New London County Medical Malpractice: Not Limited To Hospitals
While medical malpractice claims are often associated with hospitals and botched surgeries, Connecticut malpractice lawyer Jack O’Donnell explains why this can be dangerously misleading.
Medical malpractice is a legal term we hope most Connecticut families will not be intimately familiar with. Many may have heard it mentioned in a favorite legal or medical drama, and as a result, often associate it with high-profile surgical cases or high-stakes hospital environments. Only the unfortunate few who have suffered a debilitating condition, life-changing injury, or the death of a loved one will likely have encountered the legal principle in action.
They are also the only ones who might be aware that many, if not most, incidents that should lead to medical malpractice claims do not occur in operating rooms or even hospitals at all. There are just as many injuries and deaths caused by the actions of doctors, nurses and staff in dentist offices, GP exam rooms, nursing homes and any other place where you might be under the care of some form of medical practitioner or personnel.
As a result, if you are suffering or have lost someone dear to you, you could be reading this without realizing that you might be eligible for a medical malpractice claim to obtain justice and financial compensation for that harm or loss. That is a form of ignorance that both the medical field and its insurers are quite happy to perpetuate. And one that Connecticut medical malpractice lawyer Jack O’Donnell intends to make sure New London County families never fall prey to.
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New London County Medical Malpractice Claims Do Occur In Hospitals (But Not Only)
Connecticut, as a whole, is often well-regarded for its hospitals. New London County is no exception, with both the Backus Hospital in Norwich and the Lawrence + Memorial Hospital in New London. We may not have quite as many (or as famous) as New Haven or Hartford, but they still serve thousands of patients a year.
A fraction of these patients, however, may suffer adverse consequences of their visit. For some, this will be an expected and anticipated possible consequence of their surgery or treatment; for others, it will be the result of medical negligence. While stories of surgical equipment left in patients or wildly miss-dosed medications make for good television, serious injuries and lasting harm are just as likely to be caused by an orderly dropping a fragile patient or a chart being misread by a doctor in a hurry.
Whenever such medical negligence does occur and leads to grave injuries or even deaths, that is when medical malpractice claims can be made. If you have been the victim of such an incident in one of New London County’s Hospitals, then our medical malpractice lawyers can help you claim financial compensation from their insurance. But we can also help you claim compensation even if your injury occurred without ever setting foot in a hospital, which is more likely than you may realize.
What Does Medical Malpractice Look Like Outside The Hospital?
While most severe injuries will send you to a hospital, the vast majority will occur outside them, including many forms of medical malpractice. As long as your injury was caused by a healthcare provider who was supposed to be caring for you but acted negligently, recklessly, or criminally, you probably have grounds to claim compensation. This could include:
- Primary Care Doctors Or General Practitioner Physicians
While GPs and primary care doctors tend not to get medical dramas made about their work, their mistakes can be just as costly. Suppose your husband goes to see your family doctor, complaining of certain symptoms, including chest pains. Any responsible physician would send him to a cardiologist to check up on him, but your doctor sends him home with some antacids. In that case, it is absolutely the doctor’s fault if you lose him to a heart attack a week later.
Failures to diagnose issues, failing to recognize symptoms, ignoring your complaints or descriptions, and misdiagnoses can all lead to severe injuries, worsening conditions, and even death. If you are not sure whether your New London County doctor acted negligently, the best step you can take is to contact our office for a free consultation. We will help you figure out if there was medical negligence and ensure their insurance will cover the bill (do not worry about your doctor; they will be fine!).
- Dentists And Orthodontists
Most dentists do not work in hospitals, and yet many perform delicate surgeries on patients every day. From dental hygienists at your local clinic to orthodontal specialists that you have to travel halfway across New London County to go see, anyone poking around in your mouth professionally owes you a high standard of care. If they slip up and cut a vital nerve, fail to clean instruments that lead to an infection, or dismiss something as a minor problem that turns out to cost you half a jaw, you bet we will help you hold them accountable.
- Nursing Home Staff, Physical Therapists, And Elder Care Nurses
The older you are, the more vulnerable you are to injury, and the harder it is to recover from one, too. Far too many medical malpractice errors go unnoticed and uncompensated because they happen to an older person or to someone in a nursing home or assisted living facility who might have no one to check in on them regularly or verify that they are being treated properly.
Even with the best intentions, overworked New London County nursing home staff, physical therapists working part-time on freelance contracts, and house call nurses forced to cram 10 visits into a single day can make grave or even deadly mistakes. And plenty of them do not even have the best intentions. If an elder in your life has suffered a drastic shift in condition, a new and unexplainable injury, or dies unexpectedly in the care of medical professionals, it may be worth looking into the incident to ensure no malpractice was committed.
If it was, you can count on medical malpractice lawyer Jack O’Donnell to see that justice is done and those responsible pay for the harm they have caused. It won’t bring your loved one back, but it might force them to change their policies and do better for other families in the future.
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Victim Of Medical Negligence In New London County?
Call the Law Office of Jack O'Donnell, L.L.C to talk to an affordable and accessible medical malpractice lawyer.
Do not let the medical soap operas and law shows fool you; medical negligence is very real and exists well beyond the confines of Connecticut’s hospitals, including in New London County. If you even so much as suspect that you or someone you love has suffered because of medical negligence, you should call an experienced medical malpractice lawyer to discuss the situation and find out if you should make a claim.
To schedule your free consultation today, just call (203) 787-8603 or reach out to our team online. We have helped injured patients and their families recover compensation after incidents in and out of hospitals across the state, including in New London County.