Frequently, people think of medical malpractice in terms of egregious cases, such as when a surgeon performs an operation on the wrong patient. However, medical malpractice can take many forms, and even simple mistakes—such as giving a patient the wrong medication—can cause serious or even fatal injuries. If you or someone you love has suffered an injury caused by a medical professional in Queens, you should contact the medical malpractice attorney at The Cassisi Law Firm for a free consultation on your potential case. We also have helped numerous clients in the Bronx and Brooklyn win millions of dollars in damages for personal injuries.

Schedule your initial consultation by calling 718-441-5050 or completing the online contact form.

A study released in 2010 by HealthGrades concluded that as many as 195,000 deaths in hospitals every year are caused by errors committed by healthcare professionals, and even the Department of Health and Human Services estimates that up to 180,000 Medicare patients die prematurely every year either partially or completely due to treatment errors.

Yet as high as these numbers are, they are only a fraction of the total number of medical treatment errors committed, because these represent only the errors that result in fatalities. And while some medical errors may cause little or no harm, others can have serious or even permanent consequences.

A medical malpractice suit is a type of negligence tort (civil wrong). All medical professionals—surgeons, doctors, nurses, dentists, therapists, and others—have a duty to provide their patients with a level of care that reflects accepted medical standards in their communities. If they violate this duty by providing treatment that falls below this standard resulting in injury to their patients, the medical professional may be held liable for all damages caused by the error or, in some cases, omission.

Of course, not every medical error is preventable. There are times when doctors cannot predict whether a particular course of treatment will have a serious adverse consequence, such as when a patient has a severe allergic reaction to a drug he has never taken. But other medical errors are preventable. One study commissioned by the National Academy of Sciences concluded that as many as 98,000 medical error deaths per year were preventable.

Where a medical treatment error is preventable, a claim for medical malpractice may be warranted. Typical medical malpractice claims include injuries caused by:

• Medication errors, whether they involve prescribing or administering the wrong drug or wrong dose, prescribing multiple drugs that are incompatible, or failing to prescribe a needed medication;
• Diagnosis failures or errors, leading to delayed or denied treatment that caused a condition to worsen;
• Negligent supervision in patient care settings where caregivers have an obligation to monitor their patients and provide adequate services;
• Failure to obtain informed consent, such as when a doctor fails to warn a patient of known risks involved in a procedure, leading the patient to consent to the procedure and ultimately suffer the adverse consequences;
• Insufficient medical training, where the patient sustains an injury at the hands of a medical provider who did not have the appropriate qualifications to render a particular treatment;
• Birth or obstetric injuries causing permanent harm to a child or its mother;
• Surgical errors, including the performance of faulty, unnecessary, or excessive surgical measures;
• Negligent follow-up, in which a patient suffers a fracture, infection, or other injury in a hospital or other care setting while recovering from a separate treatment;
• Equipment failures that result in injury, when a treatment facility fails to properly maintain critical medical equipment used in a procedure;
• Lack of teamwork or communication, such as where multiple or successive caregivers fail to provide other caregivers with necessary medical information that would impact the appropriate treatment; and
• Other medical errors.

If you think you have a medical malpractice case, it is critical to first obtain the advice of an experienced medical malpractice attorney. Malpractice cases are often very complex, particularly since much of the evidence usually lies in the hands of the doctors and hospitals that may be liable.

If you have been injured as a result of an error or omission committed by a medical professional in Queens or the surrounding area, contact the negligence attorney at The Cassisi Law Firm at 718-441-5050 or use our online contact form to set up your free consultation.