New York City Medical Malpractice Lawyer

A patient should be able to trust their doctor and other healthcare providers. Unfortunately, medical errors are a leading cause of injury and death all across the country. If you or a loved one has been injured by a medical professional, a medical malpractice lawyer in New York City at Parker Waichman LLP can help. Our skilled attorneys and experienced medical malpractice lawyers are tough advocates for medical negligence and malpractice victims and know what it takes to build a strong case that will prove your demand for compensation.

Our skilled New York City medical malpractice attorneys are dedicated to helping clients recover compensation for their injuries. We also offer free initial consultations and work on a contingency fee basis, so clients do not pay legal fees unless we recover compensation for them. Discover what our clients are saying by reading reviews and visiting us on Google Maps.

Elements of Liability in New York City Medical Malpractice Cases

A New York medical malpractice case is built on four main elements of general negligence law. In any type of negligence case, we must be able to prove:

• The defendant owed our client a duty to use reasonable care.
• The defendant breached that duty and failed to use reasonable care.
• Our client suffered an injury.
• Our client’s injury was caused by the defendant’s negligence.
  

It is important to initiate a legal claim promptly to protect your rights and ensure you have the best chance of securing compensation.

In order to hold someone accountable for your injury, we have to prove that the provider owed you a duty to use reasonable care. It might sound like an odd concept at first, but before someone can be considered legally negligent, they must have had an obligation to behave in a certain way. If there was no obligation to act, we cannot blame that person for failing to act. In situations like medical malpractice, doctors unquestionably owe their patients a duty to use care, which takes effect as soon as doctors accept people as their patients.

Level of Care or Duty of Care

One of the ways malpractice cases differ from other negligence cases is that doctors will owe a specific level of care based on the treatment they were providing. The legal process of building a medical malpractice case involves gathering evidence, consulting with experts, and following procedural steps to establish liability.

A medical malpractice attorney in NYC will look at the circumstances of your case and hire experts to testify to the kind of duty the health care provider possessed. For instance, in the case of an error during a gastroenterological surgery, we will hire an expert to testify about what kind of care should have been provided by a surgeon performing that specific kind of surgery. The importance of legal representation cannot be overstated when navigating these complex cases, as experienced attorneys can guide you through each stage and jurisdiction.

Defendants in medical malpractice cases often have significant financial resources, making it even more important for plaintiffs to act quickly and secure the legal support they need.

Proving Medical Negligence in New York

To prove whether the defendant breached their duty of care, we will examine what the defendant did versus what the standard of care called for the defendant to do. This will again involve hiring an expert to testify that the health-care provider failed to meet the appropriate standard of care. If we are able to establish that the defendant owed a duty and the defendant breached that duty, we have proved that the defendant was legally negligent. This means the health-care provider did commit medical malpractice.

Suffered Harm

Next, we have to prove that you have suffered some kind of harm. That might seem pretty clear and straightforward, but some injuries are not readily apparent. In brain injury cases, for example, the effects might not be immediately clear to a jury or to the defense. We will almost always hire an expert to testify about the complete picture of your injuries and how they affect your life. This will also include medical treatment you will likely require in the future. Our attorneys will prove your financial damages during this phase of the case, with a focus on securing maximum compensation and fair compensation for medical malpractice victims. At this point, we may hire a life-care planner to evaluate the financial burden of your injuries over the course of your life and to accurately assess your financial future and long-term needs.

Causation

Upon establishing all of this, we need to tie everything together by proving causation. We need to prove that your injuries were caused by the defendant’s negligence. This is sometimes one of the most difficult aspects of the case because we have to prove that different conduct by the health-care provider would have resulted in a different outcome. As you can probably guess, we again frequently rely on experts, this time to testify about your injuries and the potential for a better result if you had had appropriate care.

Building a strong case can be challenging, but our medical malpractice law firm in New York does not turn down cases for complexity. We will tackle challenging medical malpractice cases using our extensive experience and our network of medical experts. When you choose Parker Waichman LLP, you’ll have the skills and resources you and your family need on your side. Our firm has a proven track record of helping medical malpractice victims recover compensation and protect their financial future.

What Is the Medical Malpractice Statute of Limitations in NY?

New York medical malpractice laws set a two-and-a-half-year statute of limitations for these types of cases. That means that claims must be filed within that amount of time from the date that the negligent action occurred. If you do not file your medical negligence claim within the time period set by New York law, you will never be able to file it.

Prior to filing your medical negligence case in a New York court, we need to make sure that the medical malpractice statute of limitations has not expired under New York law. Statutes of limitations vary from state to state and from claim to claim, so it’s extremely important to understand the correct date by which you need to take action.

Understanding the New York State Statute of Limitations on Medical Malpractice Claims

New York is one of a few states to have a two-and-a-half-year statute of limitations on medical malpractice cases, but a wrongful death statute of limitations of just two years. This means that in a medical malpractice case that involves a death, you have two years from the date of the careless act to file your claim in the correct court. Medical negligence and malpractice claims that do not involve a death can be filed within two and a half years.

Often, it’s difficult to understand when exactly the negligence occurred because patients receive ongoing care, and there might be multiple failures in that care. This makes it tricky to figure out how long you actually have to file your claim. But an experienced lawyer should be able to calculate the correct statute of limitations for your malpractice case. When you consult with Parker Waichman LLP, we’ll calculate the deadline for your claim to ensure that we have enough time to prepare a strong medical malpractice case on your behalf. It’s crucial that you talk to a medical malpractice attorney in New York as soon as possible to protect your legal rights: Once the statute of limitations governing medical negligence cases runs out, you’ll no longer be able to seek compensation.

What Types of Damages Can You Seek From Medical Malpractice Lawsuits in New York?

When you hire the skilled medical malpractice attorneys at Parker Waichman LLP, we’ll seek compensation on your behalf for all of the ways that your injuries have affected you and your family. This can include:

• Past and future medical expenses
• Lost wages due to past and future time off from work required by your injuries
• Compensation for your physical and mental pain and suffering
• Loss of consortium damages for the ways in which your injuries have changed your relationship with your spouse
• Punitive damages if the facts of the case warrant this type of compensation

You have suffered real harm, and you deserve to be compensated. Our lawyers know what the defense and the jury need to hear in order to understand the full extent of your losses, and we will aggressively pursue the most appropriate compensation possible for you and your loved ones.

What is and isn’t Considered Medical Malpractice?

Not every situation in which a patient’s condition worsens or something goes wrong is medical malpractice. Not every patient will respond to treatment in the same way, and medical science makes no guarantees. If a patient’s condition is not treatable or becomes worse, it is not considered malpractice. If the doctor acted with reasonable care and skill in choosing and following through with a course of treatment, no medical malpractice occurred. Medical malpractice occurs when a healthcare provider deviates from the accepted standard of care, resulting in harm to the patient.

Medical malpractice refers to cases where a healthcare professional’s actions or omissions are central to establishing a claim of substandard treatment, causing harm, injury, or death to the patient. However, medical malpractice comes in many forms and can occur at any point during treatment. The medical profession sets the standards by which alleged malpractice is judged. To qualify as a legal issue, the medical professional must have acted incompetently, resulting in injury or death. A medical malpractice attorney in New York City can help you figure out if your case can be a medical malpractice claim.

What Are Examples Of Medical Malpractice?

Medical malpractice can result in patient harm, including serious injuries, brain damage, or even catastrophic injuries.

Examples of medical malpractice include:

• Misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis, such as failure to diagnose cancer or failure to diagnose breast cancer, which can lead to serious injury or worsen a patient’s condition.
• Failure to order or interpret medical imaging, which may result in missed diagnoses or delayed treatment.
• Surgical errors, which are a common cause of patient harm and can result in preventable medical errors, serious injuries, or even catastrophic injuries.
• Medication errors, such as prescribing the wrong drug or dosage.
• Birth injuries, which can result from preventable medical errors during childbirth and may cause long-term harm to the child and family.
• Cases involving failure, such as cases involving failure to diagnose cancer (including breast cancer) or failure to order appropriate medical imaging, leading to significant patient harm.
• Continuous treatment, where ongoing or continuous treatment can impact the timing of a medical malpractice claim due to the statute of limitations.
• Anesthesia errors, which can cause brain damage or other serious complications.
• Failure to obtain informed consent before a procedure.

Misdiagnosis

One of the most common types of medical malpractice is misdiagnosis. A medical malpractice claim of misdiagnosis can include:

• Missed diagnosis. The physical failed to recognize signs and symptoms of a medical condition.
• Wrong diagnosis. A physician incorrectly diagnoses a patient. This can result in no treatment or inappropriate treatment.
• Delayed diagnosis. A physician fails to diagnose a medical condition promptly, resulting in the condition worsening. A delayed diagnosis can make the condition difficult to treat.
• Over-diagnosis. An over-diagnosis involves a medical professional diagnosing a patient with a condition they don’t have. This may lead to unnecessary testing or treatment.

Surgical Error

A surgical error is a mistake that’s made by a medical professional during an operation.

Examples of surgical mistakes include:

• Causing nerve damage
• Performing the wrong procedure
• Amputating the wrong limb or digit
• Leaving a surgical instrument inside the patient’s body

Some surgical errors can result in catastrophic injuries, which may require lifelong care and support.

Medication Errors

An error involving a medication can take several forms.

Examples of medication errors can include:

• Prescribing a medication that interacts with another medication the patient is currently taking
• A delay in the administration of critical medication
• Administering medication using the incorrect route
• Mislabeling medication
• Failing to adjust the dosage of medication for a patient with hepatic or renal impairment
• Administering the incorrect dose of medication
• Dispensing the wrong medication

Anesthesia Errors

The use of anesthesia allows a patient to undergo surgery pain-free and unaware of the procedure as it’s happening.

Anesthesia errors can include:

• Failing to track the vital signs of a patient when they are receiving anesthesia
• Administering too little or too much anesthesia
• Inadequate monitoring of the patient’s consciousness when sedated, resulting in the patient’s awareness under anesthesia
• Delayed recognition of complications while the patient is receiving medication
• Failure to maintain airway during anesthesia or to intubate a patient during anesthesia
• Administering the wrong dosage of anesthesia or the wrong type of anesthesia
• Failure to communicate with the patient concerning the benefits and risks of anesthesia

Childbirth Mistakes

Examples of medical malpractice involving childbirth include:

• Improper use or delayed order of a C-section
• Medication misuse
• Failure to monitor for fetal distress
• Incorrect use of vacuum extraction or forceps
• Failure to diagnose or treat an infection in the infant or mother

A New York City medical malpractice lawyer can figure out which of these examples applies to your injury case.