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Experienced Harrisonburg Medical Malpractice Lawyer
The doctor-patient relationship is based entirely on trust. When you need care, you turn to people with credentials that you respect. You trust that your family doctor, your surgeon, your nurse practitioner, and your physical therapist are all skilled professionals and have your best interests at heart. If you suspect that you or a loved one has been harmed by a medical professional, you may be uncertain where to turn for help.
Unfortunately, neither the doctor nor the hospital is likely to admit that you have been harmed by your treatment. You will need to talk with a knowledgeable Harrisonburg medical malpractice attorney. Our attorneys at Kendall Law Firm can review the details of your medical treatment and evaluate whether you were harmed by substandard medical care. We can explore your legal options free of charge. If our experienced Harrisonburg injury lawyer believes that you have a medical malpractice case, we will offer to represent you on a contingency fee basis.
Under Virginia state law, you have the right to seek compensation for the economic and non-economic damages that you sustained as a result of medical negligence. Seeking answers to questions about whether you were a victim of medical malpractice starts with a phone call to Kendall Law Firm.
What Is Medical Malpractice?
All good medical providers strive to provide attentive care to their patients, but they don’t always succeed. Not every mistake a doctor makes is malpractice, however.
Medical malpractice is a legal term for mistakes made by medical practitioners as a result of negligent care that cause injury to a patient. To prove malpractice, your attorney will need to prove that your doctor failed to follow the recognized standard of care, and that failure caused harm to you. Did your doctor fail to deliver the treatment or order the appropriate diagnostic tests that a reasonably prudent physician would provide in similar circumstances? If so, you may have been a victim of malpractice.
Common Types Of Mistakes By Medical Practitioners
There are many kinds of medical malpractice. If you’re unsure whether your injury reflects mistakes, you should contact a Harrisonburg medical malpractice attorney. Our attorney can discuss the details of your case, gather your medical records and determine whether your injury meets Virginia’s requirements to begin a claim.
Some of the most common types of medical malpractice include:
- Failure to diagnose—When a doctor treated you and misdiagnosed your disease or should have ordered certain diagnostic tests but didn’t, the doctor may have been negligent. A failure to diagnose a disease or to order appropriate diagnostic tests may result in cancer advancing and becoming unmanageable.
- Surgical errors—Surgical errors are common causes of medical malpractice cases. A medical team that does not follow proper safety procedures may accidentally leave a surgical tool inside a patient’s body, causing medical complications for the patient. A surgeon may perform the wrong procedure on a patient or operate on the wrong side of the body. If you have been the victim of wrong-site surgery, you may have a medical malpractice claim.
- Anesthesia errors—Administering anesthesia is a delicate process. Anesthesiologists and nurse anesthetists must follow the recognized standard of care in administering anesthesia to patients. Some patients have adverse reactions to certain types of general anesthesia or regional anesthesia. Many anesthesia complications occur because the doctor or nurse anesthetist failed to take a proper patient history before a procedure or monitor the sedated patient afterward. If you were harmed by a preventable complication with anesthesia, you may be entitled to hold the health care provider liable for your injury.
- Medication errors— If you receive the incorrect dosage of medication or are given the wrong medication by a nurse or a pharmacy, you may have a right to bring a malpractice claim if you suffered a serious injury from the medication error.
- Emergency room errors— Emergency room errors may occur because of lack of adequate patient monitoring, excessive delays in treatment of a patient, misreading of test results, or breakdowns in communication. If you believe that you or a loved one has been harmed by the treatment received in a hospital emergency department in Harrisonburg, have a knowledgeable attorney review the situation and offer guidance.
- Improper treatment—Your doctors should prescribe courses of treatment that follow best practices in their field. If other practitioners would not have recommended the treatment that they used and it injured you, or if they improperly implemented the correct course of treatment, they could be found negligent.
If your loved one passed away as a result of a medical mistake, Kendall Law Firm can initiate a wrongful death claim on your behalf if legal action is in order. If you think you may have been injured by a negligent doctor, Kendall Law Firm can evaluate your case during a free, confidential consultation.
What Should You Do If You Suspect You Have A Medical Malpractice Claim?
The first and most important step you should take if you think you’ve been hurt by a medical professional is to keep a record of what happened. Write down the details of your treatment and how you were injured in as much detail as possible. Make notes of how the injury is affecting your daily life and activities.
Both your statement and the medical records from the hospital or treatment facility will be important evidence in any malpractice lawsuit. Our attorney can request copies of your medical records. We can have independent medical experts review the records to evaluate them and offer an opinion about whether the health care provider who treated you violated the standard of care.
How Long Do I Have To Bring Suit In A Medical Negligence Case?
You have only a limited amount of time to pursue a medical malpractice case in Virginia. This is referred to as the statute of limitations. A statute of limitations is an official deadline. After the deadline passes, you may lose the right to seek compensation for your injuries.
In most situations, you have two years from the date of the injury to begin your medical malpractice case in Virginia. More time may be allowed to file a claim in certain circumstances. For example, if your surgeon left a foreign object inside your body or if intentional misrepresentation prevented discovery, the statute of limitations is one year from the date that the foreign object or injury was discovered or reasonably should have been discovered. In cases involving failure to diagnose a malignant tumor, the time permitted to file an injury claim is extended a year from the date that the patient received the correct diagnosis.
At Kendall Law Firm, our qualified Virginia medical malpactice lawyer will evaluate the details of your case and ensure that you don’t miss your deadline.
What Compensation Can You Recover In A Claim?
In the state of Virginia, you may be entitled to certain damages if you are the victim of medical malpractice. State law limits the total amount of compensation you can receive as a result of malpractice. It’s a bit complicated because the totals increase based on the date of your injury.
Here are the total damages you might receive, depending on the date of the malpractice:
- July 1, 2018, through June 30, 2019 $2.35 million
- July 1, 2019, through June 30, 2020 $2.40 million
- July 1, 2020, through June 30, 2021 $2.45 million
- July 1, 2021, through June 30, 2022 $2.50 million
- July 1, 2022, through June 30, 2023 $2.55 million
- July 1, 2023, through June 30, 2024 $2.60 million
Those totals are maximums that cover the economic and non-economic damages associated with the malpractice you experienced.
Medical malpractice damages awarded can include money to cover the following:
- Past medical expenses related to the malpractice
- Expected future medical expenses related to the malpractice
- The wages or salary you lost because of your injury
- Pain and suffering
When you contact Kendall Law Firm, we’ll gather all of bills and medical records related to your malpractice injury. We’ll total the money that you have spent and the future expenses you expect to incur as a result of your injury, as well as the income you lost from missing work. We’ll fight on your behalf for the full, fair compensation you need.
Contact Kendall Law Firm Today For A Free Consultation
Many factors go into choosing the best medical malpractice lawyer. Harrisonburg personal injury attorney David Kendall has more than 30 years of experience and has helped thousands of people recover from serious injuries. He is a compassionate attorney who cares about his clients. Kendall Law Firm is dedicated to serving our community with the same professionalism with which we served our country. Our lawyer is a native Virginian who served in the Marine Corps.
Our dedication to service inspired us to practice law that benefits injured people who help. We don’t represent big companies or insurance agencies. We believe that everyone should have real representation, not just people with deep pockets. We operate on a contingency fee basis, which means that we are only paid on the successful completion of your case. Contact us today. We’ll start with a free, no-obligation consultation. Call us at any time at (866) 574-2704.