Whenever you are forced to visit an emergency room in Lake County, you reasonably expect to receive timely and competent care. In every instance, the doctors and nurses in these departments have a professional and legal obligation to provide such care. A failure to perform in an appropriate manner that causes a new injury or worsens an already existing condition may be an example of medical malpractice.
A Lake County emergency room errors lawyer could help you and your family to pursue medical malpractice cases against negligent medical providers. Throughout your case, a knowledgeable medical malpractice attorney could work with you to gather evidence, retain a qualified medical expert, and demand appropriate compensation for your losses.
How Might an Injury Occur in an Emergency Room?
While emergency rooms do provide appropriate care to most of their patients, errors may eventually occur that cause new conditions or worsen old ones. Examples of new conditions that a mistake in the ER may cause include:
- Improperly set broken bones
- Infections that result from dirty IV lines or airborne pathogens
- Emergency surgeries where a doctor leaves an instrument inside a patient
These situations may create new and dangerous medical problems that may require extensive further treatment or even jeopardize a patient’s life. In addition, a second class of ER negligence can involve a failure to diagnose an existing condition.
Doctors and nurses in ERs have a duty to appropriately triage all patients under their care. If a patient complains of a potentially life-threatening condition but is made to inappropriately wait for treatment, this may cause an avoidable deterioration in their health.
Furthermore, doctors have a duty to accurately diagnose their patients. If a patient complains of a certain set of symptoms and a doctor digresses from an accepted path of testing, this may result in a misdiagnosis that causes delayed treatment and great harm. A Lake County emergency room errors attorney could help clients to evaluate their injuries and to determine if doctor malpractice was the source.
What a Plaintiff Must Prove to Win a Case
Medical malpractice cases are similar in many respects to other personal injury claims. A plaintiff must prove that another party’s negligence was responsible for inflicting their injuries. However, unlike in many other injury claims, a plaintiff in an ER errors case must specifically prove that their doctor failed to provide a legal definition of appropriate care.
Illinois Jury Instruction 105.01 states that any medical professional must perform their job with the level of “…skill, care, and knowledge used by a reasonably careful [peer].” This means that all doctors and nurses must act as a competent co-worker could do under similar circumstances.
To accomplish this, a plaintiff must rely upon the testimony of a medical expert. Because the case will likely revolve around questions of medical science, only a qualified expert can speak intelligently as to whether malpractice occurred. Not only must a plaintiff rely upon this expert at trial, they must consult with this expert before even taking a case to court.
735 Illinois Compiled Statutes 5/2-622 states that any case alleging medical malpractice must include an affidavit signed by the expert witness. This expert must state that in their opinion there is a good cause for a malpractice claim in the case. As part of their services, emergency room mistakes lawyer in Lake County could help plaintiffs meet these experts and find one with whom they could work together for mutual benefit.
Contact a Lake County Emergency Room Errors Attorney Today
Suffering an injury or illness that requires a visit to an emergency room is bad enough, but when this visit results in a worsening of the condition or even the onset of a new malady, the results may be disastrous. Doctors or nurses who fail in their duties to protect their patients from these harms may commit malpractice, and a Lake County emergency room errors lawyer may be able to pursue these negligent doctors on your behalf.
Whether it includes the gathering of evidence, the formulation of demand packages, or hiring a medical expert who can prove your case in court, a dedicated attorney could help you. Call today to set up a consultation and discuss your case.
