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Medical Malpractice

Medical malpractice occurs when a negligent act or omission by a doctor or other medical professional results in damage or harm to a patient. Negligence by a medical professional may include errors in diagnosis, treatment or illness management.

According to a recent report by HealthGrades, medical errors by hospitals harm up to one in 25 patients admitted to the hospital. This number would be even higher if researchers at HealthGrades factored in mistakes at nursing homes, outpatient settings and doctors' offices. As Dr. Samantha Collier, vice president of medical affairs at HealthGrades puts it, "the equivalent of 390 jumbo jets full of people are dying each year due to likely preventable, in-hospital medical errors, making this one of the leading killers in the United States."

Even using conservative estimates, medical errors are the eighth leading cause of death in this country- higher than motor vehicle accidents (43,458), breast cancer (42,297), or AIDS (16,516).

At Harrell & Nowak, LLC, we handle cases that fall under the Louisiana Medical Malpractice Act. We help clients recover damages if they are injured because of negligence or misconduct on the part of a health care provider. There are various situations in which a patient may have been injured by a doctor, hospital or medical professional, including:

1. Delay or Failure to Diagnose a Disease
   

   You may have been harmed if there was a delay in the diagnosis of your condition because of the negligence of your physician. In addition to diagnostic errors which can lead to lack of treatment or the wrong treatment, the doctor may have failed to order the correct diagnostic test, misinterpreted the test results or failed to take proper actions on abnormal results. For example, we handle cases that involve:

   • Failure to Diagnose Cancer-- breast cancer, lung cancer, prostate cancer, colon cancer, pancreatic cancer, cervical cancer, ovarian cancer, testicular cancer, kidney (renal) cancer, skin cancer, leukemia, stomach cancer.
   • Failure to Diagnose Stroke
   • Failure to Diagnose Heart Attack
   • Failure to Diagnose Bacterial Meningitis

2. Delay or Failure to Treat a Disease
   

   Even if your condition was diagnosed correctly, you may have been harmed by the negligence of your doctor or medical professional for failing to timely treat your disease or condition. Sometimes even a short delay can dramatically affect the outcome of the treatment.

3. Failure to Obtain Patient's Consent for Health Care or Surgical Procedure
   

   Except in the case of an emergency, the doctor must get your consent before performing any treatment. This does not always happen. Your doctor may have been negligent if you did not consent to the treatment you received.

4. Medication Prescription Errors and Medication Administration Errors
   

   Medication errors are preventable and occur over one million times each year. About 7,000 people per year are estimated to die from medication errors-16% more deaths than the number attributable to work-related injuries. Errors occur in hospitals and other heath care settings, such as physicians' offices, nursing homes, pharmacies, urgent care centers and in-home care. According to a 1997 study, antibiotics, cardio-vascular agents, gastrointestinal agents, and narcotics were the most common medications involved in errors.
   

   The American Hospital Association has identified the most common medication errors including:

   • Incomplete patient information -- not knowing about patients' allergies, other medicine they are taking, previous diagnoses, lab results;
   • Unavailable drug information--such as lack of up-to-date warnings;
   • Miscommunication of drug orders--due to poor handwriting, confusion between drugs with similar names, misuse of zeroes and decimal point, inappropriate abbreviations;
   • Failure to label a drug that is prepared and repackaged into small units;
   • Environmental factors- lighting heat, noise, interruptions that distract health professionals.

   You may have a case for medical malpractice if your doctor or medical professional:

   • Ordered the wrong drug or ordered a drug that interacted with other drugs you were already taking
   • Ordered the wrong dosage of a drug
   • You were given the wrong drug by a pharmacist, nurse or doctor
   • You were given the wrong dosage of the drug your doctor ordered
   • Ordered a drug that you were allergic to

5. Improper Technique or Medical Mistake During Treatment/Surgery
   

   Mistakes can happen during treatment for a medical condition or as the result of a surgical procedure. Examples of negligence can include:

   • Improper implantation of pacemaker
   • Post-op hemorrhage or hematoma (bleeding)
   • Post-op Hip Fracture or a Hip Fracture from falling out of bed
   • Complications of anesthesia
   • Foreign body left in during surgical procedure, such as forceps or sponges
   • Blood transfusion reaction because you were given the wrong type of blood
   • Accidental puncture or laceration or other injury
   • Infections due to medical care
   • Post-op pulmonary embolism or deep vein thrombosis
   • Post-op sepsis or sepsis as the result of negligent treatment
   • Decubitus ulcer or pressure sore
   • Post-op respiratory failure or respiratory failure due to negligent treatment
   • Improper use of stents, such as colonic stents
   • Improper insertion of cardiac stent
   • Birth Injury Malpractice
     • Cerebral Palsy
     • Erbs Palsy
     • Shoulder Dystocia