Doctors and other medical professionals have a duty to their patients to practice medicine with a certain degree of skill, care, and diligence. If a provider fails to meet this standard and causes harm to a patient, victims may be eligible to file a medical malpractice claim.
Whether you or a loved one has suffered a surgical error, was incorrectly diagnosed with a disease, or acquired an infection during a hospital stay, Wilson Kehoe Winingham has the necessary experience to help you obtain the financial compensation you deserve.
What Is Medical Malpractice?
Medical malpractice occurs when a health care professional deviates from the expected standards of their profession and causes injury, harm, or even death to a patient. The standard of care should be equivalent to what is expected from any reasonably competent physician under the same or similar circumstances.
Not all injuries a patient suffers under the care of a healthcare professional are considered medical malpractice. To meet the legal requirements of a medical malpractice lawsuit, victims must prove these four essential elements:
Duty. There was an established duty of care between the healthcare professional and the patient.
Breach. The healthcare professional breached that duty of care.
Causation. The healthcare professional’s breach of care directly caused injury or harm to the victim.
Injury. The victim’s injuries resulted in economic or non-economic damages.
The backbone of all Indiana medical error lawsuits is proving that the medical professional was negligent. As experienced medical malpractice attorneys, we can determine if medical negligence caused your injuries and help you build a solid medical malpractice case.
Doctors are human beings, and they sometimes make mistakes. However, diagnosis errors can have a lasting impact on a patient’s life. Inaccurate treatment could allow the condition to progress further, leading to severe or irreversible injury.
Medical errors during birth can cause lifelong physical pain or injuries for both mother and child. Birth injury malpractice in Indiana includes shoulder dystocia, intellectual disabilities, brachial plexus injuries, head trauma, oxygen deprivation, and even death. Many such injuries could have been prevented with proper prenatal care or adequate monitoring during labor and delivery.
Medication Errors
Unfortunately, medication errors are common and can have various ill effects on patients. A patient may take too much or too little medication, take the wrong prescription, or have an allergic reaction to a drug. These errors may happen because the doctor miswrote the prescription, a nurse misread the prescription, the pharmacist incorrectly filled it, or someone miscalculated the dosage.
Anesthesia Errors
Anesthesia drugs, used during medical procedures to prevent patients from feeling pain, are the basis of many Indiana hospital malpractice cases. These drugs can be hazardous and can have lasting complications, from dosage errors and inadequate patient monitoring to aspiration and anesthesia awareness.
Surgical Errors
While any surgery involves a certain level of risk, some surgical errors are completely avoidable. Retained surgical object or wrong-site surgery (where, for example, a doctor operates on the left kidney instead of the right) are grounds for a medical malpractice case. If someone made a mistake while you were on the operating table, consult an Indiana surgical errors lawyer.
Hospital Infections
Hospital infections are often acquired two to three days after admission to a medical facility and can have severe or fatal consequences. Doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals are responsible for following safety guidelines and practices that keep patients from becoming infected by bacterial, viral, or fungal pathogens.
Call us at 317.920.6400 for your free consultation.
Victims must follow certain steps to get compensation for medical misconduct. Since these claims can result in significant damages for malpractice victims, all cases must go through the Indiana medical malpractice claim process:
Evaluation
Before filing a lawsuit, our Indiana medical negligence attorneys must review the circumstances of the claim and resulting injury. Some reasons we may not be able to represent clients include:
The injury was disclosed as a possible surgical complication.
It’s unlikely the injury can be directly linked to the procedure.
If the claim is valid, we gather evidence about the incident to patch together what happened. Then, a medical professional who is a network partner of our law firm helps shed light on how the error occurred.
Medical Panel Review
If our review indicates you have a valid claim, we encourage you to proceed with a lawsuit. However, Indiana’s medical malpractice statute requires presenting cases to a medical review panel before proceeding through the court system, which adds another layer of time and complexity.
Litigation
If we believe in the case’s merit, we would proceed with filing a lawsuit after the medical review panel’s decision (and regardless of the outcome). Significant trial prep would begin to build as strong a case as possible.
When selecting a medical malpractice lawyer, you want to find one with experience in the field—not a generalist—and preferably someone with experience specific to your case. Wilson Kehoe Winingham has a long history of successfully resolving medical malpractice cases through both settlement and trial. We can help you move forward by:
Gathering necessary evidence. We collect medical records, doctors’ notes, appointment dates, prescription medications, recorded symptoms, photos, and other documentation about your case.
Prepping your case. In your Indianapolis medical malpractice case, your lawyer will need to be able to link the medical provider’s actions directly to your injury. Your medical malpractice lawyer will thoroughly investigate your case, determining precisely how the injury happened.
Determining liability. Multiple parties could be liable in a medical malpractice case, including doctors (such as surgeons or anesthesiologists), nurses, medical technicians or assistants, dentists, medical facilities (such as hospitals or clinics), and nursing homes.
Negotiating with insurers. We look at the state of your injury today and future implications to avoid accepting inadequate settlement offers.
Staying by your side. The medical malpractice attorneys at WKW will work diligently to reach a full and fair settlement. But if the parties cannot agree, our lawyers have the experience to see your case through the trial process and will be with you every step of the way.
Ensuring your settlement is paid. When both parties have settled, we’ll ensure the liable parties make the agreed-upon payments in a timely manner.
At Wilson Kehoe Winingham, we built our foundation on the belief of “restoring lives,” which means we will accompany you on your path to recovery. Since our medical malpractice lawyers work on a contingency basis, we take our percentage of the payout as our fee and distribute the bulk of the funds to you.
Contact Our Indiana Medical Malpractice Attorneys Today
Our Indiana medical malpractice lawyers have extensive experience handling cases like yours. If you’re struggling after hospital negligence, contact us today at (317) 920-6400 or fill out our online form for a no-obligation, free consultation.
Call us at 317.920.6400 for your free consultation.
