About Midwest Injury Lawyers
Midwest Injury Lawyers pride ourselves on delivering successful results to injured parties and their families. If you are a victim of medical malpractice, you can count on our team of accomplished Chicago medical malpractice lawyers to seek full and fair compensation on your behalf. We have what it takes to stand up to large, powerful medical corporations and their insurance companies.
No one should attempt to resolve a medical malpractice claim without an experienced attorney. Insurance companies have the advantage of expert resources—and so should you. When you need a Chicago medical malpractice attorney to go to bat for you, look no further than Midwest Injury Lawyers.
What Is Medical Malpractice?
According to one study, over 250,000 people in the U.S. suffer fatal injuries yearly due to medical errors and negligence. This makes medical malpractice the third-leading cause of death in the United States.
But how does the law define medical malpractice?
Doctors are human, and they make mistakes like everyone else. Sometimes, errors occur during treatment despite a medical professional’s best efforts. If doctors faced financial liability for every mistake they made, lawsuits might terrify them too much to properly perform their jobs. Therefore, the law only holds doctors liable when their errors rise to the level of medical malpractice.
Medical malpractice is a legal term that refers to any act or omission by a healthcare professional that deviates from the accepted standards of medical practice and causes injury or harm to a patient. Simply put, it is a form of negligence by healthcare professionals or institutions that leads to medical errors and adverse patient outcomes.
Medical malpractice can occur in various healthcare settings, including hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, and private practices. It can involve many healthcare professionals, including doctors, nurses, dentists, pharmacists, therapists, and other medical practitioners.
Medical malpractice generally requires the presence of these elements:
- Duty: The healthcare professional must have a duty to provide care to the patient. This duty may arise from an explicit agreement between the healthcare professional and the patient, or the circumstances may imply it.
- Breach of duty: The healthcare professional must have breached the duty of care by failing to follow the accepted standards of medical practice. This may involve a failure to diagnose, misdiagnosis, delayed diagnosis, surgical errors, medication errors, or other forms of negligence.
- Causation: The breach of duty must have caused harm or injury to the patient. You must demonstrate that the harm might not have occurred if the healthcare professional had not breached the duty of care.
- Damages: The patient must have suffered actual damages or losses due to the harm or injury caused by the breach of duty. This may include physical injuries, emotional distress, loss of income, or other forms of harm.
A doctor’s duty is to provide care that complies with the accepted medical standard of care. Each profession has standards of care, and medicine is no different. The standard of care for medicine requires a professional to act in a manner another similarly trained doctor should act, given the circumstances.
Doctors do not have to know everything about every medical specialty. The law compares doctors to other reasonable professionals in their same specialty. Further, general practitioners and emergency physicians will have a different standard of care to meet than specialists. Proving a medical professional deviated from the standard of care requires technical medical analysis, and our firm has a network of experts who assist with these claims.
Medical malpractice can be a complex and difficult area of law, and anyone who believes they suffered medical injuries should seek legal advice. Medical malpractice lawsuits might be against healthcare professionals, healthcare institutions, or both, depending on the circumstances. You need a law firm with the resources to prove medical negligence.
Examples of Medical Malpractice
When patients go to the hospital or to see their doctor, they do so to try to stabilize or improve their health. Yet, when doctors or other medical professionals fail to meet the expected standard of care and cause severe harm to the patient, they can be liable for medical malpractice.
Examples of specific types of medical malpractice include:
Wrong patient surgery
When surgeons perform the wrong procedure on the wrong patient.
Wrong-site surgery
When surgeons perform surgery on the wrong body part, such as removing the wrong kidney.
Dosage errors
Nurses might administer improper dosage, or pharmacists might prescribe the incorrect dose.
Prescribing drugs that interact with medications the patient is already taking
This often happens when doctors do not inquire about current medications.
Prescribing the wrong medications
This can cause adverse reactions and also deprives the patient of the benefits of the correct medication.
Birth injury - Both infants and mothers can suffer many injuries due to mistakes during pregnancy, labor, delivery, and neonatal care.
Misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis
If a doctor fails to properly diagnose a patient in a timely manner, their condition can worsen significantly before the correct diagnosis.
Failure to treat
Some doctors might fail to treat emergency conditions immediately, or a hospital might prematurely discharge a patient without complete treatment.
Sometimes, a hospital can be liable for malpractice vicariously or directly. A hospital has vicarious liability for the negligence of healthcare professionals it employs. Direct malpractice occurs when the hospital itself has committed malpractice.
Direct hospital malpractice examples include:
Failing to use reasonable care to maintain safe and adequate equipment and facilities
Failing to hire and keep only competent doctors and medical staff
Failing to oversee all people who practice medicine under its charge regarding patient care
Failure to draft, adopt, and enforce adequate policies and procedures to ensure quality care for their patients
Whether you suffered injuries due to an individual provider or a major healthcare facility, our team at Midwest Injury Lawyers is ready to fight for your rights.
Pre-Suit Requirements in Medical Malpractice Cases
Although medical malpractice is a personal injury claim, it is often much more complicated, necessitating an experienced Chicago medical malpractice lawyer to represent the victim and their family.
Under Illinois law, your attorney must first perform a pre-suit investigation to determine who was negligent. If they can’t finalize this investigation within the original deadline, they can ask for a one- 90-day extension. It’s possible that during this time, the parties may attempt settlement negotiations.
During the pre-suit investigation, the injured party’s medical malpractice attorney must provide each potential defendant (at-fault party) notice of intent to initiate litigation before they proceed in court. The at-fault parties are allowed to ask the other party questions to investigate potential liability.
Suppose one or both parties fail to follow the pre-suit notice, investigation, and discovery procedures. In that case, the court has the authority to dismiss any claims or defenses that may arise. These pre-suit requirements in medical malpractice cases can become quite complicated, and you should always hire a seasoned Chicago medical malpractice lawyer who knows how to handle them.
Medical Malpractice Statute of Limitations
In Illinois subjects most medical malpractice claims to a two-year statute of limitations. This generally gives you only two years from the date you sustained the injury to bring a medical malpractice lawsuit. Some exceptions may make your deadline longer or shorter.
Regardless, if you miss this deadline, you cannot use the court system to recover compensation. Call us today to ensure you meet the deadline and preserve all of the evidence in your case.
Damages in Medical Negligence and Malpractice Claims
Whether a victim has a medical negligence or medical malpractice claim on their hands, their damages can be quite similar.
Economic or special damages might include:
- Lost earnings and income
- Additional medical expenses
- Prescriptions
- Medical devices or equipment
Non-economic or general damages might include:
- Pain and suffering
- Scarring and disfigurement
- Mental anguish
- Loss of consortium
- Loss of enjoyment of life
However, depending on the details of a medical malpractice case, the court may order the at-fault party to pay the victim punitive damages. These damages are rare and reserved for parties who act especially recklessly and disregard common sense for public safety.
For example, the surgical team that cuts corners by not sterilizing equipment can face punitive damages. To receive these types of damages, the victim’s medical malpractice attorney must request them from the court, and the court must agree that their behavior was deliberate and egregious.
Chicago Medical Malpractice FAQs
When a loved one dies because of a medical professional’s negligence, the surviving family members can file a wrongful death claim to receive financial compensation. The court will appoint one if the deceased person didn’t select a personal representative before their death. Usually, this person is a spouse, parent, adult child, adult sibling, or another closely related adult family member.
Experienced Chicago medical malpractice attorneys can help you determine which family member should file a wrongful death claim on behalf of your deceased loved one.
Sometimes, an injured individual isn’t satisfied with the settlement offers presented to them by the insurance company, or the insurance company refuses to offer any settlement at all. Despite many rounds of negotiations, the two parties cannot agree on how much of a settlement is fair.
Under these circumstances, your Chicago medical malpractice attorney will let you decide whether to accept a settlement or pursue your claim in court. Your attorney can also offer advice about what they think you should do based on past experiences. However, the decision is ultimately yours.
If the insurance company refuses to offer you a fair settlement, and you have a strong case, you might need to file a medical malpractice lawsuit.
However, it often benefits both the injured and the at-fault parties to settle the claim out of court.
By doing so, they can:
- Decrease their legal expenses
- Resolve the claim sooner
- Have more control over the outcome—the at-fault party’s insurance company Will not risk paying more than they want to, and the injured party won’t risk receiving less than they want
Did You or Someone You Love Suffer a Medical Injury? Meet With Our Chicago Medical Malpractice Attorneys at Midwest Injury Lawyers Today
An injury at the hands of a medical provider or facility entrusted with your care can feel like an extreme betrayal. When you call our team, we will perform a thorough investigation to determine what happened. Reach out to a Chicago personal injury lawyer. Whether you suffered an injury due to medical negligence or medical malpractice, we will hold the correct parties liable for their actions. We are ready to go up against individual doctors, huge medical facilities, and everything in between.
You deserve full and fair compensation for your damages, and we make it our mission to obtain that for you. Our compassionate Chicago medical malpractice injury attorneys are here for you and your family. We offer complimentary case evaluations. You can contact us today by phone at (312) 786-5881 or online.
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Midwest Injury Lawyers – Chicago Office
155 N Upper Wacker Drive, Suite 4250
Chicago, IL 60606
P: (312) 786-5881
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