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When medical malpractice occurs, the results are usually life-altering. It can not only cause more injury and physical pain to the victim, but it can affect the lives of your family. If you were the victim of medical negligence, you will need to use a Washington, DC medical malpractice lawyer fighting on your behalf so you can receive the maximum amount of compensation for your injuries.
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Medical malpractice cases are, unfortunately, a common occurrence in the United States, especially in Washington, DC. It occurs when a medical professional, such as a physician, nurse, home health care provider, or physical or occupational therapist, has breached their duty of care by providing care and treatment in a careless or negligent manner, causing serious injury or death. When this occurs, victims and their families may be able to pursue a personal injury claim to seek the justice and compensation they are entitled.
It can be difficult to prove medical malpractice. You will need a medical expert to show how your doctor’s actions caused your injuries. But fortunately, a Washington, DC personal injury lawyer at Regan Zambri Long PLLC has the resources available to help you prove your claim.
Our medical malpractice lawyers have handled thousands of cases in the Washington, DC area. As a registered nurse and a practicing medical malpractice lawyer, Partner Jacqueline T. Colclough has both the experience and the medical knowledge that’s needed for these types of negligence claims. We’ve received some of the largest settlements and verdicts for medical malpractice victims in Washington, DC, and we are ready to speak with you today to learn more about your claim and to see how we can help.
Medical malpractice occurs when a patient is injured because the medical professional either acted negligently or failed to act, causing either further injury or serious harm to the life of the patient. For your injury to be considered negligence, your DC medical malpractice attorney will need to show that another medical professional would not have acted in the same manner under the same circumstances.
According to a study conducted by Johns Hopkins Medicine, over an eight-year period, more than 250,000 deaths were caused by a medical error in the United States. It is considered the third-leading cause of death in the U.S. today. Unfortunately, medical malpractice does take its toll on the victim — a study published in the peer-reviewed journal BMJ found that medical errors impact one in every 20 patients every year. The study further found that approximately 12 percent of preventable patient harm results in either a permanent disability or death.
Medical negligence is often unexpected and can be very expensive, leading to financial distress. If the medical error causes physically debilitating injuries, the victim will most likely miss work, losing wages on top of piling medical bills. If the injury is permanent, the victim will lose future wages, as well. Surgical errors can have devastating effects on the victim, including permanent disfigurement, infertility, nerve damage, or paralysis.
Emotional trauma, such as stress, depression, suicidal thoughts, sleeplessness, and anxiety can also play a major role in the victim’s life after they suffered from medical malpractice. The Regan Zambri Long Washington, DC malpractice lawyers have litigated malpractice cases that resulted in the patient’s wrongful death. In these cases, the family members left behind not only have to cope with grief, but many times, they have to deal with the unexpected loss of income. Medical malpractice lawsuits can secure financial damages to help offset the sudden loss of income, funeral expenses, and medical bills.
Medical malpractice comes in several different forms — from a doctor missing a diagnosis to failing to treat a patient properly to nursing home abuse. The most common types of medical malpractice cases our law firm handles include:
Misdiagnosis or Delayed Diagnosis
The most common type of medical malpractice is misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis. This is when the doctor fails to diagnose a condition properly or delays the diagnosis which can seriously impact the patient’s treatment options and even survival rate. For example, cancer is very commonly misdiagnosed or not diagnosed in time. A late diagnosis could lead to the patient missing a window for treatment that may stop the progression of the illness. By failing to diagnose the condition in time, the disease or illness could progress to a point where the patient’s life is at risk and additional treatment will be needed.
A misdiagnosis can cause the patient to be treated inappropriately, causing even more harm to that patient. For example, cancer is commonly misdiagnosed. If the doctor believes a tumor is not malignant and fails to run tests, that tumor can double in size and put the patient’s life at risk.
Surgical Errors
Another type of medical malpractice is a surgical error. A surgical error is known as a “preventable mistake,” because many times, what happens is not a known or expected risk, but was the result of the surgeon’s negligence. Some examples of surgical errors include tools or sponges left inside the body during surgery, ineffective sterilization during surgery, or anesthesia errors that endanger the patient’s life.
Failure to Treat Properly
Other medical malpractice cases include failure to treat a patient properly. This is when doctors diagnose the problem quickly, but fail to treat or prescribe the correct medication. Failure to treat a patient properly could be discharging the patient too soon, lack of follow-up care, prescribing the wrong medication, or incorrect dosage of prescription drugs.
Birth Injuries
Birth injuries can be devastating to a family. Obstetrical malpractice makes up a large portion of medical malpractice cases in Washington, DC, and around the country. Injuries to a baby can occur at any point during pregnancy and many of them cannot be prevented. However, birth injuries due to medical negligence include:
These mistakes, along with many others, can lead to the child being born with nerve damage, spinal cord injuries, and cerebral palsy. Neonatal strokes< occur in up to 1 in 3,500 newborns. Strokes are the most important cause of neurological impairment in children and one of the most common causes of cerebral palsy. If your child suffered an injury at birth or suffered a neonatal stroke due to the negligence of the doctor, a Washington, DC birth injury lawyer at Regan Zambri Long can help you secure financial compensation to offset the medical care your child will need moving forward.
Medication Errors
A medication error has been defined by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a “preventable event” that could lead to harming the patient while under “the control of the health care professional, patient, or consumer.” Common examples of medical malpractice include prescribing the wrong medication or the wrong dosage, a healthcare professional administrating the wrong medication to a patient, and failing to warn patients about the risks associated with the medication.
In medical malpractice lawsuits, the burden of proof, which is the responsibility to prove the claim you made, falls on the victim. This may seem daunting, but if you have a DC medical malpractice lawyer from Regan Zambri Long by your side, you have nothing to fear. Our Washington, DC medical malpractice attorneys will work to determine who is at fault and how to prove it. The party or parties responsible for medical negligence will be unique to your case, but any healthcare provider acting in an official capacity can be held responsible for their own negligence that caused the patient harm. Hospitals can also be liable for allowing unqualified and/or incompetent professionals to care for patients.
Our DC medical malpractice attorneys will collect as much information about your case as possible, including medical records, prescriptions, hospital scans, and medical bills. They will work hard to prove:
Regan Zambri Long’s DC medical malpractice lawyers have won millions for their clients, including an $11 million settlement in a medical malpractice case against a health maintenance organization and hospital after heart surgery. They are experts in complicated malpractice lawsuits and will fiercely defend your rights to compensation.
The medical malpractice legal team at Regan Zambri Long stands out as one of the top legal teams in the Washington, DC area. Led by Partner Jacqueline Colclough, our DC medical malpractice lawyers have years of experience not only handling all types of medical negligence claims.
Medical malpractice claims need the expertise of a medical professional. A medical expert will be able to determine how the negligence affected your long-term health. Our medical malpractice lawyer and her team will look at the timeline of events to discover what happened and how a competent healthcare provider would have handled your situation. Relying on her years of experience as a nurse and as an attorney, Jackie can help you achieve the compensation needed to recover from the injury so you and your family can put the incident behind you.
If you were injured by the negligence of a doctor, hospital, or a member of the medical staff, our Washington, DC medical malpractice lawyer is here to help. Call or contact Regan Zambri Long today to schedule a free consultation.
It’s common to have questions about legal matters. That’s why our medical malpractice attorneys in DC have compiled this list to answer the most common questions we receive about medical negligence.
A: Once you hire our medical malpractice attorney, our first action will be to notify those responsible for your injuries that we will be filing a medical malpractice lawsuit against them. This needs to be done within 90 days before the personal injury lawsuit is filed.
According to the Medical Malpractice Proceedings Act of 2006, all parties in a medical malpractice case may be required to participate in mediation. Mediation is a process where the two opposing parties meet with an impartial and neutral third party to negotiate a resolution. The injured party will need to request mediation through the Multi-Door Dispute Resolution Division. You may also hire and pay for your own mediator if you don’t want the courts to assign a mediator to your case.
If a settlement or resolution cannot be reached during the mediation, the mediator will then submit a report to the court.
A: Some of the more common injuries that are a result of medical malpractice include:
If you believe your injury was a result of negligence by a medical professional, your first course of action is to schedule a free consultation with our medical malpractice lawyer to learn your legal options.
A: Medical malpractice cases must be filed within a specified period of time, called a statute of limitations. The statute of limitations varies depending upon many factors: the place where the medical malpractice occurred; whether the medical malpractice causes death; and when the medical malpractice was discovered. These factors are very fact-specific.
The statute of limitations or the period of time injury victims have to file a medical malpractice claim in Washington, DC is three years. In most cases, that means three years from the date the medical error occurred. However, the three-year clock can also start from the date you discovered you were harmed by a medical error.
To make sure you don’t miss any important deadlines, you should consult with a DC medical malpractice attorney as soon as you have reason to believe that you or a family member may have been a victim of medical malpractice. Once it is outside of the prescribed time period, the victim or the victim’s family members will not be able to pursue a claim and potentially collect compensation.
A: Contributory negligence is when a judge or jury deems the plaintiff (the person who files the claim) responsible for a portion of the injury. Washington, DC is one of the five jurisdictions that still follow the contributory negligence law, along with Virginia and Maryland.
This law is mostly applied to car accidents and product liability cases and is rare in malpractice suits. However, if you are found to be at fault for your injury, even a small percentage, then you will be unable to collect compensation for the medical injury. This is one of the main reasons it is important to have a Washington, DC medical malpractice attorney by your side in case the hospital or medical professional tries to claim you played a role in your injury.
A: If you don’t have a medical background, it is more difficult to completely understand all the dangers and side effects of medications. However, there are some tips you can take into consideration in order to avoid injury due to medication. When you are prescribed medication be sure to ask your doctor the following:
Make sure you are honest with your healthcare professional about any medications you take and about your complete medical history.
A: While there is no set amount for malpractice damages, your Washington, DC medical malpractice lawyer will work hard to secure the maximum amount of financial compensation possible. Damages can include:
The limits on reimbursement for a medical malpractice claim vary from state to state. At this time, there is no cap on compensation for a medical malpractice lawsuit in Washington, DC.
A: The limits on reimbursement for medical malpractice vary from state to state. At this time, there is no cap on compensation for a medical malpractice lawsuit in Washington, DC.
A: If your child is under the age of 18 and sustained injuries caused by medical malpractice, the parents do have the ability to file a medical malpractice lawsuit on their behalf.
A: Each case is different, but a medical malpractice suit is often complicated and can take several years before the case is resolved. However, our medical negligence attorneys have the knowledge, experience, and financial backing to take on large hospitals and insurance companies. You can rest assured that your Washington, DC medical malpractice lawyer will be with you every step of the way.
If you or a loved one has been a victim of medical malpractice, our law firm can help you secure the justice and compensation that you deserve. Any time you believe that negligence played a part in your injury, you should consult with a personal injury attorney in Washington, DC. Remember, the longer you wait, the more likely your case will be outside of the statute of limitations in Washington, DC, and you will likely not be able to pursue a claim and potentially collect compensation.
Our Washington DC personal injury lawyers have recovered millions of dollars in compensation for our clients. Backed by more than 100 years of combined experience, our firm has an established reputation for pursuing legal excellence. As our client, you will enjoy peace of mind in knowing that your rights will be protected from start to finish. We will do everything in our power to secure the maximum compensation you need to pay for injury-related expenses, such as medical care and lost income, as well as full compensation for all of the physical and emotional consequences of your injuries.
Don’t navigate a medical malpractice case by yourself. At Regan Zambri Long PLLC, our medical malpractice attorneys in Washington, DC have investigated and litigated hundreds of cases involving medical malpractice. Our law firm has obtained significant settlements and verdicts for our clients, providing them with the financial resources to put their lives back together.
Regan Zambri Long Personal Injury Lawyers, PLLC
1919 M St NW Suite 350
Washington, DC 20036
