Medical Malpractice Attorney In Bridgeport, CT
Medical malpractice occurs when doctors or other healthcare providers fail to offer an acceptable level of care to their patients, and it leads to negative health outcomes. If you’ve found yourself in this position, you should know that a Bridgeport medical malpractice lawyer can help.
Trust Williams, Walsh & O’Connor, LLC
The attorneys here at Williams, Walsh & O’Connor, LLC, have over 150 years of combined experience in practicing personal injury law. We have a deep understanding of medical malpractice laws and how they apply to different types of cases, including missed diagnoses, surgical errors, and birth injuries, among others. If you’ve been injured due to a doctor’s negligence, don’t hesitate to reach out.
Reasons to Hire a Medical Malpractice Lawyer
During this difficult time, there’s one thing you should be focused on, and it’s not filing paperwork or negotiating settlements. It’s healing from your injuries. When you hire a medical malpractice lawyer to take care of all the details of your case, you’ll be eliminating a huge source of stress that could otherwise slow your progress toward recovery. Your lawyer can:
- Explain your options
- Evaluate settlement offers
- Negotiate with insurance companies
- File paperwork
- Keep track of deadlines
- Represent you in court
Regardless of how complicated your malpractice claim is, a skilled attorney will help you get a fair settlement and protect your rights and interests throughout this difficult time. Having a lawyer on your side is the most effective way to increase the odds of a successful outcome in your case.
What’s Considered Medical Malpractice?
Not every negative health outcome is the result of medical malpractice. Sometimes, despite doctors’ efforts, things go wrong, and patients die or suffer serious problems. Medical negligence comes into play when healthcare providers make preventable errors that result in injuries.
The Elements of a Malpractice Claim
There are four elements of a medical malpractice claim that must be proved for your case to be successful:
- Duty of care. You must show that the healthcare provider was responsible for offering you medical services.
- Breach of duty. A breach of duty occurs when a doctor acts negligently and fails to uphold their obligation to you as a patient.
- Causation. To prove causation, you must show that the doctor’s breach of duty was directly responsible for your poor health outcome and that it wasn’t related to another underlying condition.
- Damages. Compensable damages must have occurred for your claim to be valid. These can be economic, non-economic, or punitive damages, or some combination of the three.
Causation can be determined by proving the proximate cause. If there are also intervening causes, they can reduce the liability of the doctor or even remove it altogether.
Types of Medical Malpractice
Medical malpractice cases can originate in hospitals like St. Vincent’s Medical Center or local clinics. Common types of claims that fall under this purview include:
- Birth injuries. Oxygen deprivation, shoulder injuries, neck injuries, and cerebral palsy are all common avoidable birth injuries.
- Surgical errors. Some of the worst surgical errors include erroneous amputations, operating on the wrong part of the body, and leaving surgical instruments inside the patient.
- Anesthesia errors. Anesthesia errors include over-sedation, under-sedation, and anoxic-related injuries.
- Failure to treat. Failure to treat refers primarily to misdiagnoses.
- Specialty treatment errors. Any doctor can commit an act of malpractice, including ER physicians, physical therapists, and even dentists or orthodontists.
- Product liability. Some medical malpractice claims relate to faulty prosthetics, scanning equipment, medications, or other products.
- Wrongful death. If a patient dies due to a disease or injury that would have been preventable by an earlier diagnosis or prompt treatment that they did not receive, their surviving family members may be able to file a wrongful death claim.
It’s not just doctors who face medical malpractice claims. Hospitals can also be held accountable under the theory of vicarious liability, and other members of patients’ care teams can breach their duty of care in ways that lead to preventable injuries.
FAQs
What Are Five Examples of Medical Negligence?
Five examples of medical negligence are diagnostic errors, such as missed or delayed diagnoses; surgical mistakes like wrong-site surgery; medication errors, such as prescribing the wrong drug; birth injuries; and improper administration of anesthesia. If one of these errors caused you harm, you can work with a Bridgeport medical malpractice attorney to recover compensation.
What Type of Doctor Sees the Most Medical Malpractice Claims?
Obstetricians/gynecologists and surgeons often see the most medical malpractice claims. These healthcare professionals perform high-stakes procedures and offer complicated, high-volume care. Claims often get filed against OBGYNs due to mistakes that come up during childbirth, while surgeons often face medical malpractice claims for errors that occur while performing emergency surgeries.
What Is the Negligence Rule in Connecticut?
The negligence rule in Connecticut refers to the state’s modified comparative negligence rule, which lets injured parties recover damages if they are partially at fault for their injuries as long as they hold 50% or less of the liability. Plaintiffs who are found 51% or more at fault are barred from recovering damages under this rule. Those found to be 50% at fault or less will have their compensation reduced by the percentage of fault they are assigned.
What Is the Number One Reason for Filing Medical Malpractice Claims Against Doctors?
The number one reason for filing medical malpractice claims against doctors is misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis. According to one 2022 study, 47% of internal medicine claims related to diagnostic errors. Around eight out of ten claims are related to either failure to diagnose or misdiagnosis. Similar claims arise when physicians fail to identify potential complications that could worsen the disease.
Your Bridgeport Medical Malpractice Lawyer
If you’ve suffered harm as a result of a healthcare provider’s negligence, a Bridgeport medical malpractice lawyer can help you hold the professional responsible for the poor care you received.
The team here at Williams, Walsh & O’Connor, LLC, has been practicing medical malpractice law for years. In that time, we’ve developed a clear understanding of what it takes to get a successful outcome in even complicated cases. Contact us to schedule an initial consultation about your medical malpractice case today.
