Bronx Medical Malpractice Lawyer

Doctors are required to take an oath to do no harm, but from time to time, serious mistakes can occur in hospitals, medical offices, and clinics. Sadly, the effects of medical malpractice can be devastating to patients who are counting on treatment to get better, not worse.

Who to Turn To

If you or a loved one has been a victim of medical malpractice, you need to take action by consulting a Bronx medical malpractice lawyer like Evan W. Kohn. In some cases, victims may be entitled to monetary damages. For this reason, you should have Mr. Kohn review your case.

Common Types of Medical Malpractice Cases We Handle

Medical malpractice happens more often then we think

“First do no harm.” That’s part of the oath that doctors take. Most healthcare providers take that oath and your trust in them very seriously. Even so, no one is perfect.

Mistakes occur in hospitals, medical offices, labs, and clinics. Medical malpractice is when a medical error is due to a healthcare provider’s negligence.

Some of the most common medical malpractice cases involve:

• Lasik vision correction surgery
• Improper delivery of a baby and birth injuries
• Erb’s palsy and other brachial palsies
• Failure to properly diagnose cancer
• Brain damage
• Surgical error
• Serious injuries from medical mistakes
• Misdiagnoses
• Medical procedure and surgical errors
• Medical negligence
• Medication errors
• Hospital, medical facility, hospital staff, and clinic errors

To bring a medical malpractice claim, you must prove that the healthcare provider failed to care for you according to accepted medical standards. You must also prove that as a result of the medical malpractice, your condition has gotten worse.

During this difficult time in your life, you have enough on your mind without having to worry about taking legal action against the medical professional who caused your injuries. Instead of handling matters on your own, contact Evan W. Kohn to enlist the services of a lawyer who is compassionate, understanding, and ready to help you recover from your physical, emotional, and financial hardships.

Get a Free Consultation with a Bronx Medical Malpractice Lawyer

Contact the Law Office of Evan W. Kohn today. During your free consultation, Evan W. Kohn will be happy to give you direction on how you should proceed with your case. He will also answer any questions you may have.

Medical Malpractice Lawyer in the Bronx

No one anticipates suffering a medical malpractice injury. And while some instances of medical malpractice are easily spotted, others are not so obvious. The moment you believe you may be a victim of medical negligence, you need to contact a medical abuse attorney at law in the Bronx. The statute of limitations for medical malpractice injuries is 2.5 years. This means that if you fail to take action within this time frame, you may be barred from recovering damages.

Signs of Medical Malpractice

When determining if you are indeed the victim of medical malpractice, look for these signs:

• Treatment is not working — If you are undergoing treatment for an illness or injury, you should see results after a period of time. If your condition fails to improve, or worse yet you notice negative side effects, contact your physician immediately. You may have been misdiagnosed and therefor mis-prescribed medication and treatment.
• Your symptoms do not correspond to your diagnosis — Should your doctor diagnose you with a certain illness, you should have at least some of the symptoms associated with that condition. If you do not have any symptoms related to the condition you are diagnosed with, be sure to seek a second opinion.
• You received two different diagnoses from two different health care professionals — If you receive two different diagnoses from two different medical professionals, clearly someone is wrong.
• Your physician diagnosed your condition with results only from a lab test — Your doctor should use various tests to pinpoint your condition. Do not trust a simple lab test as the only diagnosis for your condition.
• Your doctor does not give your concerns enough attention — Your doctor should listen to your concerns and explain the treatment plan ahead. A medical professional who dismisses your concerns may also be prone to acts of medical malpractice.

Medical malpractice can happen to anyone. Based on the extent of your injuries, you may require long-term care. With the help of an experienced attorney, however, you may be able to recover rightful compensation.

Health Professionals You can Hold Accountable

Depending on your condition and the medical doctors and staff that treat you, any of the following parties may be liable for your malpractice injury:

• Surgeons
• Nurses
• Hospitals
• Primary care/ specialist physicians

Dentists, anesthesiologists, and other medical professionals may also be liable. If you think you suffered harm at the hands of any type of doctor, nurse, or physician’s assistant, seek legal help as soon as possible.

Common Diagnostic Mistakes Medical Professional Make

Bad diagnostic procedures can lead to improper treatment

We trust healthcare professionals to look out for our best interests. We respect their judgment and knowledge. Diagnosing a medical condition can be difficult. Most physicians make every effort to provide a proper diagnosis no matter how difficult, and run tests to confirm their diagnosis.

But, when a doctor does not recognize or diagnose a serious problem, it can be fatal. In New York State, to bring a medical malpractice claim, you must prove that the healthcare provider failed to care for you according to accepted medical standards.

You must also prove that as a result of the medical malpractice, your condition has gotten worse. This is particularly true for improper diagnoses.

Improper diagnoses can change a curable condition to a fatal condition

To prove medical malpractice, you must prove that your physician gave you a wrong diagnosis (misdiagnosis), missed or delayed the diagnosis, or failed to recognize complications. Recently Governor Cuomo signed Lavern’s law, which put a spotlight on medical malpractice related to proper diagnoses. In the case of Lavern Wilkinson, Kings County Hospital’s failure to correctly diagnose her cancer changed a curable cancer into a terminal cancer.

Lavern first went to the hospital in 2010 complaining of chest pain. They told her she was fine. Then she returned to the hospital with a breathing problem in 2012 and doctors discovered her previous X-ray showed a mass that should have been identified during her previous visit. By that time, it was too late. Lavern’s cancer had spread to other vital organs and the damage was irreversible and fatal.

She died a year after getting the correct diagnosis and her family filed a malpractice claim on her behalf. Getting the incorrect diagnosis is more common than you might think. The key to determining whether a diagnostic mistake is malpractice is the acceptable standard of care criteria.

Would medical experts or licensing boards in the physician’s specialty say that the doctor followed the correct procedures? Even if the doctor failed to follow the acceptable standard of care, it may not rise to the level of medical malpractice. If the patient suffered no injury and didn’t get any worse, improper diagnoses may not qualify as medical malpractice.

Gathering the evidence needed to prove you have a medical negligence case that meets these four criteria may be difficult and time consuming. You should contact an experienced Bronx medical malpractice lawyer as soon as possible if you think you are the victim of medical negligence.

How to Know If You Have a Medical Malpractice Case

Determining when a medical error becomes medical malpractice

We trust our healthcare providers to make the right decisions for us. If they prescribe something, we’ll take it. If they say we need surgery, we’ll get the surgery.

Most of the time that’s the right course of action and our trust in them is well founded. Unfortunately, doctors and other medical professionals are not perfect. Sometimes they make errors in diagnosis, treatment, procedures, and managing your health that injures their patients.

You may have a medical malpractice claim if the care provided by a healthcare professional or facility meet the criteria defined by New York law. Even if something went terribly wrong during the course of your medical care, your claim may not meet the criteria that the law requires.

Many medical malpractice lawyers provide free consultations to help you determine if your claim has all the elements that meet the legal standard for medical malpractice.

Legal elements required to prove medical negligence

It can be difficult to prove medical malpractice because New York law has four specific elements needed to prove negligence:

• Legal duty the healthcare provider owed to the patient. Legally, this means that the healthcare provider (doctor, nurse, technician, lab, hospital, clinic, etc.) was obliged to provide reasonable care. This is usually assumed when a doctor or medical facility agrees to treat you.
• The healthcare provider breached that duty. Healthcare providers must provide an “accepted standard of medical care” that would be expected of other reasonable healthcare providers put in a similar situation.
• The patient suffered an injury. You must also prove that you were injured. If you were not injured, legally, there was no negligence regardless of how badly you were treated.
• There is proof that the healthcare provider’s breach caused the injury. Finally, you must prove that your injury resulted from the action (or inaction) of the healthcare provider.

If you can prove your medical negligence claim meets these criteria, you may be eligible for monetary compensation (damages). The amount of damages that you receive is based on the extent of injuries that were due to the healthcare provider’s behavior.

Gathering the documentation needed to prove that you have a medical malpractice case can be difficult and time-consuming. You should contact a medical malpractice lawyer in the Bronx as soon as possible if you think you are the victim of medical malpractice.

Proving Medical Negligence

You should consult a Bronx medical malpractice lawyer if you have serious injuries from these mistakes by healthcare providers:

• Misreading or ignoring laboratory results
• Misdiagnoses or failure to recognize symptoms
• Surgical errors such as unnecessary surgery, procedure errors or surgery on the wrong site
• Improper treatment, such as not ordering appropriate tests, poor follow up and aftercare, etc.
• Injury to the mother or child during birth
• Premature discharge from the hospital or rehab facility
• Disregarding or not taking the appropriate patient history
• Prescription dosage and other medication errors
• Failure to properly monitor
• Hospital, urgent care, clinic or other medical facility errors
• Not informing or misinforming about health risks of a procedure or medication

Gathering the documentation needed to prove you have a medical malpractice case can be difficult and time-consuming.

Since the statute of limitations is relatively short on medical malpractice cases (30 months), it’s important to contact an experienced Bronx medical malpractice lawyer as soon as possible after the medical malpractice occurs.

Who is Liable in Medical Malpractice Claims?

Healthcare providers can make simple mistakes with severe consequences

Though the oath that doctors take says, “First do no harm,” mistakes occur in hospitals, medical offices, labs, pharmacies and clinics that have fatal or life-altering consequences. Ten percent of deaths in the USA are caused by medical errors or mistakes, making medical errors the third-leading cause of death in the USA.

Medical malpractice is when a medical error is due to a healthcare provider’s negligence. Some of the most common medical malpractice cases involve:

• Misreading or ignoring laboratory results
• Misdiagnoses or failure to recognize symptoms
• Surgical errors such as unnecessary surgery, surgical procedure errors or surgery on the wrong site
• Improper treatment, such as not ordering appropriate tests, poor follow up and aftercare, etc.
• Injury to the mother or child during birth
• Premature discharge from the hospital or rehab facility
• Disregarding or not taking the appropriate patient history
• Prescription dosage and other medication errors
• Failure to properly monitor
• Hospital, urgent care, clinic or other medical facility errors
• Not informing or misinforming about health risks of a procedure or medication

If you are a victim of medical malpractice, you may be entitled to compensation for your injuries.

Healthcare providers can make simple mistakes with serious consequences

To prove the healthcare provider was negligent under New York law, you must prove that the healthcare provider violated the accepted standard of medical care. Then you must prove that you were injured due to that violation and that the injury was significant and/or made worse due to the healthcare provider’s negligence.

Here are some examples of scenarios where healthcare professionals and facilities can be held liable for malpractice:

• Doctors. Medical malpractice cases against doctors are the most common. Your doctor oversees your care and leads your medical team. If your doctor does not correctly diagnose your condition or delays treatment, it may be considered negligence and could be grounds for a medical malpractice claim.
• Anesthesiologists. Malpractice claims against anesthesiologists are also common. Typically, they do not have a relationship with the patient or briefly meet with the patient just prior to administering anesthesia. It’s all too common for an anesthesiologist to forget to check the patient’s history for allergic or other adverse drug reactions that can do serious harm to kidneys or other organs. Administering an improper dosage of anesthesia can cause an overdose or other injuries.
• Hospitals. When hospitals fail to monitor or train their staff or don’t hire properly trained medical professionals, the results can be disastrous medical errors or negligence. Some hospitals that are owned by public corporations seem to worry more about their stockholders’ wealth than their patients’ well-being.

An Experienced Bronx Medical Malpractice Lawyer Can Help You

Gathering the documentation needed to prove you have a medical malpractice case can be difficult and time-consuming. Since the statute of limitations is relatively short on medical malpractice cases (30 months), it’s important to contact an experienced medical abuse attorney at law in the Bronx as soon as possible after the medical malpractice occurs.

If your case meets the legal criteria, your Bronx medical malpractice lawyer can help you file a medical malpractice claim in court. If you win your case, the court can award you monetary damages.

Documents to Have for a Bronx Medical Malpractice Case

When you go to the hospital, the last thing you expect is to suffer further injury. Unfortunately, doctors, nurses, anesthesiologists, and other medical professionals make mistakes. If you believe you are the victim of medical malpractice in New York, consult with a skilled Bronx medical malpractice lawyer as soon as possible.

Prior to meeting with your lawyer in person, you should gather the following documents:

• Medical records — You definitely want a copy of your medical records. Make sure you have the most recent records for your medical malpractice injury, the records for the condition that sent you to the hospital in the first place, and records for any pre-existing conditions that may affect your case. A detailed medical history is the cornerstone of a solid medical malpractice case.
• Medical bills — To ensure you are properly compensated for medical expenses, be sure to bring copies of all medical bills corresponding to your malpractice injury. Without medical bills, you will have difficulty obtaining reimbursement for any procedures that were performed in order to treat your malpractice injury.
• Insurance and Medicare — You will also want to have copies of insurance reports and anything covered by Medicare.
• Receipts for out-of-pocket expenses — Depending on the circumstances of your case, you may have needed to pay for certain procedures or treatments out of pocket. In order to recover compensation for these expenses, you will need to show documentation.
• Evidence of lost income — Based on the extent of your injuries, you may be unable to return to work for some time. It is a good idea to log any workdays or employment opportunities you miss as a result of your condition.
• Photographs — If you have photos of your injuries or anything related to your malpractice case, make sure you provide your attorney with copies.

If you are injured by a negligent doctor, nurse, or other healthcare professional, you can increase your chances of recovering rightful compensation by compiling a detailed list of records, expenses, and other information regarding the incident.

Collecting Damages for Medical Malpractice

If you are a victim of medical malpractice you may entitled to compensation for your injuries. First, you have to prove that the healthcare provider was negligent according to the criteria defined by New York law. Under New York law, you must prove that the healthcare provider violated the accepted standard of medical care.

Then you must prove that you were injured due to that violation and that the injury was significant and/or made worse due to the negligence. If your case meets the legal criteria, our medical malpractice lawyer in the Bronx can help you file a claim in court. If you win your case, the court can award you monetary damages.

New York Statute of Limitations for Medical Malpractice

In New York, if you miss the deadline, you lose your right to sue

You trust your healthcare providers to help you feel better, not worse. When you are injured by a healthcare provider, it is a violation of that trust. Worse, medical malpractice can have a long-lasting, life-altering impact. Victims of medical malpractice or their families may be entitled to financial compensation for their injury or loss.

New York State law places a statute of limitations on being able to sue for medical malpractice. To ensure you receive compensation for your injuries, you must file within 30 months (2.5 years) after the incident. The 30-month period starts on the date when the action took place or at the end of treatment.

Special Discovery Rule Malpractice Cases in New York

There are also some special cases where the timeline may be shorter or longer. For example, there is a special discovery rule for finding a foreign object after a procedure. Patients can file these complaints up to a year after the object is discovered.

A new law (called Lavern’s Law) was passed in January 2018. This law extends the discovery rule for malpractice claims involving cancer diagnoses. If you discover a doctor failed to diagnose cancer, you have seven years to file a claim.

If you miss the filing deadline for any medical malpractice case, you will probably lose your right to sue the healthcare provider or facility.

Medical Malpractice Includes Many Types of Errors and Negligence

To bring a medical malpractice claim, you must prove that the healthcare provider failed to care for you according to accepted medical standards. You must also prove that as a result of the medical malpractice, your condition has gotten worse. You should consult a Bronx medical malpractice lawyer if you believe you have a medical malpractice case related to:

• Serious injuries from medical mistakes
• Misdiagnoses or improper treatment
• Injury to the mother or child during birth
• Prescription or medication errors
• Medical procedure and surgical errors
• Medical negligence or failure to properly monitor
• Hospital, urgent care, clinic or other medical facility errors
• Not informing or misinforming about health risks of a procedure or medication

Gathering the documentation needed to prove you have a medical malpractice case can be difficult and time consuming. Since the statute of limitations is relatively short for medical malpractice cases, it’s important to contact an experienced Bronx medical malpractice lawyer as soon as possible after the medical malpractice occurs.

Victim of Medical malpractice? Talk to a Bronx Medical Malpractice Lawyer

Contact Bronx attorney Evan W. Kohn for a free medical malpractice consultation. He can help you get appropriate compensation for your physical, emotional and financial injuries.

With more than 35 years of experience helping people in the Bronx get the justice they deserve, Evan W. Kohn treats clients with compassion and aggressively pursue their interests. Contact The Law Offices of Evan W. Kohn online or call 718-409-5500 to arrange a free medical malpractice consultation about your case. Zoom and Skype consultations are also available during the Covid-19 pandemic.

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