Injuries caused by medical malpractice are often unexpected, devastating, and costly. In addition, the issues involving medical malpractice are complex.
In order to appropriately pursue medical malpractice cases, it is important to understand both the legal and medical issues involved.
That is why you need a Baltimore medical malpractice lawyer with extensive medical malpractice experience who can give your case the attention it needs.
Do I Have a Medical Malpractice Case?
Medical malpractice lawsuits are complex, but getting compensation for your injuries is not impossible.
A seasoned Baltimore medical malpractice lawyer can help determine whether you have a valid medical malpractice claim.
To prove medical malpractice, you must show that a medical professional’s negligence made you suffer additional or worsened injuries. To prove their negligence, you must show:
- You had a doctor-patient relationship with the defendant;
- The doctor-patient relationship imposed a duty of care on the defendant to comply with the generally accepted standard of care for professionals with similar training and experience;
- The medical provider breached the duty of care by deviating from the generally accepted standard of care for similarly trained professionals;
- The deviation made you suffer additional or worsened injuries; and
- You suffered losses due to your injuries.
Before you proceed with a medical malpractice lawsuit in Maryland, you must submit a certificate from a qualified medical expert verifying that they reviewed your claim and believe that the defendant deviated from the standard of care, resulting in your injuries.
Our medical malpractice lawyers in Baltimore will hire a medical expert to testify about the applicable standard of care and how the defendant breached it.
Practice Areas
- ER negligence,
- Birth injury,
- Misdiagnosis,
- Surgical negligence,
- Anesthesia malpractice
- Cerebral palsy,
- Erb’s palsy,
- Spinal cord injuries,
- Brain injury,
- Hospital Malpractice
- Wrongful death, and
- Amputation.
The different forms of medical malpractice cases we handle are described in more detail below. Reach out to one of our medical malpractice lawyers in Baltimore to review your claim and determine whether you have a case.
Anesthesia Issues
Patients undergo general anesthesia during surgical operations to put them to sleep and prevent them from moving around during the surgery.
Anesthesia is typically inhaled through a mask or injected through an IV. Before your operation, an anesthesiologist should advise you of the risks associated with general anesthesia and answer any of your questions.
In some cases, the anesthesiologist may give you the incorrect dose of anesthesia, or your body may react to the anesthesia unexpectedly.
Research indicates that medication errors occur during general anesthesia up to 1.12% of the time. The most common anesthesia errors involve administering the incorrect dose or substituting the incorrect medication. Factors that contribute to anesthesia errors include:
- Inexperience,
- Time pressure to proceed with an operation, and
- Communication problems.
Anesthesiologists are trained to administer the correct dosage of medication, monitor patients during surgery, and oversee their recovery from anesthesia. If the anesthesiologist fails to provide reasonable care, they may be liable for any resulting losses.
Surgical Mistakes
Avoidable mistakes during surgery by medical personnel can give rise to a medical malpractice claim.
In the U.S., the most common surgical mistakes involve operating on the wrong body part, performing the incorrect procedure, using improper surgical methods, failure to maintain adequate awareness of the surgical field or performing the procedure on the wrong patient.
For example, a surgeon may incorrectly operate on a patient’s left arm instead of their right arm that needed the operation. These surgical errors are referred to as “wrong-site, wrong-procedure, wrong-patient errors” (WSPEs).
They are also called “never events” because they should never happen in an operating room and signify underlying safety issues. Research indicates that WSPEs happen in less than 1% of surgical procedures that occur inside operating rooms.
If a surgical error causes additional medical expenses, you can file a medical malpractice claim against the surgeon responsible.
Misdiagnosis
An individual usually visits a doctor to get their expert opinion on a medical condition and how to remedy it. Unfortunately, a doctor can misdiagnose a medical condition instead, complicating your treatment options and extending your recovery time.
If the misdiagnosis worsens your condition, you can file a medical malpractice claim to recover the costs of any additional care arising after the misdiagnosis.
To pursue a medical malpractice case alleging a misdiagnosis, it is insufficient to show that a doctor simply misdiagnosed your condition. You must show that the misdiagnosis was the result of negligence.
That means proving that a similarly trained medical professional under the same or similar circumstances would have properly diagnosed your condition. Actions that can demonstrate a doctor made a negligent misdiagnosis include:
- Misreading lab results,
- Failing to review a patient’s medical history,
- Failing to order appropriate tests,
- Missing easily recognizable signs or symptoms of a condition, and
- Failing to diagnose a condition in a timely manner.
Misdiagnosing an illness or injury can result in a longer recovery time and additional medical expenses associated with that recovery.
Birth Injuries
A birth injury is a physical injury that happens to either the mother or the baby during childbirth.
There are multiple potential causes of a birth injury, including mistakes during delivery, poor pregnancy care, and medication errors. Some common birth injuries to infants include:
- Birth asphyxia and other forms of oxygen deprivation;
- Brachial plexus injuries, which typically affect the shoulders, hands, and arms;
- Vacuum extraction and forceps injuries, including bruises and broken bones; and
- Cerebral palsy resulting from a lack of oxygen during birth.
Common birth injuries to the mother include:
- C-section errors,
- Abnormal uterine bleeding,
- Uterine rupture,
- Infection,
- Prolapsed uterus,
- Hemorrhaging, and
- Pulmonary embolism.
If a doctor’s malpractice causes a birth injury or defect, reach out to a Baltimore medical malpractice lawyer to talk about your case.
ER Negligence
A study found that approximately 5.7% of patients receive an incorrect diagnosis in the emergency room, and approximately 2% suffer an adverse event as a result.
This amounts to approximately 2.6 million adverse events from an emergency room misdiagnosis annually. The primary causes of diagnostic issues were linked to failures in clinical assessment and poor reasoning or decision-making.
The top five misdiagnosed conditions include:
- Stroke,
- Myocardial infarction,
- Aortic aneurysm/dissection,
- Spinal cord injuries, and
- Venous thromboembolism.
These top five conditions account for 39% of serious misdiagnosis-related harms. The population most often associated with ER misdiagnosis is women of color.
What Can I Recover for My Injuries?
Monetary damages can include both economic loss and noneconomic losses. Examples of economic loss are past and future medical expenses and related care as well as lost wages.
Noneconomic damages include pain and suffering, mental anguish and grief.
With regard to non-economic damages, the Maryland Legislature has limited the amount plaintiffs can receive in medical malpractice cases.
The amount of the “cap” on noneconomic damages depends upon when the medical malpractice occurred.
How Long Do I Have to File a Medical Malpractice Claim?
Statutes of limitations are deadlines in which to file lawsuits. The failure to file a lawsuit within the applicable statute of limitations can be a complete bar to recovery.
In order to keep your claim from being rejected, reach out to an experienced medical malpractice lawyer at Baird Mandalas Brockstedt & Federico in Baltimore, Maryland as soon as possible.
Reach Out to a Medical Malpractice Lawyer in Baltimore
Contact the medical malpractice lawyers at Baird Mandalas Brockstedt & Federico for a free consultation.
We are Baltimore medical malpractice lawyers with a background in matters requiring considerable experience and sophistication. Contact us online or by phone at 410-421-7777.