We are leaders in medical malpractice litigation.
The vast majority of doctors and other healthcare professionals provide quality care to their patients. However, sometimes doctors and nurses make mistakes, and sometimes those mistakes have serious—and even deadly—consequences. When mistakes are made, and injury or death follows, medical malpractice lawsuits are appropriate to compensate the injured party.
To determine whether there is actual negligence by a doctor, nurse, or other healthcare provider, medical malpractice attorneys look for a deviation from the "standard of care." The standard of care is a guideline of what a reasonable medical practitioner would do in the same situation. For example, a chest x-ray should be ordered for a patient with symptoms pointing to lung cancer. Failure to order a chest x-ray is a deviation from the standard of care. When a violation of the standard of care results in injury to the patient then there is medical malpractice.
Common areas of medical malpractice include:
Misdiagnosis and Failure to Diagnose Illness
One of the most common causes of medical error occurs not when doctors do something, but when they do not. Today, doctors are commonly placed in positions where they must make financial decisions about patients’ health. The insurance companies encourage doctors to find ways to save money however possible as they care for patients, rewarding those who cut corners to save money, and punishing those who do not. In many cases, when doctors' and medical specialists' levels of service consistently cut too deeply into profit margins, insurance companies offer only partial payment of claims, or sometimes deny payment altogether, forcing doctors to write off costs of treatment as bad debt. Clearly, doctors have a significant financial motivation to play by the insurance companies’ dangerous (and often deadly) rules.
The most common cases of misdiagnosis occur when medical tests are skipped or when data from test results is overlooked or misdiagnosed as a less serious condition than it truly is. When this happens, the damage caused to the patient’s health becomes irreversible, leading to chronic pain, sickness or death that could have been prevented.
The Atlanta medical malpractice lawyers at Davis Adams have particular expertise in cases involving failure to diagnose two diseases commonly missed by negligent healthcare providers:
- 1. Meningitis
Meningitis is a swelling of the lining around the brain and spinal cord that can kill in hours or result in permanent paralysis, blindness, brain injury, or a coma. Bacterial and fungal meningitis respond well to prompt treatment, therefore early and accurate diagnosis is critical. Unfortunately, misdiagnosis or failure to diagnose is common. If you or a loved one has been seriously injured as a result of a doctor's failure to note the symptoms, perform the proper tests, and diagnose meningitis in time to treat it successfully, we can obtain your medical records and have an expert physician review your potential case free of charge to determine whether a doctor or other healthcare provider was negligent. - 2. Necrotizing Fasciitis Necrotizing fasciitis is a progressive, rapidly spreading, inflammatory infection located in the deep fascia. These infections can be difficult to recognize in their early stages if the treating physician is not exercising proper diligence in evaluating the patient’s symptoms. Once the disease begins to progress, necrotizing fasciitis requires aggressive surgical treatment to combat the associated high morbidity and mortality. If you or a loved one has been seriously injured as a result of a doctor's failure to note the symptoms, perform the proper tests, and diagnose necrotizing fasciitis in time to treat it successfully, we can obtain your medical records and have an expert physician review your potential case free of charge to determine whether a doctor or other healthcare provider was negligent
Surgical Errors and Anesthesia Errors
As insurance companies continue to apply financial pressure to healthcare providers, doctors are required to work longer hours with less support. The healthcare profession has always been busy, but perhaps never more so than today, as many doctors, surgeons, nurses and medical specialists average 60 to 70 hour work weeks. First and second year residents at hospitals (the youngest and most inexperienced doctors) typically carry the largest workloads on a hospital’s medical staff, often facing sleep deprivation of more than 30 hours. While this may save hospitals and insurance companies money, this troubling trend does not bode well for patients in need of high quality medical care. Under these conditions, it is not surprising that so many life changing, and sometimes fatal, mistakes occur every day in operating rooms throughout Georgia.
Birth/Obstetrical Injuries
Improper medical care during delivery, whether by vaginal delivery or by cesarean section, can cause devastating, permanent injuries to the baby. A child seriously injured at birth may require life-long care, including hospitalization, rehabilitation, physical therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy, and nursing and home care. Common types of birth/obstetrical malpractice cases involve:
- birth trauma resulting from improper use of forceps or suction;
- vaginal birth after a cesarean section, resulting in a ruptured uterus and possible death or hysterectomy;
- delay in diagnosis of fetal distress, despite fetal monitoring information;
- delay in performing a C-section;
- brain injury resulting from lack of oxygen (brain hypoxia) or spinal cord damage;
- cerebral palsy from medical and hospital errors;
- premature birth resulting from a urinary tract infection, incompetent cervix, or other condition that could have been treated;
- necrotizing enterocolitis (bowel infection), bleeding in the brain, or lung problems resulting from an unnecessary premature birth;
- failure to monitor a mother with gestational diabetes;
- failure to identify macrosomia, a condition where the baby's head and shoulders are too large to pass through the birth canal;
- spinal cord injuries; and
- maternal Group B Strep infection.
If you, your child, or a loved one have experienced any of these conditions during or following child birth, we can obtain the necessary medical records and have an expert physician review the file free of charge to determine whether a doctor or other healthcare provider was negligent.
Emergency Room Errors
Patients go to emergency rooms believing that they will get good medical care from well-trained doctors and nurses when it is urgently needed. Although most emergency room doctors and nurses do their very best to get you healthy, inattention and carelessness all too often result in permanent injury or death in emergency rooms in Atlanta and throughout Georgia. Improperly read x-rays, CAT scans, and MRIs can have devastating consequences. And when these mistakes happen in an emergency room, they can be fatal. Lack of communication between doctors, nurses and technicians have caused countless injuries to patients who come to an emergency room seeking life-saving help.
Infections and Bleeding
Maintaining a clean and sterile environment in operating rooms at all times is critical to preventing infection. The human body’s internal organs are particularly susceptible to infection during an operation, and failing to take the proper steps to ensure a sanitary operating room environment can have fatal consequences. Blood transfusion related injuries are also common, mainly when patients are given the incorrect blood type in emergency medical situations. All patients should be closely monitored to prevent infection and excessive bleeding, but too often these basic precautions are neglected by surgeons, nurses and other hospital support staff.
Medication Errors
An increasingly common form of medical malpractice involves medication errors, including incorrect medications, mistaken doses of medications, wrong combinations of medications, or medications to which the patient is allergic. Medication errors also occur when the pharmacies or pharmacists filling a prescription give patients the wrong medicines.
Medical malpractice victims may be entitled to compensation.
The level of injury to the patient is used to determine damages, or the monetary value of a case. The experienced Atlanta personal injury and wrongful death attorneys at Davis Adams can help determine the types of damages a medical malpractice victim may be entitled to receive, including:
- medical bills;
- medical monitoring;
- pain and suffering;
- lost wages;
- impairment of earning capacity;
- life care/lifestyle changes; and
- punitive damages.
Our team strategy maximizes client service and case results.
At Davis Adams, all cases are handled jointly by Jess Davis and Chad Adams. This collaborative, team approach distinguishes our firm from most others, where work is largely handled by a single, less experienced associate (or sometimes a non-attorney "case manager"), and where experienced trial lawyers only get involved in the later stages of the case, if at all. Our clients profit from our hands-on team approach because from the very start they get the collective time, attention, energy, and experience of the attorneys who will be handling their case at trial, which translates to better results.
To learn more about the advantages of working with Davis Adams, please see the questions you should always ask before hiring a lawyer, as well as the pledge we make to every client we represent.
We do not accept payment unless the client recovers money.
The Georgia personal injury and wrongful death lawyers at Davis Adams represent individuals on a contingency basis, which means that if we do not recover money for our client, we will not accept payment for our services.
We always provide a free initial consultation.
When another person's carelessness causes serious and life-changing injuries, the victim should not have to face the consequences alone. Fairness and justice demand that the responsible party be held accountable, and that the injured party be appropriately compensated. If you or a loved one have been injured by someone else's misconduct, please contact the Atlanta personal injury and wrongful death lawyers at Davis Adams for a free, no obligation consultation. You will speak directly to Jess Davis or Chad Adams. Please call us now and let us begin helping you.
