Medical Malpractice

Medical Malpractice Injury Lawyers Brandon

Too often – too common – medical malpractice injury lawyers in Brandon, FL are acutely aware that when medical care is necessary, you depend on your medical providers to act professionally and provide a high standard of care. When you deal with medical professionals, you are entrusting them with your health and your life. Despite the training that medical professionals have undergone an extensive experienced many of them have acquired, medical accidents continue to occur.

You should expect your medical provider to consistently abide by the proper duty of care. But often, that duty of care is breached. Across the country, medical mistakes have become a serious problem. These medical mistakes negatively impact the lives of the patients who have entrusted their care to their healthcare providers. If you think you have a case, contact one of medical malpractice injury lawyers in Brandon Florida today.

An in-depth study led by Johns Hopkins University uncovered the fact that medical errors have become the United States’ third-leading cause of death. That means they fall right behind heart disease and cancer. When injuries are caused by medical malpractice, the experienced legal team of medical malpractice injury lawyers at Burnetti, P.A., might be able to pursue legal action against the medical provider, hospital, nurse, or physician who acted negligently. When a medical provider’s treatment for your condition doesn’t meet the normal standard of care for that specific medical condition and you are put at risk of suffering injury or even dying, medical malpractice has occurred.

If your medical provider fails to act in the same manner as other medical professionals who have had the same kind of training, he or she might be held liable for any injuries or damages incurred by you as a result. These medical mistakes could take place while you are suffering work-related injuries or injuries suffered from a motorcycle accident or a car crash, which just magnifies the existing situation as you focus on recovery.

A long hospital stay might be required. Don’t let negligent parties get by without compensating for your injuries and damages. Call the experienced Brandon, FL medical malpractice injury lawyersat Burnetti, P.A. to help guide you throughout this trying process.

If you or someone you love has suffered unnecessarily because of a physician, nurse practitioner, physician assistant, nurse, nursing assistant, or other medical provider being negligent, you might be eligible to receive compensation if you get proper assistance from a Brandon medical malpractice lawyer. To find out if a Burnetti, P.A., medical malpractice injury lawyers can help you, fill out the online information form or call our office today to schedule a free initial consultation for your medical malpractice claim.

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Experienced Medical Malpractice Injury Lawyers – Important For Your Claim

While there are several different kinds of personal injury claims, none of those claims are the same as a medical malpractice claim. Law and medicine, two areas of expertise, tie together for medical malpractice claims. Medical malpractice cases are considered to be in-depth, requiring an attorney’s experience and eye for detail. Retain a medical malpractice lawyer who is experienced and skilled in handling both medical and legal matters. You want medical malpractice injury lawyers who:

  • Understand the medical field
  • Understand complex medical documents
  • Understand which expert witnesses will benefit your case
  • Know about effective medical malpractice questioning
  • Can accurately predict the responses of the defendant

Why Choose Burnetti, P.A. As Your Brandon, FL Med Mal Injury Lawyer

The majority of medical care professionals have an attorney readily available to represent them against such claims. Some healthcare professionals might have experienced medical malpractice suits in the past. It is very important to your case that you select a medical malpractice lawyer who has successfully helped clients with Brandon, FL medical malpractice suits. A lawyer who is familiar with medical malpractice can accurately determine which tactics will be used by the medical provider to protect themselves or to rebut any claims you make. This is imperative for your medical malpractice suit’s outcome.

At Burnetti, P.A., our team of skilled medical malpractice injury lawyers have handled medical malpractice claims in Brandon, Florida, and surrounding areas, such as Tampa, Lithia, Orlando, Land O Lakes, Apollo Beach, Gibsonton, just to name a few. We have experience and dedication that we are ready to effectively apply to your medical malpractice claim in any Florida courtroom.

Our medical malpractice lawyer enlists effective and impressive negotiation tactics. We also make use accessible resources that benefit your claim. At Burnetti, P.A., we have a team of well-respected outside experts who have been leaders in various industries and fields. We have an extended team at Burnetti, P.A., which includes expert witnesses, staff physicians acting as consultants, nurse paralegals, and nurse consultants, all of whom can effectively help us build a link between the negligent acts of the medical provider and the injuries you sustained.

With a team of highly skilled medical and legal professionals aiding them, our medical malpractice lawyer prides themselves for establishing a strong reputation for helping victims of Florida medical malpractice obtain damages and fair settlements based on the injuries that they incurred from those negligent acts.

We understand medical malpractice cases are very different, but we also have the necessary knowledge that will enable us to successfully approach various kinds of claims. Our legal team has successfully helped injured clients recover multi-million dollar settlements for the injuries suffered because of medical negligence and malpractice.

What A Medical Injury Lawyer Will Do For You During Your Medical Malpractice Suit

If the negligence of a medical provider has left you or a loved one suffering because of injuries, our seasoned medical malpractice injury lawyers might be able to assist you with a Florida medical malpractice lawsuit so you can get compensated for the damages you have experienced. We will prepare your Brandon, FL legal claim by:

  • Carefully reviewing medical records and information to see if a viable claim exists
  • Collect the evidence and documentation required to support your claim
  • Determine which providers or parties are to be held liable for your injuries
  • Educate you about your rights and the legal processes involved in the case
  • Take care of the procedures and technicalities involved

While your case might have favorable evidence and documentation supporting it, the strength of your case and its success might be based on the ability of your medical malpractice lawyer to prove there was a causal link. At Burnetti, P.A., our medical malpractice injury lawyers are familiar with knowing how evidence should be properly presented, explained, and then packaged up for the court.

Our skilled legal team could question expert witnesses while also working to determine effective and thoughtful ways to dispute the defendant’s claims. Our medical malpractice lawyer can take neutral facts and turn them into evidence that supports your claim. Our attorneys can also diminish any of the facts that aren’t supportive in your case.

What Is Considered Medical Malpractice?

If a patient suffers injuries because of the medical professional’s negligence, a lawsuit might help the injured person and their family recover damages. In Brandon, Florida, the party who suffered injuries has to prove four elements to have a successful medical malpractice claim. These four elements include:

  • Patient-Doctor Relationship: To file a medical malpractice claim in the State of Florida, you must prove there was a relationship between the patient and the doctor accused of the wrongdoing. You must have hired the medical provider in question and that physician must have agreed to provide medical services for you. Any medical malpractice allegations are required to have happened during the time of employment.
  • Duty of Care: Physicians must handle any duties that coincide with the standards set forth by the medical community. Any healthcare providers, including doctors, have a legal responsibility to act in the same manner any other healthcare provider in that same situation would.
  • Breach of Duty: In the event, a healthcare provider is believed to have acted negligently, you have to show they violated the duty of care to the patient. In order to do this, the physician did not handle the situation, in the same manner, another doctor with the same training would have done in the same situation for someone with the same medical problem.
  • Causation: Besides proving negligence, in order for a claim to be valid you must show there was causation. This means showing that the provider breached his or her duty and that breach led to the injuries that you suffered. Medical records, proof of treatment, affidavits from other medical providers, and other documentation can act as proof of this. Patients who suffered from medical malpractice must show there was a causal relationship between injuries suffered and the negligence of the healthcare provider.
  • Damages: You must have incurred damages resulting from medical provider’s negligence and/or the provider’s actions. Because of this, medical providers can’t be held liable for damages unless the injured patient suffered legitimate damages, such as additional medical expenses, lost wages from the inability to work, loss of future earnings caused by disability, pain and suffering, depression or other kinds of mental trauma.

Here is an example of Florida medical malpractice. Because of severe stomach pains, you go to the closest emergency room in Brandon, Florida. A medical provider asks you some questions about the symptoms you are experiencing. The caregiver will then determine how to proceed with your care and what kind of treatment should be given. You have now established a doctor – patient relationship.

This is now your physician, so there is a duty of care to you as the patient. If the doctor says you need to undergo an appendectomy, that physician has the duty to perform this particular surgery in the same manner any other surgeon would.

Any negligent act, such as taking out the gallbladder instead of the appendix, or leaving a surgical tool inside the incision, breaches that required duty of care. If you suffer injuries during surgery or after the procedure, you are required to have enough evidence to show the breach of duty resulted in your injuries and those injuries are worthy of any compensable damages that you seek.

Damages Suffered Because Of Medical Malpractice

Damages sought for medical malpractice claims are to give compensation for the patient’s injuries resulting from the medical provider’s negligence. Compensatory damages for medical malpractice in Brandon, Florida are designed to make the injured victim “whole” again. It was designed to give the injured patient the compensation needed to take care of both non-economic and economic losses incurred. Economic losses can be called actual damages. Economic damages might include:

  • Medical Expenses – Medical expenses add up fast. This includes physician office visits, hospitalizations, medications, physical therapy, chiropractic care, rehabilitation centers r nursing home care, home health, mobility devices or any other expenses related to medical care. If you have experienced a severe injury that will affect you throughout life, you might be able to get compensated for future medical expenses.
  • Lost Wages – If you are unable to work because of the injuries you suffered due from medical malpractice, you might be able to get compensation because of your loss of wages.
  • Loss of Future Earning Capacity – If you cannot return to your chosen career and you can’t earn the same salary you made before being injured, you might be able to get compensated for your loss of earning capacity.
  • Pain and Suffering – You might also be compensated for physical pain and suffering. These damages could include also include compensation for depression, fear, frustration, and anxiety, which are known as mental distress.
  • Loss of Consortium – if you suffered from a medical malpractice injury, you might be able to be compensated for the loss of marital benefits, such as companionship, sexual relations, affection, and loss of comfort. In the event of life-long injuries or long-term impacts from the injuries, loss of consortium compensation might be awarded.
  • Other Damages – In specific situations, you might be able to get compensated for other damages. These kinds of damages might include permanent disability, scarring, the loss of life enjoyment, disfigurement, loss of companionship, loss of parental support, and other damages resulting from the medical malpractice act.

When medical professionals such as doctors, nurses, or healthcare facilities act with gross negligence, which means that their actions were willful in nature or a malicious act, the patients who suffered injuries might be awarded punitive damages. Punitive damages weren’t created as a way to provide compensation to victims who incurred losses, but as a way to punish the defendant for their actions. It was also created to help deter others from acting in a like manner.

Florida Medical Malpractice Statute Of Limitations

Florida, like other states, has a statute of limitations on medical malpractice claims. This means you have a limited time in which you can proceed with a medical malpractice claim against the healthcare provider who acted negligently. If you fail to file your medical malpractice claim within that specified time frame you might lose your right to proceed with a claim.

While there are some extenuating circumstances, such as misrepresentation, foul play, or fraud on the medical provider’s fault, that give you additional time to proceed with a claim you should consult with a medical malpractice lawyer right away. Due to the statute of limitations, you must consult with a Brandon medical malpractice lawyer right away if you have suffered a medical injury in Florida.

Kinds Of Med Mal Cases Our Medical Malpractice Injury Lawyers Can Assist With

Errors With Anesthesia – Anesthesia Error Lawyer

If not used as directed, anesthesia can cause the death of or result in serious injury of a patient. The medical professional who acted negligently can be held liable for the damages that resulted. An anesthesia error attorney can has the experience to pin point several areas of negligence caused by a medical professional, such as an anesthesiologist. Here are some negligent acts that could occur:

  • Using the wrong drug
  • Administering medications that interact negatively with one another
  • Knowing a patient is allergic to a drug and administering it anyway
  • Not properly monitoring vital signs
  • Failing to properly respond to changes in vital signs
  • Late administration of anesthesia
  • Not properly intubating the patient
  • Improper medical machine usage
  • Use of faulty equipment or failing to repair it
  • Turning off the pulse oximeter alarm
  • Failing to the give proper instructions to the patient

Three different kinds of anesthesia are used – regional, general, and local anesthesia. Each of these kinds of anesthesia is used for different situations. Each anesthesia can result in different complications. Anesthesia awareness leaves the patient is awake during surgery and lets he or she see or feel the surgery is a much more serious complication. Those who suffer from anesthesia errors might be awarded compensation for the emotional and physical injuries suffered.

Emergency Room Mistakes

If you are experiencing a medical emergency, you will seek immediate help at a local emergency room. Although the ER might be busy, rushed and hectic, any healthcare professionals are expected to maintain a higher standard of care and ensure their patients get proper treatment. Negligence by any healthcare providers, such as physicians, nurses, technicians, or any other ER staff can lead to life-altering injuries. If you have suffered injuries because of emergency room mistakes, you might be able to file legal action to seek compensation for the injuries you suffered. Some more common emergency room mistakes include:

  • Mistakes during surgery
  • Not properly diagnosing heart problems that lead to a heart attack
  • Mistakes prescribing or administering medicines
  • Failing to properly diagnose postoperative infections and failure to treat them
  • Failure to monitor after treatment
  • Misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis of pulmonary embolisms, appendicitis, aneurysms, blood clots, etc.
  • Misreading tests, charts, scans, x-rays, MRIs

Hospital Malpractice In Brandon, FL

In some situations, medical malpractice injury lawyers are called on behalf of a patient, that a hospital after treating a patient, can be named as a party in a negligence lawsuit after a medical malpractice incident. Hospitals have the responsibility to properly evaluate employee qualifications, including any experience, required certifications, various kinds of training, and their educational background. If a hospital employs a medical professional who is not adequately qualified or shows incompetence in their duties, the hospital could be deemed liable for any injuries suffered because of the worker’s incompetence. If a hospital fails to properly conduct a background check to see if an employee has the needed certifications and appropriate educational training, then that employee injures a patient, the hospital could be deemed liable for damages suffered.

Brandon, Florida hospital staff could engage in inappropriate conduct that compares to medical malpractice, which causes liability for the hospital. This kind of conduct might include:

  • Failure to accurately diagnose a condition
  • Failure properly treat the patient or neglecting the patient
  • Failing to send the patient on to a specialist when current care is inadequate
  • Not properly caring for a patient whose condition isn’t stable
  • Not ordering the right diagnostic testing to determine which treatment options are needed
  • Choosing the wrong drug or administering improper amounts of the drug
  • Erroneous use of anesthesia
  • Improper usage of medical equipment
  • Performing surgery that is not consented to or that is not going to be beneficial
  • Failure to adhere to hospital procedures which cause injuries, such as infection

Vicarious Liability For Hospitals

There are situations where hospitals might be vicariously liable for injuries caused by the negligence of their workers, such as nurses or technicians. Employers have a responsibility for duty of care when it involves the supervision and direction of their employees. This kind of liability covers the employee negligence as well as systemic problems within the facility itself, such as unclean instruments that lead to infection or unreasonably long waits in the emergency room.

Independent contractors fall into a different category. Hospitals usually cannot be held liable for the actions of caregivers who are independent contractors. Today, most physicians aren’t employed by the hospital but are independent contractors. These physicians usually have their own medical practices outside the hospital.

Hospitals are only liable for the actions of independent contractors if these medical providers lack proper experience and training, or don’t have all the necessary qualifications. If medical malpractice injury lawyers can prove that the contractor was misrepresented as a hospital employee, and the patient depended on that misrepresentation and suffered injuries because of it, the patient might be able to pursue a medical malpractice lawsuit naming the hospital as a defendant.

Hospitals usually try to avoid medical malpractice suits by making their contracted medical staff notify patients that they are not hospital employees. Some hospitals post signs to indicate that certain medical providers are independently contracted and not hospital employees. If patients are not given proper notification of the contractor status of doctors or other medical professionals, the hospital might be liable for any injuries the patients suffer.

Errors Caused By Medical Devices

Medical providers rely on several different kinds of medical devices. These devices perform several tasks. Some devices diagnose diseases, treat diseases, and even prevent them. The misuse of these devices can cause a patient to suffer serious injury or even die. Sometimes these devices fail and have horrible impacts on patients. Medical devices have three major kinds of defects that can cause injury.

These defects put the manufacturer at risk of being liable for damages. These three defects include design flaws, manufacturing process defects, and insufficient warnings. If any one of these problems exists, the device’s manufacturer might be sued for medical malpractice if death or injury result.

Medical professionals sometimes use medical devices incorrectly. If not properly trained or if insufficient knowledge, reckless behavior or negligence while using a device lead cause injury, the medical provider who failed to use the device in a proper manner can become liable for the damages that were suffered.

Delayed Diagnosis Or Misdiagnosis

A patient and their loved ones can suffer because of illnesses being misdiagnosed. A delayed diagnosis or misdiagnosis can cause serious medical problems or major injuries, causing the patient to suffer excruciating pain for years to come. The patient could even suffer debilitating physical injuries that might result in death. Some of the most common conditions that doctors fail to diagnose timely include heart conditions, different kinds of cancer, vascular conditions, appendicitis, ectopic pregnancies, infections and brain tumors.

To be financially compensated in a lawsuit after being misdiagnosed, you must prove that the medical professional acted in a negligent manner and you suffered injuries because of those actions. Trained medical malpractice injury lawyers can let you know if you have a case or not. Some negligent behaviors that might lead to misdiagnosis include:

  • Failure to listen to the patient – As a patient, when you tell your medical provider that you aren’t feeling well, it is the responsibility of that healthcare provider to listen to you and investigate why you are suffering the different symptoms. If a doctor doesn’t examine the symptoms and your condition worsens, the physician can be held liable for misdiagnosing the condition. Again the experience of our medical malpractice injury lawyers can be invaluable.
  • Failure to notice the symptoms – Medical providers are trained to diagnose a patient from their symptoms. If you exhibit the symptoms for a specific illness, that medical provider might be held accountable for medical malpractice if he or she doesn’t accurately diagnose the condition.
  • Failure to check the medical history – Medical providers must accurately examine the medical history of their patient. They must also consider any family medical history. A provider might be considered negligent if the medical history does get examined and the patient condition deteriorates. If it is determined that the patient’s medical condition would have been easily identified if the medical history had been examined thoroughly, the doctor might become liable.
  • Improper testing order – If the provider orders any tests improperly even after being aware of the exhibited symptoms of the patient, he or she might be considered negligent if that patient suffers additional injuries. Medical caregivers can also be held liable if they fail to conduct standard tests after observing specific symptoms in their patients.
  • Failing to properly interpret tests – When a physician orders medical tests, the doctor is responsible for accurately reading the results. If a physician interprets the patient’s test in a reckless or careless manner that physician might be held liable for negligence and for any unnecessary illness or injury that results because of this negligent act.

Postoperative Negligence

After a patient has undergone treatment or surgery, he must experience postoperative care. Medical providers are given the responsibility to properly take care of their patients to make certain complications that could result after treatment or surgery receive appropriate attention. Proper care is needed to prevent infection.

Medical caregivers must properly monitor vital signs, provide the patient with detailed instructions on what can and cannot be done after surgery or treatment, and prescribe the right drugs in the proper dosage amounts to help with the healing and recovery process. If a medical caregiver doesn’t properly monitor the patient, or if the physician doesn’t recognize the visual symptoms of medical complications, the patient might suffer serious injury or even die.

This could give the patient the right to pursue a Brandon, FL medical malpractice claim. To get one started simply contact one of our medical malpractice injury lawyers for a FREE consultation.

Some conditions, illnesses, or infections that result because of negligence after surgery or treatment include:

  • Unnoticed tears in organs
  • Urinary tract infections
  • Internal bleeding
  • Sepsis or infections of the bloodstream
  • Viral infections
  • Staph infections including MRSA
  • Respiratory infections including pneumonia
  • Blood clots or pulmonary embolisms

Other kinds of medical malpractice might include:

  • OBGYN malpractice
  • Orthopedic malpractice
  • Dental malpractice
  • Medication errors
  • Psychiatric malpractice
  • Surgical errors
  • Cosmetic surgery malpractice
  • Chiropractic malpractice
If you believe you have suffered because of medical malpractice in Odessa, Lakeland, Zephyrhills, Dover, or Tampa, Florida, please contact one of our medical malpractice injury lawyers in Brandon FL for a FREE case consultation at (888) 444-8508.

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