You put your faith and trust in healthcare providers to perform their job with a high degree of care. But sometimes, medical procedures may make a turn for the worse. Being injured or losing a loved one due to the negligence of a healthcare provider wreaks havoc on your life. It is easy to be pushed to your edge under the constant strain of dealing with a new injury and managing the related financial burden.
If you were injured by a medical provider, you may be able to recover compensation to help reduce the financial strain caused by your injuries or your loved one’s death. Be sure to speak with a qualified Raymore medical malpractice attorney today to see how you can be compensated.
What Are the Benefits of Hiring a Medical Malpractice Lawyer?
Medical malpractice lawsuits are complicated and intensive. Ideally, they should be handled by a team of skilled attorneys and medical professionals. Managing your own lawsuit will cause you even more stress at a time when you should be focused on healing.
Medical malpractice cases require a lot of resources to gather evidence and a network of medical professionals to analyze the evidence. You must also be sure to name the correct defendants in your case and be prepared to comply with court deadlines.
Do not walk this road alone. Hiring an experienced Raymore medical malpractice attorney will give you access to the resources and knowledge to help you recover as much compensation as possible. Our team of attorneys at Dempsey Kingsland & Osteen have over 80 years of combined experience advocating for patients who were injured by medical malpractice.
What Is Medical Malpractice?
Injuries caused by medical malpractice can be associated with a variety of medical procedures and errors. This section will discuss some of the most common examples of medical malpractice claims.
Surgical Errors
Surgeons work long hours and are often sleep-deprived, which can cause them to make mistakes. The following surgical errors are common grounds for a patient to seek compensation in a medical malpractice lawsuit:
- Nerve damage;
- Bleeding events;
- Operating on or slicing the wrong body part;
- Operating on the wrong patient;
- Performing the wrong surgery on a patient;
- Foreign objects left inside a patient; and
- Anesthesia errors, such as administering the wrong dose or failing to notice complications.
A surgeon and other medical providers (e.g., nurses) can be held responsible for these types of errors.
Medication Errors
There are many steps where a doctor or pharmacist may commit an error with a patient’s medication. Patients can suffer serious injury or die if they are prescribed too much medication or given the wrong medication at the pharmacy. If you think you received the wrong medication or dosage, consult with a knowledgeable attorney to see if your situation is eligible for compensation.
Birth Injuries
Despite advances in medical care, babies may still be injured during labor. If the medical staff makes a mistake or uses faulty equipment during labor and injures your baby, you may be eligible to recover compensation. Not all birth complications qualify as medical malpractice, but if your baby was born with brain injuries, nerve injuries in shoulders or arms, broken bones, or severe jaundice, it’s possible that the medical staff handled them in a negligent manner.
Misdiagnosis
When a medical provider misdiagnoses a patient, the patient may lose valuable time to identify and obtain the proper treatment. They may also undergo unnecessary tests and treatments that cause debilitating side effects. When you are facing a health crisis, like a heart condition or cancer, you rely on a doctor’s timely diagnosis to save your life. It is okay for a doctor to take time to diagnose a patient, but if the process becomes too long, it may be a sign of malpractice.
Wrongful Death
Unfortunately, sometimes a patient loses their life because of a healthcare provider’s medical error. In these cases, the surviving family members may be able to recover compensation for the loss of their loved one.
Wrongful death actions are a unique subset of medical malpractice cases that have their own set of rules. If you lost a loved one, contact our team of experienced attorneys at Dempsey Kingsland & Osteen.
This is not an all-inclusive list of the types of medical malpractice that can happen to a patient. Speaking with a knowledgeable Raymore medical malpractice attorney about your special circumstances is the best way to understand if you have a viable claim.
What Do I Have to Prove in a Medical Malpractice Claim?
In the State of Missouri, doctors and medical personnel must follow a standard of care when they treat patients. When a patient files a medical malpractice claim, they are alleging that their healthcare provider violated this standard of care. To recover compensation for injuries, a patient and their medical malpractice lawyer must prove that:
- The patient was seeing the healthcare provider for medical treatments;
- The defendant did not act in a way that another healthcare provider with similar training would have acted in similar circumstances,
- The defendant’s action or inaction is the direct cause of your injuries or your loved one’s death, and
- The patient suffered damages due to the resulting injuries.
Successfully recovering compensation in a medical malpractice claim takes a team of legal and medical experts who can advocate on your behalf to overcome the defense’s arguments.
Before you can proceed with litigating your claim, Missouri law requires the plaintiff to submit an affidavit from a certified healthcare provider that states the defendant failed to follow the standard of care and that the failure directly caused or contributed to the injuries and resulted in the patient’s damages. Basically, this affidavit is another licensed, medical professional saying the defendant in your case was negligent.
The attorneys at Dempsey Kingsland & Osteen understand the legal process and have earned a reputation for filing detailed complaints that are hard for defendants to argue against. Let our team guide you through this challenging process.
Time Limits on Filing a Medical Malpractice Claim
Missouri law generally allows patients to file a claim for medical malpractice within two years after the date the patient was injured by their healthcare provider. However, if a patient’s claim involves a provider withholding test results or a foreign object being left in them, the law says these patients have up to two years after the date they discovered the error.
It is important to contact qualified medical malpractice attorneys in Raymore to review the specifics of your case and receive qualified advice on the time limit to file your medical malpractice claim.
What Expenses Can I Recover?
If you have been injured by medical malpractice, you may recover compensation for things like
- Past and future medical expenses related to your injury,
- Lost wages,
- Emotional distress, and
- Pain and suffering.
The unique facts of your situation will determine how much you can seek to recover. It is best to work with a thorough Raymore medical malpractice attorney to better understand the compensation that would be available for your case.
Talk to a Trusted, Experienced Medical Malpractice Attorney About Your Claim
Our team of experienced attorneys at Dempsey Kingsland & Osteen has over 80 combined years of experience successfully advocating for compensation to help clients injured by medical malpractice. Do not travel down this path alone.
Contact Dempsey Kingsland & Osteen to schedule a consultation with the best medical malpractice attorney in Raymore.
