Medical malpractice is negligence on the part of a doctor or other health care provider. When a medical professional departs from what is accepted medical practice, if it causes the patient to be injured the medical professional can be held liable for the injuries caused, including the costs of additional medical treatment, and pain and suffering. Medical malpractice cases are very complex since the lawyer must navigate not only the legal procedures and the litigation process, but must also become an expert on the medical issues involved. The damages caused by medical malpractice can be catastrophic. Just a few minutes of oxygen deprivation during the birthing process can cause a newborn baby to suffer severe, life-altering brain damage. Failing to properly read an x-ray can leave a patient with un-treated cancer. Delays in providing proper treatment can cause an otherwise treatable condition to become incurable. Failure to properly monitor a patient after surgery can lead to severe infection. Medical malpractice is very much on our minds at The Berkman Law Office, LLC. Two of our attorneys, firm owner Marna Berkman, Esq., and her husband Robert J. Tolchin, Esq., have a 11 year old child who suffered severe brain damage due to poor medical treatment when he was three weeks old. Having lived through medical malpractice ourselves, we are very motivated to provide clients with top notch representation in medical malpractice cases.
The Berkman Law Office, LLC has been handling medical malpractice accident cases for almost 60 years. Whatever the particulars of your accident, you can be sure that we will be able to guide you down the best path to resolve your claim. Failures to diagnose The key to successfully fighting cancer is early detection. Cancer symptoms can share the characteristics of other conditions, so proper testing by doctors is essential. Tests such as the PSA test, mammograms and biopsies are commonly used by the medical profession to detect cancer. Many times doctors fail to even order these crucial tests. There are also situations where the proper tests are ordered, but the radiologist misreads the film or the pathologist misreads the slide, leading to a crucial delay in making the diagnosis. Delay in diagnosing cancer can worsen the treatment or prognosis or can even be fatal. Hospital malpractice Hospital negligence can lead to serious injury or death and includes malpractice by doctors, nurses, nurse’s aides, physician's assistants and technicians who are employed by the hospital. Some of the types of hospital negligence include inadequate staffing, inadequate supervision, or the failure to perform or properly interpret diagnostic tests.
However it occurs, there is no excuse for placing patients in danger by providing inadequate or negligent care. Licensed and regulated by Federal and State law, hospitals must adhere to certain policies and procedures in order to ensure the health and well-being of their patients. When patients are injured due to negligence, hospitals are liable for the injuries they cause. Our firm also handles emergency room error claims. Emergency rooms must care for critical and non-critical patients in a fast-paced environment. Staff in emergency rooms are trained in triage—the assessment of the seriousness of a medical condition in order to provide prompt care when needed. A incorrect assessment of a patient’s condition can lead to belated diagnosis and treatment, which can lead to death for critically ill or injured patients. The Berkman Law Office, LLC conducts a thorough investigation to identify violations of policy and regulations and uncover negligence. Throughout your case we will remain attentive and responsive to your medical and legal needs and meticulously prepare your case for trial. Our firm seeks out and retains the top medical specialists in the field to bring a comprehensive knowledge base to your case that will surpass the medical expertise on the other side. Bedsores Bedsores, also called pressure sores, pressure ulcers, or decubitus ulcers, are areas of damaged skin and tissue that develop when sustained pressure—usually from lying in a bed or sitting in a wheelchair—cuts off circulation to vulnerable parts of a patient’s body. Bedsores are preventable and not the fault of the victim. Essentially, when hospital or nursing home staff who are entrusted with the care of those who are unable to move themselves shirk their responsibilities, their patients develop bedsores. Without adequate blood flow the affected tissue dies and an ulcerated sore develops. Caring for bedsores can be expensive. Often, due to the lower staffing in nursing homes, patients are forced to wait longer for care, such as simply being turned in a bed, or the changing of soiled linens and clothes. If an elder cannot change themselves then they are forced to sit or lay in their own urine until a caregiver arrives. While the elderly wait, their skin is being weakened by the moisture making them susceptible to bedsores. Health experts agree that bedsores are preventable by simple measures such as turning the patient and using special mattresses that inflate and deflate to change the pressure points on the patient’s skin. Preventive measures can maintain the skin’s integrity and health with proper blood flow. Often facilities even discharge patients or refer to other facilities to pass off the responsibility. Bedsores are often a sign of neglect and can be the result of hospital malpractice, nurse malpractice or nursing home negligence. It is simply not acceptable that they should happen while a person is at a facility in the care of professionals. Sadly, bedsores are the underlying cause of death for many patients in the New York area and several thousand across the country each year. Bedsores are not the fault of the patient. The patient is a victim. Nursing homes will deny their liability but it should not deter you from getting the justice you deserve. The Berkman Law Office, LLC recently obtained a $200,000 settlement from a homecare service, and a $500,000 verdict against a hospital, for failure to properly manage the bedsores of an elderly patient suffering from bladder cancer during the last few weeks of his life. He was dying of cancer, but the jury found that he did not have to suffer from bedsores. |