When you have trusted a medical professional to treat you or a loved one and that person did not perform his or her job to an adequate level of care, resulting in damage to your or your loved one’s physical or mental health, that is medical malpractice. Medical malpractice laws apply to:
- Physicians
- Dentists
- Psychiatrists
- Nurses
- Chiropractors
- Pharmacists
- Healthcare providers
Medical malpractice can include situations such as an obstetrician bungling a birth, leaving a baby with permanent injuries, or a pharmacist filling a prescription with the wrong drug, or a hospital administering too high or too low a dose of medication. Though a mistake does not always mean malpractice, if your doctor or healthcare professional acted outside the expected standard, you could be entitled to serious compensation.
Gerald Schwab, an experienced California personal injury attorney, stands ready to recover those damages for you. Call him right away.
Medical malpractice is a big problem in US healthcare. The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) has reported that more than 225,000 people die each year in the United States as a result of medical errors. This figure is greater than the number of deaths from AIDs, auto accidents, and breast cancer combined. Medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the country, behind heart disease and cancer. The most frequent errors are these:
- 12,000 deaths/year from unnecessary surgery
- 7,000 deaths/year from medication errors in hospitals
- 20,000 deaths/year from other errors in hospitals
- 80,000 deaths/year from infections picked up in hospitals
Each year, hospital medical errors cost society approximately $20 billion. Yet the Harvard Medical Malpractice Study revealed that just one in eight malpractice victims ever files a medical malpractice claim for compensation. It is important that you take action, not only for yourself and your family, but also to hold the responsible parties accountable. You may be able to prevent the same thing from happening to someone else.
Because the defendants in medical malpractice cases are usually large insurance companies and corporations with enormous financial resources, you need an attorney who cannot be intimidated. You need an attorney who will fight aggressively on your behalf. You need an experienced attorney who will not make mistakes in preparing your claim, during negotiations, or in trial that could reduce the amount of compensation you receive. You need Gerald Schwab.
