Trusted Medical Malpractice Attorneys in Lansing, Michigan

There are few people in this world that our society puts more trust in than healthcare providers. We trust them with our lives, every single day. Medical treatment is supposed to make your health better, not worse. When doctors do not follow the standard of care, they can make patients sicker, leaving them with permanent pain and disability, or even dead. The standard of care is what a reasonable healthcare provider would do in the same or similar circumstances. If a healthcare provider does not follow the standard of care, i.e. they act unreasonably, and an injury results, or a disease is worsened,  patients have the right to seek compensation for the financial losses they suffered because of their preventable injuries. The Lansing medical malpractice lawyers at Hoffer & Sheremet, PLC, can help you get the money you need if you suffered a serious illness or injury because of a medical error.

Lansing Medical Malpractice Lawyer

Practicing medicine is not just about memorizing a bunch of facts; physicians must use their judgment on an individual basis because no two people have identical medical histories.  Doctors who practice in a subspecialty of medicine (for example, neurology, obstetrics and gynecology, or neurosurgery) have completed several years of medical residency in which they gained practical experience regarding how the medical conditions they studied in medical school appear in real life. They must also complete continuing medical education to keep their knowledge current about recent changes to available treatments.

All of this means that, to prove that a doctor did the wrong thing when treating you, you must have an idea of what the doctor should have done instead, and this requires specialized knowledge. The Lansing medical malpractice lawyers at Hoffer & Sheremet, PLC, know the medicine and work with medical specialists to identify all of the standard of care violations that caused your injuries. This gives them everything they need to successfully build your case in the best way possible.

When Medical Errors Worsen a Disease or Causes Illness or a Permanent Injury

Bad judgment by a doctor can cause a patient to suffer severe adverse consequences. But physician errors are not the only kind of medical malpractice. Medical malpractice laws also apply when errors by the administration, nurses, aides, or other medical office or hospital staff harm a patient. These are some types of medical malpractice that are not the direct result of physician errors:

• • Patients get injured as a result of falling from a bed or slipping on a hospital floor. These incidents are preventable because hospital staff should ensure that the floors are free of slippery substances, bed alarms are used when needed, and nurses should provide adequate supervision and assistance for admitted patients walking in the hospital. The hospital should use wheelchairs or stretchers to transport patients who cannot walk safely, even with assistance. In fact, according to Medicare, death or disability following a fall in the hospital is a “never event” - it should never happen, and Medicare will not reimburse hospitals for the patient’s care. https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/fact-sheets/cms-improves-patient-safety-medicare-and-medicaid-addressing-never-events

• • A nurse administering the wrong medication.

• • Pharmacies provide the wrong medication or the wrong dose of medication.

• • A Nurse failing to report a change in patient status to the patient’s physician.

• • Nurse failure to appropriately monitor a fetus during labor and delivery, resulting in serious injuries to the baby, such as hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy and seizures, or death of the baby.

In the case of physician errors, here are some types of errors the medical malpractice lawyers at Hoffer & Sheremet, PLC see frequently:

• • The doctor failed to take a complete history or failed to conduct a full physical examination

• • The doctor did not order the correct diagnostic test. Another test would have enabled the doctor to make a more accurate diagnosis and choose the right intervention

• • The patient was not sufficiently improved to be discharged and the doctor should have kept them in the hospital longer

• • The physician failed to timely respond to a patient's change in symptoms and failed to recognize that the patient getting worse

• • The physician failed to timely recognize a problem during labor and delivery, resulting in injury or death to the baby or mom

• • Delayed diagnosis of injuries that occurred during surgery

• • Failure to timely identify and treat stroke

Whether the bad judgment and error was made by a doctor, nurse, or other type of healthcare provider, Michigan law requires patients to have experts from the same profession testify that errors occurred.

What You Must Prove in a Medical Malpractice Claim

In a medical malpractice lawsuit, you must prove that a "professional relationship” existed between you and the defendant; in other words, that you sought medical treatment from the doctor, other healthcare provider, or hospital (and incidentally, nurses or other staff) you are suing. You must also prove that the defendant breached the standard of care, i.e., made an error.  This is what we mean by “negligence,” “malpractice,” or “professional negligence.”

You must then prove that your present state of ill health, your injuries, your family member’s death, or your baby or child’s injuries are due to the negligence of the healthcare provider, as opposed to being a natural consequence of the illness or injury for which you sought treatment. You must also provide evidence of the financial losses you suffered as a result of the medical problems that the defendant’s negligence caused you. And you must be able to explain your pain, suffering, and how your life has been affected.

Collecting Damages in a Medical Malpractice Case

Most medical malpractice cases settle before the case goes to trial. Part of deciding how much to settle for is a big decision that you will make with the help of your lawyer. The defendant will never settle for the most amount that you can win at trial. It’s a compromise.  You can ask for compensation for the medical bills you have paid or are likely to receive in the future because of the health problems that resulted from the medical error. If you had to take a leave of absence from work or retire early because of these health problems, you can also seek damages for lost income. Medical expenses and lost income are known as economic damages. Additionally, you can seek noneconomic damages, also known as pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, scarring, or loss of companionship if a loved one died as a result of negligence

Contact a Lansing Medical Malpractice Lawyer

A medical malpractice lawyer can help you if you suffer financial hardship because of a preventable medical error. Contact Hoffer & Shemeret, PLC,  to discuss your Lansing, MI medical malpractice case.