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Medical Malpractice Injuries are often caused by:

• Failure To Diagnose Or Treat
• Inappropriate Or Negligent Surgery
• Birth Injuries

Medical mistakes are neither rare nor isolated. According to a July 2000 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, it is estimated that 225,000 people die in hospitals each year due to medical mistakes. To put that number in context, it is more than the number of people who are killed annually by auto accidents, breast cancer, etc.

Medical malpractice is a serious and long standing problem, causing virtually every type of serious injury, including, among others, birth trauma, brain damage, development and/or progression of cancer from delay in diagnosing it, cerebral palsy, heart attacks, stroke, quadriplegia, paraplegia, other spinal cord and nerve injuries and death.

Attorneys at Coker, Schickel, Sorenson & Posgay know that serious injuries related to medical malpractice can be devastating and that financial losses due to such injuries can be a catastrophic blow to any family. Our goal is to obtain prompt, just and fair compensation for all of our client's losses, including the recovery of medical expenses, lost wages and related financial losses, the cost of future care, and compensation for physical and emotional pain and suffering.

Do you believe that you or a loved one been injured due to what may be medical malpractice? Do you know what really happened? Coker, Schickel, Sorenson & Posgay represents clients in a wide variety of complex medical malpractice cases. The most common medical errors include failure to treat or diagnose infection, cancer or heart disease, the performance of inappropriate or negligent surgery. Our firm’s decades-long experience in litigating complex medical malpractice cases permits us to promptly and thoroughly assess and prosecute even the most demanding medical malpractice cases.

Medical malpractice occurs when a negligent act or omission by a doctor or other medical professional results in damage or harm to a patient. Negligence by a medical professional could include an error in a diagnosis, treatment or illness management. If such negligence results in injury to a patient, a case could arise against the doctor if his or her actions deviated from generally accepted standards of practice; against the hospital for improper care, such as problems with medications, sanitation or nursing care; or against local, state or federal agencies that operate hospital facilities.

Most medical malpractice cases proceed under the theory that a medical professional was negligent in treating the patient. To establish medical negligence, an injured patient, the plaintiff, must prove:

• The existence of a duty owed by the health care professional to the plaintiff (for example, a doctor/patient relationship).
• The applicable standard of care, and the health care professional's deviation from that standard, which is deemed a breach of the duty owed to the patient.
• A connection between the health care professional's deviation from the standard of care and the patient's injury.
• Injury or harm to the patient.

One of the most important aspects of a medical malpractice action is establishing the standard of care to be applied to the health care professional. To find a medical professional legally at fault, it must be shown that his or her conduct fell below a generally accepted standard of medical care. To establish the standard to be applied, the plaintiff must present expert testimony not only as to the standard of care applicable, but that also establishes that the defendant failed to meet the standard. In cases where the defendant's violation of a standard of medical care is so apparent as to be comprehensible to the average person, expert testimony may not be required.

Another element of medical malpractice actions, causation, is sometimes difficult to establish. Specifically, the plaintiff must show that his or her health care provider's deviation from the applicable standard of care resulted in his or her injury. This is challenging because sometimes there may be other factors that contributed to the plaintiff's eventual injury.

In many situations, the failure to obtain a patient's "informed consent" relative to a procedure or treatment is a form of medical negligence, and may even give rise to a cause of action for battery. Although the specific definition of informed consent may vary from state to state, it means essentially that a physician (or other medical provider) must inform the patient all of the potential benefits, risks and alternatives involved in any surgical procedure, medical procedure or other course of treatment, and must obtain the patient's consent for proposed treatment.

Although doctors very rarely promise specific results from procedures or treatments, in some cases they do, and the failure to produce the promised results may give rise to an action for breach of contract or breach of warranty. For example, a plastic surgeon may promise a patient a certain result, which result may be judged more easily than other types of medical results, simply by viewing the patient. Similarly, if a patient is not satisfied with the outcome of a procedure and the physician had guaranteed or warranted a certain result, the patient may attempt to recover under a possible breach of warranty.

Why Medical Malpractice Cases Are Difficult To Prosecute

Due to the power and resources of the health care industry, many states have passed legislation making it more difficult to bring and prevail in medical malpractice actions. For example, many states have "caps" on the amount of damages and attorney’s fees that can be awarded in malpractice suits. In addition, barring extraordinary circumstances that affect the case, state laws provide set periods, called statutes of limitations, within which a plaintiff must file a malpractice action in court.

Doctors, nurses, hospital staff and other medical professionals have a duty to provide their patients with reasonable care. If they fail to live up to these duties and cause injury through their negligence, the victim has the right to seek justice - full, fair and complete compensation for those injuries. However, medical malpractice cases are not easy cases to win. In addition to the already difficult times, we are in where some jurors have been conditioned to consider lawsuits suspect or frivolous, there are numerous complex legal and medical issues. Additionally, these cases nearly always involve going against large law firms and insurance companies who will seek to limit or deny their own clients’ responsibility for your damages. Contrary to what insurance carriers and some medical societies proclaim, victims of medical malpractice rarely sue. Those who do sue typically have “serious health consequences,” and need money for the medical care, pain management and/or lost income caused by the medical malpractice.

Medical malpractice can be committed by several types of health care professionals, including doctors, surgeons, nurses, technicians and other hospital workers. Regardless of the type of health care provider involved, the attorney must prove that the health care provider was negligent (acted below the applicable standard of care) and that the negligence caused the injury. Negligence by itself is not enough, and a bad medical outcome by itself is not enough. We must prove that the negligent act caused the bad outcome.

Medical malpractice laws are designed to protect patients' rights to pursue compensation if they are injured as the result of negligence. However, malpractice suits are often complex and costly to win. While theoretically, you can seek compensation for any injury caused by negligence, regardless of its seriousness, time and money make it unrealistic to sue for an injury that is minor or heals quickly. In general, there are no guarantees of medical results. An unanticipated or unsuccessful result from medical treatment or surgery, in itself, does not mean that medical malpractice has been committed.

If you believe you may have a medical malpractice claim, it is important to consult with a qualified attorney as soon as possible. The attorneys at Coker, Schickel, Sorenson & Posgay can help you determine whether your claim is worth pursuing. With our firm’s over 30 years of litigation experience, top trial skills, professional reputation and unwavering commitment to our clients best interests, you can be confident in our ability to handle your medical malpractice case.

Failure To Diagnose Or Treat

One of the more common types of malpractice occurs when a doctor or hospital fails to properly treat, or ignores, a medical condition. When a patient presents his symptoms the doctor will typically make a differential diagnoses. This is a systematic method to identify the disease or injury causing a patient's symptoms.

Before a medical condition can be treated, it must be identified. Sometimes the doctor does not take a complete history or is too quick in reaching a diagnosis, and the true condition is not diagnosed. Therefore, the proper treatment plan is not started. If the error is quickly recognized, then there may be little or no harm. However, in some cases a delay of days or even hours can have significant consequences. Such as failure to quickly treat a stroke, heart attack or recognize the signs of internal bleeding. Failure to diagnose and treat can arise in almost any context and have devastating results, such as those listed below:

• Failure to diagnose postoperative infection can lead to multiple additional surgeries.
• Failure to diagnose a fracture (not ordering x-ray or misreading film) could lead to improper healing of the bones.
• Turning a patient away with severe infection could lead to organ failure.
• Not treating a circulatory problem or gang green could result in amputation.
• Untreated Lyme's disease can lead to neurologic damage.

Failure to diagnose can result in death or can result in permanent injuries with such illnesses as:

• Kidney failure
• Breast cancer
• Intestinal cancer
• Colon cancer
• Brain cancer
• Other serious medical conditions

Medicine is not an exact science and different conditions can present similar symptoms. That is why it is important to for a doctor to consider the more serious condition or disease, before coming to any conclusions. If the treatment prescribed is not working then the diagnosis must be reevaluated.

Typically, the doctor will defend a claim by asserting that the diagnosis was reasonable given symptoms presented and/or that the outcome (prognosis) would be the same even though there was delay in treatment. By a thorough review of the medical records you can sometimes prove malpractice by showing nurses notes, which the doctor did consider, that are inconsistent with the diagnosis; or by a lack of documentation regarding the differential diagnosis.

The failure to diagnose or delay in diagnosing an illness can result in premature death, even though early diagnosis would have provided ample time for treatment. When you discover that you are terminally ill with a disease that could have been diagnosed and treated or you have lost a loved one after a failure to diagnose or delay in diagnosis, you may be entitled to significant compensation for your loss. The failure to diagnose or delay in diagnosis is equivalent to denying treatment of a disease. Whether tests were not properly administered, the results were incorrectly interpreted, you were not given adequate treatment options, or your diagnosis came too late, you still have rights.

Failure to diagnose or a delay in diagnosis is a relatively common error made by doctors and other medical professionals. It is possible that test results were improperly read, that adequate testing was not administered, or that doctor negligence and a hurried treatment prevented an illness or disease from being identified. When you and your family need answers, our attorneys will aggressively take on your case. We will collect all necessary evidence, consult with witnesses, review hospital and medical records, and confer with medical experts who can testify to the potential negligence in your case or claim.

At Coker, Schickel, Sorenson & Posgay, we have experience in the investigation of complex medical malpractice claims and maximizing settlements and verdicts for clients.

Inappropriate Or Negligent Surgery

Surgery can be a frightening experience, but if we ever have to go under the surgeon’s knife, we all hope that the surgery will be carried out correctly. Unfortunately, this is not always the case and compensation claims arising out of negligently performed surgery are on the increase.

One particular area of surgical treatment in which there has been a rise in the number of compensation claims is the field of general surgery. General surgery, despite its name, is a surgical specialty that focuses on abdominal organs, e.g. intestines including esophagus, stomach, small bowel, colon, liver, pancreas, gallbladder and bile ducts, and often the thyroid gland (depending on the availability of head and neck surgery specialists). They also deal with diseases involving the skin and hernias. These surgeons deal mainly in the Torso.

General surgery is often performed as an emergency, for example to treat an ischaemic bowel or to repair a damaged bile duct, but more and more patients are seeing that their surgery is performed negligently, leaving them with severe and sadly sometimes fatal consequences, which give rise to claims for compensation.

Unfortunately, claims resulting from negligently performed surgery to other parts of the body are also on the increase. Some examples of this growing problem are the orthopedic surgeon who operates on the wrong knee or who breaks the patient’s femur during a hip replacement operation or the neurosurgeon that negligently performs an operation on the wrong side of the patient’s brain to remove a cyst, leaving the patient with severe brain damage.

If you believe you may have a medical malpractice claim, due to negligent or inappropriate surgery, it is important to consult with a qualified attorney as soon as possible. The attorneys at Coker, Schickel, Sorenson & Posgay can help you determine whether your claim is worth pursuing. With our firm’s over 30 years of litigation experience, top trial skills, professional reputation and unwavering commitment to our clients best interests, you can be confident in our ability to handle your medical malpractice case.

Birth Injuries

You loved and protected your unborn child since the moment you learned of his or her conception. You chose a doctor and hospital carefully. You worked to provide the safest and most nurturing environment for your baby. Nothing was supposed to go wrong. Now, the joy of the birth of your child is dampened because of injuries that occurred during labor or delivery. These injuries can have lifelong consequences.

The birth process is a complex medical procedure, and obstetricians, midwives, nurses and other medical professionals are trained to handle any complications that can occur along the way. When doctors, nurses and the hospital staff fail to do what they've been trained to do and a birth injury results, the consequences can be tragic. It is the last thing new parents expected or were prepared for, but we at Coker, Schickel, Sorenson & Posgay are prepared and ready to help you and your family cope.

Some labor and birth injuries are unavoidable. Other birth injuries are preventable and are the result of medical negligence or medical errors. Attorneys at Coker, Schickel, Sorenson & Posgay listen to your story and use clues and expert diagnosis to reveal the truth. We have a working relationship with recognized experts in the fields of obstetrics, fetal monitoring, midwifery, and labor and delivery room nursing. These experts review your medical records and determine the cause of your child's injuries. Together we provide an honest assessment. Our attorney’s instincts have been honed by years of experience with complex medical issues and we pride ourselves on our aggressive defense of your child's rights.

If your baby is seriously injured due to medical malpractice or medical negligence, we have the experience, expertise, and resources to construct and pursue a compelling case. We work diligently and effectively for a fair settlement, but we are armed with facts and evidence for trial. If your case goes to trial, our legal team presents the jury with your personal story. Your child is not a statistic and we work to ensure that your child is not viewed in that manner. Our attorney’s hard-edged legal expertise, combined with the human elements of your tragedy, synergize to form a compelling argument for maximum compensation.

Our primary goal is to obtain maximum compensation for your child. Care for a child with labor and delivery injuries can be extensive and lifelong. Continued assistance must be factored into the compensation in the event that the parents predecease their child. Coker, Schickel, Sorenson & Posgay attorneys will carefully calculate recovery of damages to provide for your child’s future. Financial resources can allow your child and you to live a life that is as comfortable, productive, and meaningful as possible.

To view representative Medical Malpractice cases our firm has handled, please click here.