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Recent Blog Posts
How Can Severe Burns Affect Injury Victims?
Severe burn injuries can have a profound and multifaceted impact on victims, affecting them physically, emotionally, and financially. The consequences of such injuries extend far beyond the initial incident, often leaving lasting scars, both visible and invisible. People who have suffered burn injuries may have legal options, and if someone else was responsible for causing them harm, they can pursue compensation that will address the damages they have suffered.
Effects of Serious Burn Injuries
There are different degrees of burn injuries. Less serious injuries such as first-degree burns may only affect the top layer of skin, while second- or third-degree burns may affect the lower layers of skin and other underlying tissues. The severity of a burn injury may also depend on the total area of the body that was affected. Burns that occur in major fires or due to exposure to toxic chemicals may cause extensive damage to multiple parts of the body.
How Can Errors During Joint Replacement Surgeries Affect Patients?
Joint replacement surgeries have become increasingly common in recent years, providing relief for individuals who experience chronic pain and limited mobility. While these procedures can be very beneficial, there is a risk of errors occurring during surgery that can have significant consequences for the patient. Understanding how surgical errors can affect patients and the steps that can be taken to address these issues can be crucial, and an attorney can help determine the best course of action to take in these situations.
Types of Errors During Joint Replacement Surgeries
Mistakes during joint replacement surgeries can occur due to various factors, including surgical negligence, lack of experience, or equipment failure. Some common types of errors include:
What Types of Compensation Can Victims of Amputation Injuries Receive?
Amputation injuries can be devastating and life-changing. These catastrophic injuries can occur in various circumstances, including car accidents, workplace accidents, and other types of personal injury cases. Losing a limb can result in significant physical, emotional, and financial challenges for the victim and their family. Fortunately, victims of amputation injuries may be entitled to compensation to help them cope with the aftermath of such a life-altering event.
Medical Expenses
The medical costs associated with amputation injuries can be substantial. These may include emergency medical care, hospitalization, and surgeries, as well as rehabilitation, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and other ongoing treatments. Compensation for medical expenses aims to cover the costs of past, current, and future medical care resulting from an amputation injury.
Which Medical Professionals Can Be Sued for Malpractice in Illinois?
Medical malpractice is commonly thought of as something doctors are sued for when they make a serious mistake that harms a patient. However, medical doctors are not the only people or parties who can be sued for medical malpractice. In Illinois, almost any licensed healthcare provider can be held liable for causing harm to a patient through medical malpractice litigation. When you seek healthcare, there are likely to be a lot of professionals other than just a physician involved in treating you. A nurse or nurse practitioner or physician’s assistant may be involved in your care.
It is also important to know that health care for the purpose of medical malpractice litigation entails more than strictly medical care for physical health conditions. Mental health providers and dental care providers are also important members of the healthcare profession. If you believe that you have been harmed because any type of licensed healthcare provider made a mistake, it is important to speak with a qualified attorney as soon as possible. The statute of limitations for medical malpractice is quite strict.
When Can a Delayed Diagnosis Cause a Patient to Suffer Harm?
Patients expect that when they receive treatment from a healthcare provider, the proper steps will be followed to diagnose their condition and create an appropriate treatment plan. Unfortunately, patients do not always receive the proper level of care. A doctor may not fully consider a patient's symptoms, their medical history, or other factors, and they may not diagnose a serious medical condition correctly. When a doctor fails to diagnose a condition in a timely manner, the patient could suffer harm. Delayed diagnosis can lead to worsening health consequences, further pain, disabilities, or even wrongful death. In these situations, it is important for patients to understand the steps they can take if they believe they have been a victim of medical malpractice.
What Are the Types of Damages Available in a Wrongful Death Lawsuit?
The loss of a loved one can be a difficult situation to deal with, whether the person lived a full life and passed away at an advanced age or died unexpectedly. However, when a person is killed because of someone else's negligence or wrongful conduct, family members may struggle to address their loss and move forward with their lives. These situations can be especially difficult if the untimely loss of a loved one led to financial problems due to the loss of income the person would have earned, large medical bills for treatment they received prior to their death, or other factors.
Fortunately, Illinois law allows surviving family members to file a wrongful death lawsuit against the party or parties who were responsible for a person's death. This type of lawsuit can help bring some sense of justice and provide compensation for the losses a family has suffered. In these situations, it is essential to understand the types of damages that family members may be able to recover. By working with an experienced attorney, survivors can take steps to ensure that they receive adequate compensation for their losses. The damages that family members may be able to receive include:
Surgical Mistakes Resulting in Spinal Cord Injury
The spinal cord transmits signals from the brain to the body and from the body to the brain. Everything from movement to our ability to sense pain is controlled by the spinal cord. Consequently, any damage to the spinal cord can have catastrophic consequences and errors during surgery on the spinal cord can leave a person permanently disabled
If you or a loved one has suffered a spinal cord injury as a result of medical negligence, you may have the right to seek compensation for your medical expenses, lost income, pain and suffering, and other damages.
Examples of Spinal Cord Injuries Caused by Surgical Errors
Surgical mistakes that lead to spinal cord injury can take many forms. Common causes of these injuries include:
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Accidentally nicking the spinal cord during surgery - Surgeons operating on or near the spine must use caution and precision. One small mistake can lead to devastating consequences for the surgical patient.
Could a Physician’s Body Language Help to Prevent Patient Harm?
The smallest things can lead to patient harm. A small mistake on a prescription pad or a decimal point in the wrong place could cause a medication error. A single distracted thought as a nurse is recording information into a patient chart could lead to vital information being left off of a physician’s radar. A single tiny splotch of abnormal tissue misread on an image could lead to a misdiagnosis. It, therefore, is not so difficult to imagine that a physician’s body language could contribute to a medical mistake – or could prevent one from happening – either.
Helping Versus Harming
When a patient has suffered serious harm due to a healthcare provider’s failure to provide them with the standard of care expected by the medical profession, the patient may have a valid medical malpractice claim. Yet, partially because providers are not known for being forthcoming after they have wronged patients and partially because medical conditions tend to have complex origins, medical malpractice is often very difficult to prove.
Medicare Patients Suffer Harm When Hospitalized at an Astonishing Rate
In May of 2022, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General published a report regarding the rate at which Medicare patients experience harm while hospitalized. Although not every type of hospitalized patient harm is legally actionable, a significant fraction of such cases occur due to unacceptable manifestations of medical malpractice.
What Does the Report Say?
Widespread statistics indicate that more than 95 percent of older Americans are covered by Medicare. According to the HHS report, one out of every four of those individuals experienced harm if they were hospitalized in 2018. There is no evidence to suggest that the reality of this situation has improved since that time.
In 2018, 12 percent of hospitalized Medicare patients experienced harmful adverse events that were so significant that they necessitated longer hospitalizations and/or life-saving interventions, while others led to permanent harm or death. Additionally, 13 percent of Medicare patients were subjected to so-called “temporary harm events” which were serious in nature but did not meet the criteria noted above. Catalysts for both serious and temporary harm events included acquired infections, side effects from medication, treatment-related complications, and vaguely classified “patient care issues.”
How Doctors Are Being Advised to Respond After Making a Medication Error
One of the reasons that medical malpractice cases are so challenging to pursue is that the standard of negligence that plaintiffs must prove is far more context-specific than it is for most other personal injury scenarios. If someone is harmed on another’s property, for example, a plaintiff must prove that the owner of the property either knew or should have known about a hazardous condition and did not take steps to mitigate the risk of harm it could cause. In a medication error case. However, a plaintiff must prove that the defendant violated the medical standard of care.
Parsing what the medical standard of care should look like under every injured patient’s unique circumstances can be truly challenging. This is why it is helpful to understand when providers are being provided with clear-cut guidance that spells out what a professional’s standard of care needs to be. That understanding can help to inform an injured patient’s legal strategy as they attempt to prove that their harm was both preventable and caused by professional malpractice.
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