Perhaps no professionals are more trusted than those working in the medical field, and usually, this trust is well-placed. However, the fact that the nation’s leading cause of accidental death is medical errors and accidents underscores the fact that there is a problem among doctors, nurses, anesthesiologists, pharmacists, and other medical professionals tasked with keeping Americans safe from harm. The Weitz Firm, LLC and its medical malpractice attorney help hold medical professionals accountable for their actions.
Across all causes of death, medical errors are the third top cause of death in the United States, with claims dwarfed in number only by the more-talked-about killers—cancer and heart disease. The number of patients who die due to mistakes made by the very professionals entrusted to cure them (or at minimum, not cause them to die) numbers anywhere from 250,000 per year to 400,000 per year, depending on whose data you choose to believe.
Medical errors such as mix-ups in diagnostic lab testing, slip-ups with scalpels, failure to follow standard safety practices, failure of equipment, and dosing errors have all become commonplace in today’s medical world. A delay in diagnosis or misdiagnosis is also common, as are childbirth injuries and anesthesia errors. Although doctors take an oath to “do no harm,” many are negligent and reckless anyway, and patients pay for it with their health and their lives.
Victims in medical malpractice, hospital malpractice, medication error lawsuits, and other related actions can only file a valid claim against the offending medical professional if the claim is filed within two years of the date that the medical malpractice event occurred. Still, time does not begin to count toward this statute of limitations until the claimant discovers the injury. So, for example, if you find out that your surgeon injured you during a procedure that occurred three years ago, you can still file a claim.
Nonetheless, the law limits the amount of time to discover the underlying error and file a claim to no more than seven years from the date the error occurred. In the case of foreign objects being left inside surgical patients, however, there is no time limit to file a claim.
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania does not limit the amount of compensation that plaintiffs in medical malpractice suits may receive. This includes both economic damages and non-economic damages, such as mental anguish and/or pain and suffering. This allows plaintiffs in these cases to be awarded true, just, and fair compensation for their medical injuries.
If the care your doctor or other professional delivered fell outside the standard of care, and you were seriously injured as a result, you deserve to be compensated. Reach out to the Weitz Firm to find out how our medical malpractice attorney can help you collect medical costs, lost wages, pain and suffering damages, and more. You can contact us for a free consultation of your case by clicking here or calling 267-587-6240.
