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In many ways, the American medical system is a modern miracle. Highly trained specialists use their knowledge and sophisticated medical equipment and devices to perform procedures and save or enhance lives in ways that were fantasies only a few years ago. But, too often, even simple procedures go awry.
The Institute of Medicine estimates that at least 1.5 million preventable “adverse drug events” occur each year. That’s what happens when a physician prescribes the wrong medication, when a pharmacist fails to notice that the drug might be inappropriate or when a nurse misreads what a physician has prescribed. Those errors most often result in patient discomfort or an extended period of illness or convalescence. But they can be truly catastrophic, resulting in paralysis, serious brain injury or death.
Medical Errors Happen All Too Often
Other medical errors are common:
An emergency room physician diagnoses heartburn when a patient has had a mild heart attack, so that a problem that might have been treated leads to a more severe, fatal episode. An anesthesiologist miscalculates the type or amount of sedation that is needed, and a patient suffers brain damage. A nurse miscounts the gauze pads used in surgery, and one is left inside a patient, leading to a serious infection. A pathologist concludes a skin growth is a relatively benign basal cell cancer only to discover too late that it is a deadly melanoma. In fact, the errors are so common that the American Medical Association and other health care organizations have formed the National Patient Safety Foundation specifically to address the problem of medical mistakes.
When You're the One Hurt by Medical Negligence in Atlanta
They are developing strategies to make such mistakes less common. If you or a loved one is the victim of such an error, however, the Dover Law Firm stands ready to see that you are compensated fairly for your injuries. Proving medical negligence and the extent of the harm it caused is an arduous process that even few medication malpractice lawyers in Atlanta have the skill and experience to accomplish. Our staff includes a physician with a law degree to help us analyze your case and direct us to the medical professionals whose testimony can best explain the errors that caused your injuries.
That explanation can be very complicated and may require extensive study for us to understand it and develop an appropriate legal strategy. Yet it must be reduced to its simplest form so that jurors, who are unlikely to have any familiarity with scientific and medical terms, can grasp it and apply their common sense to the case. Our Atlanta malpractice lawyers know that a “myocardial infarction” is a heart attack, and we know how to get experts to translate the very technical terms that often appear in medical records to concepts the layman can comprehend.
How a Medical Malpractice Attorney in Atlanta Can Help You
Quite apart from the medical and scientific aspects of the case, medical malpractice litigation has a legal language all its own that must be translated for jurors as well. Our Georgia attorneys for medical negligence know how to tell a jury what the “standard of care” for a particular procedure really means and show that a defendant is responsible for your injuries because he did not meet it.
A medical malpractice or medication negligence case requires far more than proof that an injury occurred because a physician, nurse or hospital failed to meet the standard of care. Often, it is necessary for rehabilitation specialists to describe the extent of your physical and emotional injuries and for vocational and financial consultants to put your medical expenses and lost wages, not to mention your pain and suffering, in real economic terms.
Call us today so that we can put our medical / medication malpractice lawyers in Atlanta and their special skills in this area to work for you. Also, be sure to order one of our many free books and reports.