San Antonio, TX Medical Malpractice Lawyer

How Can Medical Professionals Act Negligently?

A medical provider can act negligently at any point when they’re treating you. Your San Antonio, TX medical malpractice lawyer will know the different ways that these errors can occur. Some of the most common include:

• Failure to Diagnose. A doctor could fail to recognize symptoms of an ailment where others would have seen what the symptoms indicate and begin treatment. When there’s a failure to diagnose, you could lose valuable time in treating the illness. For example, failure to diagnose cancer means a delay in treatment and the cancer could worsen during this time.
• Misdiagnosis. If you’re incorrectly diagnosed and begin treatment for something you don’t have, the medication you’re taking could harm the condition you have, or allow that condition to progress.
• Emergency Room Errors. Typically, an emergency room is first come, first served. However, if you experienced a critical health complication and the nurses and doctors working there didn’t recognize what happened, then they could be held responsible for your injuries. Examples of this include recognizing symptoms of a heart attack or a stroke.
• Incorrect Anesthesia Dosage. When you’re given anesthesia, an incorrect dosage could cause traumatic injuries. If you’re not given enough, you may be awake during surgery. A dosage that’s too high can affect your brain.
• Surgical Errors. Surgeons can make dangerous mistakes like leaving surgical tools inside the patient, operating on the wrong body part (also called wrong-site surgery), or operating on the wrong patient. These errors may take corrective procedures and may have caused irreparable harm.
• Failure to Take Care of Patients. When you’re in the hospital, you should be able to trust that you’re given correct treatment. If you’re on medication, this means getting the correct dosage at the appropriate times, nurses and doctors make clear notes on your chart, and the hospital takes measures to prevent the spread of contagious illnesses. If they act negligently, then they can be held accountable.
• Failure to Obtain Informed Consent. Before you have a surgical procedure, you need to provide written consent after your doctor has provided you with all the information about the procedure, including possible risks. If this didn’t occur, then they didn’t get your informed consent.

The errors above can cause terrible injuries and damages, but there are other ways for medical malpractice to occur. If you suspect that you or a loved one suffered injuries because of hospital negligence, our med mal lawyers in Texas may be able to help. We’ll review what happened to you and determine if you have an eligible claim.

As we’re looking into this, we’ll need to know how the error affected you. The consequences of a medical error can be severe. Let’s examine the various losses that can occur when a health care provider failed to treat you with the care you deserved.

What Are the Consequences of Medical Malpractice?

Medical malpractice is one of the leading causes of death in the U.S. While the CDC lists respiratory disease as the third leading cause of death with 150,000 people per year, medical death rates are more than 250,000. One of the issues with collecting this data is that medical errors aren’t separately classified on a death certificate.

While medical mistakes can cause death, they can also cause serious health effects and other significant losses. Those consequences can be:

• More Medical Costs. A medical error can cause complications that the person needs further treatment so they can recover from their new injuries. Surgeries, hospital stays, and other treatment protocols can both take time and cost money.
• Possible Permanent Injuries. Sometimes, the person may have permanent injuries. An allergic reaction to a medication or a mistake during surgery could result in a disability.
• Missed Work. As you’re receiving treatment for your injuries, you’re going to be away from work. This could be for the duration of your recovery, or you may not be able to return to that job. As our lawyers look into these losses, we’ll take your lost wages, diminished earning capacity, or loss of earnings into account.
• Pain and Suffering. Living with the injuries from a medical error can be painful and hinder your everyday life. Your lawyer will calculate how you’ll have to live with these injuries and calculate compensation for these damages accordingly.
• Loss of Enjoyment of Life. If your injuries are preventing you from living your life as you would have before the medical error, then you could also seek damages for loss of enjoyment of life.
• Mental Anguish. The emotional turmoil of a health care provider causing you harm and you have to recover from these injuries and damages can be overwhelming. You may also be dealing with a permanent injury and will need to adjust to living with it. Your mental anguish may not have a bill connected to it, but it’s still a severe loss you’re experiencing because of malpractice.
• Loss of Consortium. If you’ve lost a loved one due to a medical error, you can seek justice on their behalf. Reach out to our lawyers in Texas to go over your options.

Your injuries and losses may be financially and emotionally overwhelming, but that’s where our law firm steps in. Our investigation along with working with experts will give us a clear idea of how you were affected and what we need to do to fight for your future.

If an insurance company involved in your claim tries to deny that you were hurt or minimize your damages, you can trust your San Antonio, TX medical malpractice lawyer to stand up for you. Insurance companies will likely try to get you to settle for less because that’s what benefits them. But this may not come close to covering the damages of your injuries. We’re protecting your best interests and future. We look at the total losses you’ve suffered and seek full and fair compensation so you can get the recovery you deserve.

Buckingham & Vega Law Firm Can Help

Our law firm represents victims of negligence. We know how severe injuries and damages can burden you. We’ll take care of your legal matters to alleviate some of this burden and we’ll do everything we can to secure fair compensation so you can recover with the knowledge that you’re financially secure.

For a free case evaluation, reach out to Buckingham & Vega Law Firm today. We can go over your options, answer your questions, and talk about what you can expect. Our San Antonio, TX medical malpractice lawyers are ready to help you get started on your path to justice and recovery.