Medical malpractice can change your life in an instant and it is a bigger problem than people want to admit. Approximately 80,000 people die in the United States each year from medical malpractice according to a 1990 Harvard Medical Practice Study. A more recent study showed that number to be closer to 98,000. Even more disturbing, these studies do not even include malpractice occurring outside of hospitals. Yet only one malpractice claim is brought for every eight medical malpractice injuries reflecting a lack of proper transparency and lack of representation by an attorney skilled in medical malpractice lawsuits.

How Medical Malpractice Affects You

Medical malpractice often leads to serious and deadly injuries and can cause major changes in your life. Depending on the type of malpractice case, typical damages include pain and suffering, disability and impairment, lost wages, medical bills, and in some cases, lifelong nursing and rehabilitative care.  These injuries not only affect the injured person but also the family members of those injured, who are often burdened with having to provide additional care and financial support. The emotional toll can be devastating to all.  

You deserve answers and you deserve to know the truth about what went wrong.  ROSSETTI & DEVOTO, P.C. will swiftly investigate all substantial injury and wrongful death medical malpractice cases utilizing the most qualified medical experts to advise us on whether deviations took place in the care and treatment.

Types of Medical Malpractice

We have successfully represented persons injured by negligent doctors, nurses, technicians and hospitals who negligently provided health care. Some of these cases include:

• Birth injuries
• Surgical errors
• Delays in the diagnosis of cancer
• Failure to diagnose and treat infections
• Emergency room errors
• Failure to diagnose heart attacks
• Laparoscopic surgical errors
• OB-Gyn malpractice
• Medication errors
• Lasik surgical errors

When you visit the doctor, you expect to be cared for professionally and in accordance with accepted medical and nursing standards.  While all medical procedures have accepted risks, no one should have to endure injuries from unacceptable mistakes. Yet, mistakes happen more often than you might think, which is why the medical malpractice lawyers from ROSSETTI & DEVOTO, P.C. want to speak with you. 

Doctors and nurses are held to a certain standard of care when treating patients. If they fail to meet that standard of care and you suffer an injury as a result, you have been a victim of medical malpractice and you have every right to seek compensation for your injuries.  Before you can file a medical malpractice lawsuit in New Jersey, a medical professional practicing in the same specialty as the defendant doctor must sign an affidavit under penalty of perjury, that based on the medical records there is a reasonable probability that the care and treatment deviated from accepted standards.  

Determining the standard of care is an important part of every medical malpractice case. You will need to show through expert testimony what the accepted care and treatment standards were for medical professionals engaging in that treatment or performing that procedure based on what the average member practicing in that specific medical specialty would typically do.  Then you will need to show that the professional breached that duty of care and that the breach led to your injuries. Most medical malpractice cases are extremely hard-fought since the doctors, nurses and hospitals’ reputation is on the line. For that reason, Rossetti & DeVoto concentrates on representing those with only the most serious, life-threatening and life-altering injuries.  

Examples of Surgical Errors

One of the most common types of medical malpractice is that of a surgical error. Too often patients are scheduled for surgery who then wind up needing a second or third procedure to fix the mistakes made by the surgeon who operated on them initially. Surgical errors are serious mistakes made by surgeons that can leave lasting effects on your body or even lead to death. Common examples of surgical errors include the following:

• Operating on the wrong patient
• Operating on the wrong part of the correct patient
• Performing the wrong type of surgery
• Inadvertently cutting the wrong body part
• Errors with anesthesia
• Leaving a medical device or tool inside the patient
• Not disclosing enough information about the procedure to the patient
• Failing to recognize cardiac arrest during a procedure
• Failing to monitor the patient’s condition during the procedure
• Failing to administer the proper medication before, during, or after the surgery
• Failing to recognize bleeds, surgical errors or other complications before terminating the surgery

Surgical errors can cost you your life. You might develop an infection following the surgery if sutures were not applied correctly or if the incision area is not properly cared for while in the hospital. Infections can cause you to develop an illness or even bleed out internally.

The Danger of a Delayed Diagnosis

Another common type of medical malpractice is a delayed diagnosis of a particular condition. When your doctor fails to properly diagnose your medical condition it can lead to more serious consequences due to lack of timely treatment. If you were exhibiting symptoms of a specific disease or illness and continued to visit the doctor or hospital without getting a proper diagnosis, you might have a case for medical malpractice due to delayed diagnosis. The longer it takes a doctor to properly diagnose you, the further behind you will be in getting proper treating and the more difficult it will be for you to have a complete recovery.  The consequences can be deadly.

Delays in diagnosing cancer and infections are two of the most common types of delayed diagnosis cases. Since some symptoms of cancer and infection can be mistaken for other less serious illnesses, doctors might dismiss your worries or worse, try to treat you for that less serious suspicion.  However, a doctor’s job is to consider all reasonable, potential diagnosis’ and eliminate the most serious illnesses first. Too often, medical professionals jump right to a diagnosis and then perform testing to confirm their erroneous diagnosis rather than eliminating the most serious potential causes.  By the time you are correctly diagnosed, the damage is already done.  

Emergency Room Errors

Emergency room errors can be deadly, especially if you are taken to the hospital for respiratory or cardiac issues and the doctors fail to perform the proper tests or administer the correct care. An emergency room error as simple as failing to monitor a patient can lead to serious injuries or even death. The most common emergency room errors include the following:

• Failure to diagnose appendicitis
• Failing to diagnose heart attacks
• Failing to diagnose infection including sepsis
• Failure to manage the care of a patient
• Failure to diagnose a patient
• Failure to conduct a thorough examination of the patient
• Failure to conduct a complete medical history of the patient
• Failure to perform tests that can rule out a life-threatening condition
• Errors with the hospital laboratory tests
• Failing to consult with specialists
• Delays in administering tests
• Medication errors (wrong dosage, failing to administer drugs, wrong drugs)

Who Can be Held Liable?

If you believe you were the victim of medical malpractice, you will want to contact the medical malpractice lawyers at ROSSETTI, DEVOTO, P.C. immediately. Not every potential medical malpractice case will be cut and dry nor will every medical injury result in a case. There could be multiple entities and professionals held responsible for the injuries you suffered because of the negligence of a nurse or doctor who treated you. Some of these include the following:

• Doctor
• Nurse
• Pharmacist
• Hospital
• Drug manufacturer
• Hospital technician
• Medical device manufacturer

It’s possible that more than one defendant is responsible for the harm.  It all depends on the circumstances surrounding your case and what your lawyer feels can be proven in court.

Recoverable Damages in a Medical Malpractice Case

You can recover various damages in a medical malpractice case with the help of medical malpractice lawyers from Rossetti & DeVoto, PC. If you are the victim of medical malpractice, you may be able to collect compensation for the following damages:

• Medical and life care expenses
• Pain and suffering
• Disability and impairment
• Reduced quality of life
• Loss of consortium
• Lost wages (past and future)

Should your loved one die as a result of medical malpractice, surviving family members can still file a claim against the parties responsible under the Wrongful Death Act and Survival Act. The Survival Act permits the heirs or spouse of the deceased to obtain damages that occurred from the time of the medical malpractice incident to the time of the victim’s death. However, with regard to pain and suffering, the decedent would have to have been conscious to recover.

The Wrongful Death Act statutes allow the surviving family members to recover expenses for the funeral and burial of their loved one as well as the economic value of any lost guidance, advice, and counseling that would have been given them if the decedent lived.

Navigating the allowable damages laws in medical malpractice cases can be challenging. That’s why it’s vital you work with experienced medical malpractice lawyers from Rossetti & DeVoto, PC.  

Contact Malpractice Lawyers Today

If you think you have been a victim of medical malpractice, call us now to discuss your case at no obligation. You deserve to know if you were a victim of medical malpractice and you are entitled to know what went wrong and why.  When we investigate your case, we get answers. When we pursue your case, you get justice! We have a proven track record of success against hospitals, doctors, and nurses that provide negligent care. Call now or visit our Frequently Asked Questions to learn more about your potential case. To learn more, click here to read the Medical Malpractice FAQs.