Pittsburgh Medical Malpractice Attorneys
Knowledgeable Pittsburgh Medical Malpractice Lawyer Fights to Protect the Rights of Clients Harmed by Negligent or Reckless Healthcare in Allegheny County and Throughout Western Pennsylvania
When you seek medical treatment, you trust that your providers will render care that will make you better or cure you of a medical condition. Unfortunately, some cases of medical treatment result in an adverse outcome for the patient. While some bad outcomes represent known risks of medical procedures or treatments, in other cases a patient is harmed due to the negligence or recklessness of their treating providers. If you have been injured or have suffered a medical condition due to a physician’s or other healthcare provider’s substandard treatment, you deserve to seek compensation and justice through a medical malpractice claim. However, knowing whether you were harmed due to a medical provider’s error is a complex question. The experienced Pittsburgh medical malpractice lawyers at Goodrich & Geist, P.C. can help you determine whether you have a viable claim for financial recovery and guide you through the process of pursuing a legal claim against the careless or reckless providers responsible for the injuries or harm you have suffered.
Get Free Advice From An Experienced Pittsburgh Medical Malpractice Attorney. All You Have To Do Is Call 412-837-8426 or Fill Out Our Free Case Evaluation Form.
Our legal team has over 50 years of combined experience representing the rights and interests of the victims of medical malpractice throughout the Pittsburgh area. We have a long track record of success in securing maximum compensation for our clients. We work hard to obtaining the best possible results in our clients’ cases not only to ensure that our clients have the financial resources they need to recover from the effects of medical malpractice, but also to hold hospitals and medical providers to the highest standards of care to make the healthcare industry throughout Pittsburgh safer for every member of our community.
Contact us today for a free case evaluation with a Pittsburgh medical malpractice lawyer about what steps you can take to hold the healthcare providers that injured you accountable to provide you with the financial recovery you need and deserve.
What Constitutes Medical Malpractice?
Not every adverse outcome to a patient’s treatment is the result of medical malpractice. Instead, malpractice only occurs when a healthcare provider’s treatment of the patients fails to meet the applicable standard of care. The applicable standard of care is often described as the actions and decisions that other healthcare providers of similar training and experience would take in identical circumstances. In other words, the law does not hold a provider liable for an adverse outcome of a patient’s care if other providers would have acted the same way in the patient’s case. This recognizes that medical treatment sometimes does not succeed. But when a patient’s treatment fails to cure the patient or a patient is injured because of preventable errors and mistakes, a provider might be held responsible for malpractice.
Examples of conduct that frequently constitutes medical malpractice includes:
- Surgical errors such as performing the wrong procedure, operating the wrong body part, operating on the wrong patient, or damaging a patient during a procedure.
- Anesthesia errors, including administering the wrong amount of anesthesia or failing to properly monitor the patient’s condition and vital signs during surgery.
- Medication errors, such as prescribing medication contraindicated by the patient’s medical history, miscalculating the medication dosage, errors in filling a prescription, or administering medication to the wrong patient.
- Prematurely discharging a patient.
- Failing to provide a patient with appropriate post-discharge or follow up instructions.
- Failing to order diagnostic tests or misinterpreting the results of tests.
- Failing to consult with or refer a patient to other specialist providers.
Medical malpractice can result in patients suffering a wide variety of injuries or other harm to their health, including:
- Misdiagnosis/delayed diagnosis, which can result in a patient’s condition worsening (potentially past the point where treatment would be effective), or a patient undergoing medical treatment that they do not need.
- Physical injuries, which may result from negligently performed surgeries or other medical procedures.
- Birth injuries.
- Hospital acquired-infections.
- Medication overdoing or adverse medication interactions, which can frequently result in organ damage or brain injury.
Proving that medical malpractice occurred requires considerable supporting evidence along with expert testimony. At Goodrich & Geist, P.C., our Pittsburgh PA Injury Attorneys will use our extensive knowledge and experience to build an effective, persuasive case on your behalf.
Let a Pittsburgh Medical Malpractice Lawyer from Goodrich & Geist, P.C. Work to Secure Maximum Compensation on Your Behalf
When you turn to a Pittsburgh medical malpractice lawyer from Goodrich & Geist, P.C. to help after you’ve been harmed by possibly negligent medical care, you can expect to receive compassion, respect, and personalized attention from each member of our firm. We understand that being injured by a healthcare provider that you trusted can leave you feeling vulnerable and anxious. That’s why we work tirelessly to secure the best possible outcome for you in your medical malpractice claim, ensuring that you are fully compensated for:
- Costs of medical treatment necessitated by the injury or medical condition inflicted by a healthcare provider’s error.
- Lost wages or income during the time you are out of work while recovering from the effects of malpractice.
- Loss of employment and earning potential if you suffer disabilities due to malpractice.
- Physical pain and anguish caused by the harm you suffered.
- Emotional distress and trauma.
- Reduced life expectancy.
- Loss of quality of life.
When you choose us to help with your case, you’ll have a legal team in your corner who is passionate about obtaining justice on behalf of injured victims.
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Call or Contact Our Firm Today to Speak to Our Attorneys about Your Rights and Options after Suffering Harm from Substandard Medical Care
When you’ve been injured by negligent or reckless actions or decisions by your treating medical providers, you deserve not only financial compensation to help you with your physical and emotional recovery from the harm that you’ve suffered, but also to hold those responsible for your injuries accountable. Turn to a Pittsburgh medical malpractice lawyer from Goodrich & Geist, P.C. today for a free, confidential consultation to discuss how our firm can help you through the complexities of pursuing a medical malpractice claim and receiving justice for the injuries and loss that you have endured.
Find Out What Your Case Is Worth – Call 412-837-8426 or Fill Out Our Free Case Evaluation Form.
Frequently Asked Questions About Medical Malpractice Claims in Allegheny County and Elsewhere in Western Pennsylvania
Receiving treatment for an illness or injury is often overwhelming in itself. Unfortunately, many patients also walk away from medical treatment suffering from additional harm caused by medical negligence.
At Goodrich & Geist, P.C., our award-winning Pittsburgh medical malpractice attorneys have spent a collective 50-plus years protecting the rights of patients harmed by negligent medical providers in the Pittsburgh area. Below, we answer some common questions that medical malpractice victims often ask themselves when evaluating whether to seek legal help. Schedule a free case review with our lawyers to learn more about how we can help protect your right to fair compensation.
Different standards of care apply depending upon the circumstances of any given medical malpractice case. In recognition of the fact that doctors and other healthcare providers are only human, and that bad outcomes do occur, the relevant standard varies based upon the circumstances and must be established in consultation with the medical community. In some cases, matters are complicated because the patient may not actually know what caused the additional harm, and so detailed investigation may be required to discover what actually happened in your case. In general, the practice of medicine is complicated, which means that it is especially important to retain a lawyer who has significant experience handling medical malpractice cases and who has the resources necessary to retain the best experts in the industry to support your claim.
Because we have devoted such a large portion of our practice to medical malpractice, we have developed both the medical contacts (and ancillary knowledge) and legal experience necessary to understand how medical malpractice cases work. In fact, we can often tell early on in the process whether you have a viable claim for compensation but, if the situation is unclear, we will conduct a comprehensive investigation to identify the actions that led you to suffer harm. We know what must be proven to succeed in these cases and we know how to estimate the full cost of your harm, which may be significantly higher than the figure initially offered by the insurance companies.
Not always. Every treatment plan comes with risks, some common and some rare. Further, some patients do not respond as well to treatment as others. Not every bad medical outcome is considered medical malpractice, although you must have suffered some type of harm to have a valid medical malpractice claim.
Many patients are not sure whether they have a valid medical malpractice case—they just suspect that something went wrong. Consulting with an experienced medical malpractice lawyer is the best way to find out if you have a case.
To prove medical malpractice, our lawyers will first establish that the medical provider owed you a duty of care (if you were receiving treatment, the medical professionals associated with your treatment owed you a duty of care). Additionally, we will work to establish:
– The applicable standard of care. The standard of care in medical malpractice cases is how a reasonable, competent and trained medical professional would have treated you under the circumstances.
– Someone responsible for your care breached that standard (in other words, the person was negligent), whether by committing an action or omitting an action,
– The breach caused you to suffer harm, and
– You sustained damages as a result.
In medical malpractice cases, we work with medical experts to establish the standard of care. Generally, it is a standard that is developed within the medical community. The critical question is determining whether a reasonably trained doctor (or other medical provider) would have acted in the same way you were treated, given a similar set of circumstances.
Medical malpractice occurs when the doctor or healthcare provider performs below the accepted standard of care. Common mistakes that lead to valid medical malpractice claims include:
– Misdiagnosis,
– Delayed diagnosis,
– Surgical errors, such as operating on the wrong body part or leaving an instrument in the patient,
– Failing to follow accepted treatment protocols,
– Misinterpreting lab or other test results,
– Failure to get a proper medical history from the patient,
– Failure to obtain informed consent,
– Medication errors, such as prescribing the wrong drug or the wrong dosage,
– Certain birth injuries.
Call our experienced medical malpractice lawyers at Goodrich & Geist, P.C. so that we can evaluate what happened in your specific case to help determine whether you have a valid claim for malpractice.
Any medical provider can commit malpractice. This includes:
– Doctors,
– Surgeons,
– Obstetricians,
– Nurses,
– Lab technicians and radiologists,
– Pharmacists,
– Dentists,
– The hospital or medical facility itself.
An insurance company will almost always pay the compensation if you win. Determining whose insurance company is responsible is one of the complications that can arise in medical malpractice cases. For example, doctors and surgeons are often independent contractors with their own insurance. The hospital where they work will also have malpractice insurance. Sometimes, when multiple insurance companies are involved, the parties attempt to shift blame, which can complicate or delay your case. Our medical malpractice lawyers work to build a strong case establishing liability to avoid this complication where possible.
At Goodrich & Geist, P.C., our medical malpractice lawyers take the time to carefully evaluate your case to identify all current and future costs associated with the harm medical negligence caused. This includes both “economic” and “non-economic” damages. Available compensation may include:
– Economic damages, in the form of medical expenses, time away from work, lost future earning capacity, and any other out-of-pocket expenses associated with medical negligence.
– Non-economic damages, which include intangible “costs” like pain and suffering, emotional distress, disfigurement, loss of the company of a loved one, loss of enjoyment of life.
In some extreme cases, we may be able to recover punitive damages. Punitive damages are meant to punish the person who committed malpractice. These damages are only available if the defendant’s actions were intentional or especially shocking.
Informed consent generally requires that you be informed of all major risks associated with your surgery. Surgeons are not necessarily required to discuss every possible risk involved, but are required to disclose the serious risks. To evaluate whether you have a medical malpractice case, we will evaluate the undisclosed risk to determine whether a reasonable, trained surgeon would have considered the risk serious and disclosed it to the patient. Evaluating whether a reasonable patient might have opted for a different treatment plan were the risk disclosed is also important to deciding whether you have a case.
Most medical malpractice cases in Pennsylvania settle out of court. Our lawyers always work to build the strongest possible case for our clients, which can result in saving the time and expense of a trial. Usually, we present our case to the defendant long before reaching the trial stage. Because defendants similarly would like to avoid the publicity of a trial, they are often motivated to settle. Despite this, we never pressure our clients to settle. If it is in your best interests to proceed to trial, we are fully prepared to do so. We make sure you understand all available options so that you can make the choice that works for you.
Call Goodrich & Geist, P.C. Today to Schedule a Free Consultation with Our Talented Pittsburgh Medical Malpractice Lawyers
Every medical malpractice case is unique, and at Goodrich & Geist, P.C., our medical malpractice lawyers will evaluate your case free of charge. We understand how insurance companies work and are here to put our substantial skills and resources to work for you.
If you or a loved one suspect you have been the victim of medical malpractice in Western Pennsylvania, call or fill out this online contact form today.
