Medical malpractice is a legal cause of action that occurs when a medical or health care professional deviates from standards in his or her profession, thereby causing injury to a patient. When you pursue help for your health and end up in worse shape for it, you most likely are eligible for a medical malpractice case. We want to begin by expressing our sympathy that you are having to go through this stressful time, and we encourage you to seek the compensation that you or your family deserve. Compensation for your injuries or damages comes from the liable party’s insurance and there may be many different parties involved depending on where the negligence happened and how many medical professionals were involved. Once you feel or know something is awry in regard to your medical situation, then please call our Oklahoma medical malpractice attorney for a free initial consultation to see how we can help you get the best results possible.
With any type of personal injury case, including medical malpractice cases, you need to abide by the statute of limitations that Oklahoma gives victims of these kinds of injuries. To be successful with your medical malpractice claim, you must pay attention to the amount of time that has passed since the initial injury. Oklahoma statutes states that a claim must be filed within two years of the injury or in some cases two years from the discovery of the injury.
In some instances, this does not apply due to there is a gray area when it comes to medical malpractice; some injuries do not reveal themselves immediately and the state will allow a claim to be filed. As the plaintiff, you have the burden of proving that you could not have discovered it even through the “exercise of reasonable diligence.” An example of this would be if you have undergone surgery and have serious pain days or weeks after the surgery only to find out that your surgeon left a gauze pad in your body from the surgery and was not discovered on the initial day of surgery, then your statute of limitations would begin from the day of discovery. Of course, life is never simple. Hospitals and their employees, including many doctors, which are owned and operated by a county or city have a one-year statute of limitation. A notice of claim must be filed with the governmental entity under Title 51 or it will be barred. If your claim is against a county hospital you must act promptly.
Types of Medical Malpractice Cases We Have Successfully Handled Medical Malpractice is an umbrella term for a lot of different kinds of incidents and accidents. If you or someone you love have fallen victim to someone else’s negligence due to medical malpractice we encourage you to call our office for a free consultation. Some of the types of cases Clark & Associates has successfully handled are:
- A misdiagnosis/failure to diagnose case
- A surgical error case
- An anesthesia error case
- A medication error case
- A birth injury case
- Nursing mistakes
- A hospital negligence case A nursing home negligence case
- Infections or retained sponges or surgical objects
Filing a medical malpractice case can be a very confusing process. As a result, there are a number of mistakes people make after experiencing medical malpractice. The first thing to do is document your injury when you realize the is an issue following some sort of medical treatment or procedure. It is a good idea to be able to get your hands on all of your medical records, so they do not get tampered with. Another is staying with the same medical provider, this is not a wise decision because there is a high chance that if your doctor knows about your medical malpractice claim, they would try to inject certain matters into your medical records for the purpose of minimizing your chance at a proper investigation of your medical malpractice claim. It is particularly important to make sure you are getting treatment and you are documenting that something went wrong as a result of your medical treatment. Finally waiting too long to seek legal representation for your medical malpractice claim could result in evidence disappearing especially when it comes to medical devices being involved. It is crucial that you get the right attorney involved immediately following the discovery of something being awry so that evidence can be preserved in the chance it is needed to be presented later in case as you develop the evidence. The most important advice our firm can give to you is to make sure you hire an attorney who knows how to handle medical malpractice cases and can take the case all the way through a trial with expert witnesses. Contact Clark & Associates and let us review your possible medical malpractice claim and if we take the case start preserving valuable evidence for your claim.
Although all these cases have subcategories such as an amputation of the wrong body part, failure to monitor post-surgical patients, not notifying a doctor when a patient’s condition worsens, emergency room malpractice, and injuries to the brain due to medical malpractice. These cases can be extremely complicated and leave you feeling very confused about who is actually liable for your injuries and damages. With that being said it is critical that you choose a competent and experienced early on in order to determine all parties that should be held accountable. It is not always noticeably clear, and you want to ensure that you will pursue the right person or entity. As previously stated the importance of hiring a skilled attorney is because there are cases that may hold several people liable for your injuries such as the hospital as a whole, a specific doctor, or perhaps even a manufacturer of a medical product. Your Oklahoma medical malpractice lawyer will be able to pinpoint who is responsible for your medical malpractice case.
At Clark & Associates, we have provided a continuation to this blog in the form of an eBook that you can click on and download to continue your education in regard to Medical Malpractice. Our attorneys have provided some more information and we answer many questions you might have. Click on the link below and give us a call or you can fill out online a consultation request that is at no charge to you.