Physician Errors Causing Injuries in Hillsboro, Illinois Should be Evaluated by an Experienced Medical Malpractice Lawyer
Medical errors resulting in permanent, life-changing, or catastrophic personal injuries to victims in Hillsboro, IL should be evaluated by an experienced medical malpractice lawyer. Although many healthcare providers perform exceptional work at treating us and our loved ones, that is not always the case. Sadly, statistics reveal a darker side that preventable medical errors may actually be the third-leading cause of death in the United States. Other statistics show that avoidable medical errors and mishaps add up to more than $55 billion in annual healthcare costs in the United States. Even though other researchers claim that medical errors are not actually the third-leading cause of death, more than half of physicians admit to being sued at least once in their careers for medical malpractice. This is consistent with self-reports of medical errors, where roughly 45% of physicians anonymously admit to causing medical errors.
At the Noll Law Office, their skilled legal team understands that preventable medical errors can cause serious problems for victims and their families. Not only can the pain and suffering be significant and debilitating to victims’ physical and emotional health, but it can also greatly impact their financial well-being too. In fact, many instances of medical malpractice and birth injuries can cause crippling physical, emotional, and financial damages that some families may have a difficult time recovering from without the help of an experienced legal team. That’s why the Noll Law Office offers free case evaluations and consultations for victims and their families, not asking for any money upfront to explain how they can help you. To learn more about your rights under Illinois law, schedule a free case evaluation with a medical malpractice lawyer in Illinois. They handle cases throughout the state, including in Hillsboro, IL.
Examples of Medical Malpractice in Illinois
Not all medical errors or unexpected outcomes are medical malpractice. Rather, medical malpractice is only where a healthcare provider’s care and treatment falls below the standard of care and causes damages. The standard of care is defined as what a reasonably prudent healthcare provider would have done in similar circumstances and with similar education, training, and resources. Thus, a doctor is held to the standard of another doctor, not that of a nurse, and a doctor who is a specialist in a hospital will also be held to the standard of a specialist in a similar type of facility.
Due to the wide variety of healthcare providers and the types of treatments, facilities, and types of procedures, there are many possible types of medical malpractice that could harm victims and their families. Generally, the most common types of medical malpractice include the following:
Hospital Errors
Hospital errors are a large contributor to medical malpractice in the United States and in Illinois. There are many different types of hospital errors that could cause serious personal injuries to victims and their families, including the following:
- Emergency department mistakes
- Failure to triage patients properly
- Understaffing
- Untrained or poorly trained staff
- Bedsore or pressure sore injuries
- Failure to diagnose a serious condition such as a heart attack, stroke, pulmonary embolism, aortic dissection, or another condition
- Surgical errors and mistakes
- MRSA infections and other failures to maintain proper infectious protocol
- Wrong patient surgeries
- Dropping patients during trials
- Hospital pharmacy errors, and
- Other types of serious or negligent errors that result in catastrophic medical malpractice in Hillsboro, IL.
Physician Office Errors
Although many physicians have privileges in hospitals, and therefore also work in hospitals, more and more healthcare providers are turning to outpatient facilities. This includes same-day surgery centers, but also diagnostic centers for colonoscopies, eye procedures, birthing centers, endocrine/dialysis, acute injuries (broken bones), and other types of treatment or evaluation of injuries or conditions. As a result, they can case a different host of negligent acts or omissions that may be medical malpractice. This includes some of the following:
- Surgical errors due to skill or inappropriate tools
- Wrong patient surgeries
- Positional errors (i.e., improper placement of a limb that cuts off circulation)
- Intubation mistakes
- Wrong site surgeries
- Delays in transferring a patient
- Inadequate pre-op monitoring and assessments
- Anesthesia errors
- Understaffing or poorly trained staffing
- Failure to diagnose or treat a condition
- Dropped patients
- Infections and sepsis, and
- Other types of surgical errors or physician office mishaps in Illinois.
Errors in Diagnosing a Condition
Some medical malpractice cases revolve around the diagnosis of a condition. This may include an emergency condition such as a heart attack or stroke, but it could also involve a condition like cancer. Indeed, healthcare providers may miss the signs of a condition like cancer or even misread test results, therefore allowing it to continue to fester and become untreatable and extremely devastating. Other times a healthcare provider could wrongly diagnose cancer and start treatment, only to later realize there was a patient mix-up or a misread test result.
The medical malpractice lawyers in Illinois know that the most common types of errors in diagnosing a condition that could occur to victims in Hillsboro, IL, include the following:
- Delayed diagnosis – taking too long to diagnose a condition, either by putting off treatment, taking a “wait and see” approach, or failing to communication results to a patient (i.e., test results are taken and put in the patient file, but not communicated to the patient)
- Misdiagnosis – when a patient is diagnosed with condition X, but the patient really has condition Y, and therefore receives the wrong treatment or no treatment at all (i.e., diagnosing a patient with GERD when the patient has a heart attack or aortic dissection)
- Missed diagnosis – when a patient undergoes testing but the results are interpreted incorrectly and a condition is missed (i.e., undergoing a lung scan and cancer nodes are missed), and
- Other failures to diagnose a condition due to a litany of errors.
Birth Injuries
The most traumatic and impactful errors caused by medical negligence are often birth injuries to babies. Since newborns are extremely vulnerable, and the birthing process is already traumatic by itself, medical errors in handling the labor and delivery process can be catastrophic. In fact, they can be life-changing or even life-threatening. Some of the most common instances of birth injuries that may be due to medical malpractice in Illinois includes the following:
- Hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE)
- Cerebral palsy
- Kernicterus
- Brachial plexus nerve injuries
- Significant scarring or disfigurement
- Burn injuries
- Broken bones
- Organ injuries
- Failure to diagnose NEC
- Eye injuries
- Infections
- Positional injuries (i.e., wrapping too tight, or placing a baby on his or her belly), and
- Other types of birth injuries that could result in serious or catastrophic personal injuries to a newborn.
Unsure if You Have a Medical Malpractice Case in Hillsboro, Illinois? Call the Medical Malpractice Lawyers in Illinois at the Noll Law Office for Help
If you or a loved one were seriously injured due to medical malpractice in Illinois, the Noll Law Office could help you and your family understand what your rights to compensation may be. This includes the right to compensation for conscious pain and suffering, medical bills, lost wages, future nursing costs, loss of consortium, and other damages due to a healthcare provider’s negligence. Their personal injury law firm has an office in Springfield, but they handle cases throughout the state, including matters right here in Hillsboro, IL. They can discuss your case and meet with you in person, over the telephone, or virtually. To get started with their medical malpractice lawyers in Illinois, including for cases in Hillsboro, IL, schedule a free consultation by dialing (217) 414-8889 or by sending a message here.