Medical Malpractice Archives - Page 2 of 3

Oct 30, 2018 | By Gayle Gerling Pettinga | Read Time: 2 minutes | Medical Malpractice

Contact a Medical Malpractice Lawyer

Though shocking, the fact remains: According to the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), medical negligence is the third leading cause of death in the United States. If you or someone you know has been affected by medical malpractice, then you may need to contact a medical malpractice lawyer. Your Medical Malpractice Lawyer Medical malpractice can refer to a myriad of medical errors. Specifically, medical malpractice occurs when a medical professional fails to provide or treat a patient appropriately, resulting in injury or death. More so, if the medical professional lacked proper skills or acted carelessly, the professional in questions could be found negligent, and therefore, held accountable for his or her actions. The hospital can also be held accountable for its employees’ actions. Common types of medical malpractice cases often include the following: anesthesia, missed diagnosis, medication errors, botched plastic surgery, spinal cord injuries, wrong-site surgery, birth and infant injuries, and more.Medical malpractice cases can often be complicated, time-consuming, and difficult to prove. Therefore, it’s recommended you have a medical malpractice attorney on your side. At Gerling Law, our professional team has decades of combined experience working on these types of cases. From tracking down witnesses to collecting expert testimonies, we handle all aspects of the legal process for our clients. After all the pain and suffering endured, we want our clients of only focus on one thing: healing. A Medical Malpractice Lawyer at Gerling Law Finding a lawyer is not always a fun task, especially if you are in a lot of pain due to a medical error that should have never transpired in the first place. However, you can trust and count on the medical malpractice lawyers at Gerling Law. We want to successfully help our clients move on with their lives, and we can! Though a monetary settlement cannot undo pain and suffering, compensation can assist with missed wages and medical bills. If you are in Evansville, Indianapolis, Louisville, or Owensboro, then contact us today for more information.

Oct 23, 2018 | By Gayle Gerling Pettinga | Read Time: 2 minutes | Medical Malpractice

What is a Hospital Negligence Lawyer?

If you have suffered an injury or illness due to the negligence of a hospital, you should contact an Evansville hospital negligence lawyer from Gerling Law for legal help. We can provide you with the help you need getting compensation for your suffering, loss of wages, and medical expenses. Hiring one of our skilled lawyers will bring you back up to your corner and someone to protect your rights as you deal with your medical situation. They will be the first point of contact for the insurance companies and other lawyers so that you can focus on your health and family. What to Expect from the Evansville Fatal Accident Attorney Initially, you will want to provide the Evansville hospital negligence attorney with any documentation related to the events that caused your medical condition. You will also want to provide medical records and reports as well as information relating to the loss of wages and other bills related to the situation. Make sure that you give as much detail as possible so that they can begin their work. The legal professional will ask you to sign an authorization to release all medical records and related documentation from the past to the present. This allows them to keep tabs on the progress of your health as well as look at the details of the hospital negligence at hand. The best way to help them get started is to let them take on the position of the first contact for you and your family. Waste No Time Contacting an Evansville Fatal Accident Attorney While you might be busy trying to heal or deal with your medical conditions caused by hospital negligence, it is wise to seek the help of an Evansville fatal accident attorney as soon as possible. There are statutes of limitation to be concerned with, and the attorney can relieve you of some of the constant contact with insurance companies and attorneys from the hospital. The sooner they get started, the better case they can put together for you. Call Gerling Law at 888-437-5464 and talk to professionals that have been in situations like yours.

Jul 24, 2018 | By Gayle Gerling Pettinga | Read Time: 2 minutes | Medical Malpractice

Your Birth Injury Attorney

If your child was recently born with a birth injury, the attorneys at Gerling Law offer our deepest sympathies. Unfortunately, we have experience with these types of cases and know all too well how heartbreaking this time can be for you and your family. Though it may not be the best time to discuss the legal process, it is important to know that you could benefit from having a birth injury attorney on your side. Finding a Birth Injury Attorney According to the Birth Injury Guide, out of every 1,000 infants born in the United States, at least 6 to 8 of them are born with a birth injury. More specifically, that means that approximately 1 in every 9,714 people in the U.S. are born with a birth injury. Simply put, a birth injury is a physical injury experienced by a newborn baby. This injury can occur during pregnancy, labor, delivery, or even shortly after the birthing process has taken place. What makes this type of case so devastating is the fact that most of these injuries are preventable.Common conditions that can result from a birth injury include the following: cerebral palsy, brain swelling, skull fractures, nerve damage, brain damage, and more. If your newborn baby has experienced this type of pain or trauma, and you believe negligence took place, then it may be necessary to speak with a birth injury attorney. Contact a Birth Injury Attorney at Gerling Law Today While cases involving preventable injuries are always difficult, when a baby or child is involved, the process becomes even more grueling. The last thing you and your family should be focusing on right now is the law, but learning how to move forward with your life. If you are in Evansville, Indianapolis, Louisville, or Owensboro, and you need a birth injury attorney on your side, then contact Gerling Law today. From collecting witness statements to gathering expert testimonies, we will be here for you every step of the way.

Jul 17, 2018 | By Gayle Gerling Pettinga | Read Time: 2 minutes | Medical Malpractice

Do You Need an Indianapolis Birth Injury Attorney?

Although nobody wants to think about birth injuries as something that occurs, they do from time to time happen. Sometimes they occur simply due to nature, and sometimes they occur because of human error during the birthing process, because of an accident on behalf of the nurse or the physician who is responsible for the birth. If you recently gave birth and became injured or your newborn became injured, it might be time for you to consult with a birth injury attorney in Indiana from Gerling Law. An Indianapolis birth injury lawyer will be able to tell you if you have a case based on the information that you provide during a consultation. Benefits of Hiring an Indianapolis Birth Injury Lawyer Once you know if you have a case, there are many benefits to having an attorney from our law firm on your side during this legal process. Having someone who can advocate for you when you are going head to head against a physician, a medical practice, or a hospital, can be vitally important because you will be fighting against a medical malpractice insurance claim, and the doctor will be represented as well. You need someone who is going to advocate for you, fight for your rights, answer your legal questions, and help give you peace of mind throughout the legal process. Make sure that you have someone in your corner when you are fighting against a birth injury claim, because your rights are important when a birth injury occurred, especially when you consider the medical bills. Hire an Indianapolis Birth Injury Attorney Today Birth injuries are serious business, and the legal claims that arise from them can be difficult to fight on your own without an attorney. Do you believe that you may need a birth injury attorney in one of the areas that we serve? Give us a call at Gerling Law today. Our number is 888-437-5464, and if you give us a call today, we can tell you more about the services that we offer and the attorneys that we staff to meet your needs.

Nov 27, 2017 | By Gayle Gerling Pettinga | Read Time: < 1 minute | Medical Malpractice

How to Spot Medical Malpractice

Knowing when you’re the recipient of medical malpractice is an extremely difficult thing to discern. Trained eyes must be consulted in order to determine if you have a case or not. But even with the help of professionals, understanding whether a doctor can be held accountable is a fairly murky process. Despite their superhuman powers to heal the wounded, doctors too are fallible creatures who can’t be blamed for every mistake they make. To determine whether malpractice has occurred, one must establish that the health care provider has not met the “standard of care” that is universal among doctors in the USA. “Standard of care” can be a difficult thing to define and requires a number of outside doctors to assess whether the health-care provider was acting in a negligent manner. A claim is only viable if as a result of medical treatment, the patient sustained an injury or an injury was compounded. However, such incidents are the bare minimum that a case needs in order to hold water. Lawyers will only take on cases if medical practitioners review the case and can ascertain that medical negligence was, in fact, the source of the injury. Lawyers require such certainty before moving forward with the case due to the statistic that 80% of medical malpractice cases end with no payment to the person or persons injured. If for example, a doctor prescribes a patient the wrong medication, a case may be viable, and the patient should get in touch with a Drug Injuries Attorney. That being said, few other injuries are overt grounds for a civil lawsuit. If you’re located in Evansville, Indianapolis, Louisville, Owensboro, or surrounding areas and feel that you have been wronged by a medical practitioner you should get in touch with the Gerling Law Firm.

Nov 20, 2017 | By Gayle Gerling Pettinga | Read Time: 2 minutes | Medical Malpractice

How to Move Forward After a Wrongful Death

A wrongful death experience is one of the most traumatic events anyone can go through. A wrongful death lawsuit occurs primarily when a person dies or is killed due to the negligence or misconduct of another party.It can be the result of medical malpractice, construction site carelessness, an auto accident, airplane catastrophe, criminal behavior, exposure to hazardous conditions, fires, explosions, and more. In a wrongful death action, the value of the victim’s life to surviving family members is measured by the victim’s earning potential, in combination with a number of other factors. But first, the death must be proven to be the fault of another. There are key components of every wrongful death case that must be proven to receive payment, and they include: the death was a direct result of the defendant’s negligence the death has adversely affected those filing the case, monetarily and/or psychologically the death of the loved one resulted in the present and/or future monetary losses that affect the family members Types of Compensation A wrongful death lawyer has the responsibility of obtaining appropriate compensation for several aspects of the survivor’s life such as: compensation for the survivors’ loss lost wages from the person who is deceased loss of benefits, such as pension plans or medical coverage lost companionship and damages for the survivors’ mental anguish, pain, and suffering funeral expenses Hiring Legal Representation The statute of limitations to initiate a wrongful death lawsuit differs from state to state, but it is a finite amount of time. If you have experienced the wrongful death of a loved one due to the negligent actions of another, and you live in the Evansville, Indianapolis, Louisville, or Owensboro area, it is important to contact a Gerling Law attorney as soon as possible. Our compassionate team of legal experts understands your grief. Although no one can replace the loss you are experiencing, our expertise will assure you receive the compensation you need to move on with your life.Call Gerling Law today at 888-437-5464 and let us guide you through this difficult process.

Oct 19, 2017 | By Gayle Gerling Pettinga | Read Time: < 1 minute | Medical Malpractice

Woman Dies after Childbirth Due to Misdiagnosis

In our last post, we talked about medical malpractice and the serious nature of this form of negligence. People count on their doctors and medical professionals to treat them with the utmost care, and in the absence of that, people can suffer horrible medical effects or even lose their lives. Today we have an extreme and unfortunate example of that. A woman who gave birth to her first child died days after childbirth due to a misdiagnosis. According to a lawsuit filed by her husband and family, the 30-year-old woman gave birth and was cleared to leave the hospital the next day. But she started feeling nauseous and had a headache, so she soon returned to the hospital’s emergency room. Once there, a nurse practitioner diagnosed the woman with a urinary tract infection and sent her home.In actuality, she had sepsis, an extremely dangerous blood infection that can cause fatal inflammation and complications within the body. And unfortunately, this is what happened to this first-time mother. She died of complications due to sepsis. The lawsuit filed by the woman’s husband and her family was recently completed, and the result of the lawsuit earned the plaintiffs $20 million, which is the new record for a medical malpractice award in the state of Minnesota. Medical malpractice can have life-changing – and, as this story sadly shows, life-ending – consequences. A misdiagnosis can lead to someone’s death, and the doctors or medical professionals responsible for such a misdiagnosis should be held accountable. Source: Star Tribune, “Twin Cities jury awards $20M in malpractice case for woman who died after giving birth,” Paul Walsh, Aug. 29, 2017

Oct 19, 2017 | By Gayle Gerling Pettinga | Read Time: < 1 minute | Medical Malpractice

The Serious Nature of Medical Malpractice

Medical malpractice is one of the most infuriating and upsetting forms of negligence in our world. We have to be able to trust our doctors, our surgeons, our nurses, and all of our medical professionals. When they make egregious and horrible mistakes that cost people their lives or change them irrevocably, it tears at the soul of the doctor-patient relationship. It affects trust and faith in the medical profession. That’s why these incidents need to be legally pursued. Imagine, for example, going in for surgery. That’s a scary moment in and of itself, but today it is especially scary. You are having a major procedure done, and there are considerable risks. You go in and have the surgery, and hours later you are in recovery. Everything feels okay, but as the days go on, you start to feel worse. You go back into the hospital to get your surgery site checked – and it is discovered that the surgical team left a piece of equipment inside of you. There’s actually a surgical sponge inside of you, and more surgery is required to fix the problem. This is a serious example of medical malpractice, and it could lead to a lifetime of medical complications and a mountain of medical debt. Such negligence is unacceptable, and the victim of such an incident should consult with an experienced medical malpractice attorney. At Gerling Law, we will advocate on your behalf, pursue your allegations to the fullest, and help you move on with your life after an instance of medical malpractice.

Oct 12, 2017 | By Gayle Gerling Pettinga | Read Time: < 1 minute | Medical Malpractice

Why Doctor-patient Confidentiality Is so Important

Imagine a world without doctor-patient confidentiality. There would be people that would avoid going to the doctor for fear that their medical condition would be leaked to the public, or that their doctor may tell people connected with their social circle. The potential embarrassment of a medical condition is very real, and without this confidentiality in place, far more people would skip their visits to the doctor. The population simply wouldn’t be as healthy as it could be. Doctor-patient confidentiality is a critical part of the medical field, and it extends certain rights to you as a patient. You may not think that a breach of this confidentiality constitutes something that could spur litigation, but it can. This confidentiality clause extends beyond your death. Even if you stop seeing a certain doctor, that doctor is bound to the confidentiality clause. It protects your medical information and records from being released to unauthorized people or parties. Under this confidentiality clause, it allows the patient to feel comfortable with his or her doctor, promoting an atmosphere where they can provide the doctor with any and all relevant information without fear of others finding out. If your information is leaked to unauthorized parties, or if your doctor fails to properly store and secure your records, then you could file a lawsuit. However, if you consented to the transfer of information to other parties, then no breach occurred. If you have questions about doctor-patient confidentiality and how it relates to your case, then consult with an attorney.

Oct 5, 2017 | By Gayle Gerling Pettinga | Read Time: 2 minutes | Medical Malpractice

The Missing Diagnosis: What to Know about Misdiagnoses

Many medical conditions are difficult to diagnose. They may share similarities and symptoms. Others are a little bit easier, with simple tests and procedures that make it possible to identify the condition sooner.A misdiagnosis or the lack of a diagnosis has the potential to threaten your life in some cases. In others, it means living in pain or with unusual, confusing symptoms far longer than is necessary. For example, someone developing Type I diabetes may feel unwell for quite a while and present with symptoms of diabetes but not be diagnosed. If he or she is not diagnosed rapidly, it’s possible that he or she could go into ketoacidosis or end up passing away from the disease. How many people go without a diagnosis or have a misdiagnosis? It’s been estimated that approximately 12 million Americans go without the correct diagnosis of a condition each year. That means that those individuals may think they have a condition they don’t actually have, or they may not be treated for a condition they do. A misdiagnosis can lead to serious consequences, and around 40,500 people die each year because of them. Is misdiagnosis always life-threatening? Many conditions cause problems that are not necessarily life-threatening, but they can impact a person’s quality of life. Why would a doctor not recognize the signs of a common disorder like endometriosis? In the case of endometriosis, many believe it’s because those with it may be young or because others may laugh off their intolerance to what is supposed to be “normal” pain each month. The impact is serious, though. It can mean students miss class, struggle to work a normal job or even have mental health problems as a result of dealing with the trauma of not having a diagnosis. Other people may have their concerns dismissed because of a past history of mental health issues or repeated doctor visits for an unnamed illness. Going without a diagnosis is hard, which is why it’s a good idea to always seek a second opinion and to continue to push if something feels wrong. If you are injured as a result, it may be the doctor or medical provider who is to blame.