If a hospital visit has left you or loved one with end of unexpected injury or illness, there are a few things you should know. Most of us have a general understanding that health care workers have a duty to exercise reasonable care when treating patients. Generally, those standards of care are established by what other health care professionals would consider necessary and appropriate for each situation. For example, a doctor who performs surgery on the wrong part of a patient’s body would not be performing his or her duties in accordance with generally accepted medical practices.
It’s important for you to know that these standards of care also extend to all manner of medical services. This is true regardless of whether you are a patient living in a nursing home or a parent seeking help with the delivery of your unborn child. Health care workers can also commit medical malpractice when they create pharmacy errors, fail to properly diagnose their patients and even when they administer improper amounts of medications.
Not all types of medical malpractice are readily apparent. For example, we previously wrote an article on our blog about infections that set in after surgery. In that article, we discussed how researchers with the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine discovered that patient infections related to surgical procedures cause over 8,000 deaths annually. Even worse, only eight states require hospitals to disclose their infection rates to the public.
As you can see, it may sometimes be difficult for a layperson to know whether his or her injuries could prove to be the result of some form of medical negligence. That’s why it’s always a good idea to visit with your attorney when attempting to determine whether your injury might give rise to a lawsuit.
Based in downtown Chicago, our law firm represents clients in medical malpractice claims in Cook County and throughout Illinois. Prospective clients are encouraged to take advantage of our no fee initial consultation. This is where we can confidentially discuss the facts surrounding their cases and whether a medical malpractice lawsuit may be appropriate for them. Our firm can also accommodate Spanish-speaking clients.