Pittston Medical Malpractice Lawyer
Diagnosing and treating medical conditions requires a high degree of care and expertise, so most patients recognize that treatment, including undergoing surgery or taking prescription medications, comes with a certain degree of risk. However, when healthcare professionals go beyond those risks by violating the standard of care with which they are required to comply, they can be held liable for resulting injuries. To learn more about filing a claim against the doctor, nurse, pharmacist, or other healthcare provider who caused your own injury, please contact one of our dedicated Pittston medical malpractice lawyers today.
What is Medical Malpractice?
Medical malpractice claims are a type of lawsuit that is based on a healthcare provider’s failure to satisfy the accepted standard of care when treating a patient. In Pennsylvania, the standard of care for medical professionals is defined as the type and level of care that an ordinary and reasonable healthcare provider, with the same experience and training, would use under similar circumstances and in the same community.
Determining the standard of care in a particular case is difficult, but there are certain actions that even laymen know are a violation of this duty of care. There is no doubt, for example, that leaving a medical tool inside a person’s body after surgery is not up to the standard that surgeons are supposed to meet. Other mistakes that could justify the filing of a medical malpractice suit include:
- Improperly administering anesthesia, which includes administering the wrong dosage and failing to monitor the patient during treatment;
- Misdiagnosing a condition after failing to conduct an examination or order proper tests;
- Improperly administering medications as a result of failing to take a proper patient history, failing to warn patients of dangerous side effects, ordering the wrong dosage, or improperly entering data;
- Making surgical errors, such as performing surgery on the wrong patient or wrong body part, or performing the wrong procedure;
- Causing injuries to a mother or child during pregnancy or childbirth by failing to monitor blood pressure and oxygen levels, failing to order proper tests, or using the wrong medical tools; and
- Failing to protect patients from hospital infections that stem from environmental hazards, unclean instruments, or waterborne bacteria.
It’s important to note that even when patients are injured as a result of this type of negligence, they will be barred from recovering compensation if they don’t file a claim before the statute of limitations expires.
Pennsylvania’s Statute of Limitations
All states have their own deadlines when it comes to filing lawsuits based on personal injury, including medical malpractice suits. In Pennsylvania, injured parties are required to file their claims within two years of the date on which the negligent healthcare provider committed malpractice. The clock for this two year time limit, however, won’t actually start to run until the plaintiff actually discovers his or her injury. The only exception to this rule applies in cases where more than seven years have passed since the date on which the medical error was made. However, even this exception won’t apply in situations where a foreign object was left inside the patient in question.
Experienced Pennsylvania Medical Malpractice Lawyers
To receive help with your own medical malpractice claim, please contact the dedicated medical malpractice lawyers at the O’Donnell Law Offices. A member of our legal team can be reached at 570-821-5717 today.
