Medical Malpractice

Medical Malpractice Lawyers

Medical malpractice happens when a medical professional is negligent in medical care or in the attention needed. This can range in scope from being a misdiagnosed illness to a surgery gone horribly wrong. Medical malpractice has implications that go well beyond the actual health effects – it can cause emotional trauma in a patient who has been thought to believe one thing, then has everything flipped on its head. It is a very serious crime and have many different moving parts. Did the doctor ask all the right questions? Was the patient honest about enough? The only way to protect yourself is to have a a lawyer who understands medical malpractice law in Maine.

Some serious medical malpractice examples are:

• Cancer misdiagnosis – Doctors and health care providers have been known to diagnose someone with a form of cancer that is not reflective of the true nature. This can mean a doctor tells a patient they have 6 months to live, only to find out later that the patient actually has 3 years. Vice versa, a patient may be told they have many years left and then a few months later find out they have only a few months. Similarly, symptoms that may look like cancer can be diagnosed as something else. All forms of cancer misdiagnosis are extremely painful on the patient.

• Nursing home abuse – Abuse in nursing homes happens far too often in Maine and can go un-discovered for years. This can be for a variety of reasons, including neglect by the providers, mis-management of medication, verbal and physical abuse, sexual abuse, and failure to provide adequate care.

• Medication interactions – Sometimes a doctor may be cavalier in their willingness to prescribe a medication to a patient. Without thinking about how the new prescription may interact with current medications the patient is currently taking, a combination of various medicine can be very dangerous and even fatal.

• Surgery problems – While under anesthesia, a patient has to surrender all control to a health care team. During surgery, there is no way to make sure the doctor or surgeon is performing the procedures correctly and taking care of everything that needs to be taken care of. Waking up from surgery and finding out that there was a mistake made is devastating to the patient and needs to be addressed immediately.

• Heart attack misdiagnosis – Maine has one of the highest rates of heart disease and heart attacks in the country. With thousands of people going to the hospital every year, it has become a common diagnosis by medical professionals when the first few symptoms match heart attacked. This does not, however, take into account a full diagnosis and can lead a patient to believe that their symptoms are for something else. Continued care and preventative measures can be affected, leading to major complications.

The medical field has a large budget to litigate against medical malpractice suits. Larger institutions, like hospitals, have vast resources and teams of lawyers who will do everything they can to fight against the patient. Understanding the statute of limitations for medical malpractice, as well as the specifics that can be overlooked can make the difference between success and failure.

If you have been involved in a medical malpractice case in Maine, contact Nichols & Webb immediately to schedule a consultation. They will assist you in any part of the process and make sure you receive the justice you are entitled to.