When you’re treated at a doctor’s office, clinic or a hospital, you expect that treatment to be in accordance with a certain standard of care. That standard of care should follow the generally accepted approach to treating you that is used by other health care professionals in the same locality under the same or similar circumstances. If a doctor or other health care professional deviates from that standard of care and causes injuries or death, you’ll want to speak with a MO medical malpractice attorney from our office.
Some common medical errors
Keep in mind that not every bad result is cause for a medical malpractice lawsuit, and not even a gross deviation from an applicable standard of care necessarily gives rise to such an action. Some of the more common medical errors that give rise to lawsuits are:
- Failure to diagnose a condition, misdiagnosing it or diagnosing it too late
- Negligent prenatal care or negligence during birth
- Anesthesia errors like giving too much anesthetic to the patient
- Surgical errors involving the wrong body part, wrong patient or leaving surgical instruments inside of a patient
- Medication errors involving the wrong dosage, wrong patient or wrong medication
Preserve the evidence
Medical records can get lost, destroyed or altered, and witnesses can disappear. By retaining us as soon as possible after suspected medical negligence, we might be able to preserve evidence for a medical malpractice case. In the event of a wrongful death claim, it might even be necessary to obtain a timely autopsy.
Retaining a Missouri personal injury attorney who is fluent in both the medicine and the law of medical malpractice is critical in any medical negligence case. If you believe that either you or your family member were injured as a result of medical malpractice, contact Holloran Schwartz & Gaertner LLP.