospital’s medical staff, the daughter was unsure as to how much time passed before they realized that her mother was losing blood internally.  Although the daughter was told that her mother had lost nearly six units of blood, her mother was not taken into emergency surgery for open-heart surgery to repair the damage.  The mother died as a result of suffering renal failure as well as failure of the liver and heart due to the amount of blood lost.

If this daughter suspects medical malpractice, she should obtain all of her mother’s medical records and consult an experienced medical malpractice attorney.

In a recent Mayo-Clinic-conducted study which included collaborators from Johns Hopkins and the American College of Surgeons, major medical mistakes, which were self-reported by U.S. surgeons, are related to depression and burnout on the part of the surgeons themselves.

Almost nine percent of the surgeons responded during the study that they had made a major medical error in the three months directly preceding the survey.

Seventy percent of those admitting errors did not attribute the error to problems that existed within organizations or systems that had been put into place, but instead admitted that they themselves committed the errors.

Surgeons who committed medical errors did admit that their mental quality of life, including depression, contributed to their medical mistakes.  Surgeon burnout, including depersonalizing thoughts as well as emotional exhaustion, was considered to be a major factor which contributed to the medical errors.

The results of this study show that a surgeon’s personal mental health may have an adverse effect on the quality of medical care he or she delivers.

A total of 7,905 surgeons participated in the anonymous survey.  Of this number, seven hundred or 8.9 percent reported committing recent medical mistakes they considered to be major medical errors or malpractice.  Participating doctors took standardized survey instruments designed to measure burnout as well as symptoms of depression.  Researchers conducting the study report that no relation between medical errors and the hospital setting, their compensation, or number of nights on call each week had an impact on limiting medical error. 

The study led by the Mayo Clinic was supported and commissioned by the American College of Surgeons.  Their findings indicate that surgeons plus burnout and depression may result in medical malpractice.

In the state of New York there is a statute of limitations for bringing a medical malpractice lawsuit.  The medical malpractice action must be brought within thirty months or two and one half years from the act or omission in question or from the end of a continuous treatment during which the act or omission took place.

Cases involving foreign objects being left inside patients must be brought within one year of the date when the foreign object was discovered.

The limitations period may be extended only up to ten years if the claimant’s incompetency or disability tolls the limitations.

An action which alleges that a wrongful death occurred as a result of medical malpractice must be brought within two years of the patient’s death.

If the patient was a minor at the time the act of negligence or medical malpractice occurred, the individual must bring legal action no longer than three years after his or her eighteenth birthday.

If you have been injured due to medical negligence, contact the Brooklyn medical malpractice lawyers of the Schwartzapfel Partners. We will strive to protect your legal rights and obtain the compensation to which you are entitled. We will fight for you!

Contact us by phone at (877) 625-4422 or fill out our online contact form.

These Hubs are provided for informational purposes only and should not be considered legal advice. Professional legal counsel should be sought for specific advice relevant to your circumstances.