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Managing serious health problems can be exhausting and stressful, especially if you struggle to get a diagnosis or your health declines further with treatment.
Sometimes, patients question whether their doctor cost them time in getting the right treatment, failed to prescribe the right medication, or otherwise made a mistake. Many people convince themselves that their doctor didn’t do anything wrong, while others don’t know how to broach the subject.
But if you’ve been the victim of medical malpractice, you could be forced to deal with the consequences – lingering pain or other symptoms, permanent disability or disfigurement, additional medical bills, lost income, and more. When you have concerns about the quality of medical care you’ve received, we recommend seeking legal advice to better understand your options.
How Can a Kennesaw Medical Malpractice Attorney Help?
You may not want to ask your doctor if they made a mistake, especially if you’re still undergoing treatment and your concerns are valid. Confronting a doctor or healthcare provider is not a good idea – the provider is unlikely to admit fault and may start thinking of ways to defend themselves.
But you still need to get answers, and a medical malpractice attorney can help.
The CEO Lawyer Personal Injury Law Firm offers a free, confidential consultation to anyone who has concerns about a potential malpractice claim. We can quietly evaluate your case, answer your questions, and explain your options.
What Are the Signs of Medical Malpractice?
It can vary depending on what kind of medical mistake you suffered and how your healthcare provider or their practice handled it, but here are some common signs that you might be the victim of medical malpractice:
Lack of Informed Consent
Most doctor’s offices and hospitals are diligent about getting patient signatures on consent forms. You may even feel like you’ve signed dozens of them if you’ve recently had medical treatment.
But there could still be a problem if the patient wasn’t adequately informed of the risks before agreeing to surgery, treatment, or a procedure. For instance, let’s say that you had surgery, and afterward, you developed permanent nerve damage that left you unable to do many of your usual daily activities.
When you asked your doctor about this issue, they shrugged and said it was a known risk of your surgery – but you don’t recall being informed of this risk before. In this situation, it’s possible your doctor didn’t really have informed consent for the surgery.
Unexplained Pain or Other Symptoms Following Surgery
Here’s a similar but slightly different scenario: You have surgery, and as expected, you experience post-operative pain that you expect will get better with time. Yet even after your incision has healed, you still feel intense pain in the area.
Your doctor examines you and says everything is fine, even after you repeatedly visit them for this problem.
Unfortunately, this is estimated to happen to as many as 1 in 1,000 patients whose surgeons left a foreign body inside them after abdominal surgery. The foreign body could be a surgical tool, such as a sponge, towel, or even an instrument like scissors.
Worse, many patients suffer for months or years before the cause of their pain is diagnosed correctly. Sometimes, doctors may accuse them of drug-seeking or suggest their pain is due to anxiety or “all in their head.”
If you have persistent pain or other symptoms after surgery, and your doctor says there is no reason for these symptoms, we recommend seeking a second opinion from another physician. You do not need to inform your doctor that you are doing so. Simply call the office and ask for copies of your medical records – patients need these for a variety of reasons, and no explanation is necessary.
Your Treatment Isn’t Working, and Your Doctor Doesn’t Seem Concerned
A failed treatment doesn’t necessarily mean your healthcare provider made an error. Sometimes, a doctor does everything right, and the patient simply doesn’t respond to treatment for unknown reasons.
However, if your treatment isn’t working, your doctor should be interested in discussing other treatment options. You may also want to get a second opinion to confirm the original diagnosis was correct.
You Got a Second Opinion and Found Out Your Original Diagnosis Was Wrong
At first, you may be relieved to finally get the right diagnosis and treatment. But sometimes, a delay in treatment can make your condition more complicated and challenging to treat.
In some of the worst cases, the condition may now be incurable or even terminal. If an incorrect or delayed diagnosis affected your ability to be treated successfully, you may have been the victim of medical malpractice.
Your Treatment Seems Extreme for Your Diagnosis
Failing to diagnose and treat a serious condition is an egregious error for a healthcare provider, but some patients also suffer from the opposite problem: A doctor diagnoses them with a common, non-severe condition, then recommends an unusually aggressive treatment like invasive and risky surgery.
Although doctors often caution patients against consulting “Dr. Google,” it doesn’t hurt to read reliable information about your condition from credible sources. If you know there are less risky treatments, there is nothing wrong with asking your doctor why X or Y wouldn’t work in your case.
Your doctor should be able to offer at least a brief explanation, such as, “That medication is contraindicated because of your diabetes.” They should also be willing to discuss other options with you.
If they become defensive or insist the recommended treatment is the only one that could possibly help your condition, you may want to check with another provider before proceeding.
Your Doctor Only Orders Basic Tests or None At All
There are a few ways this can be problematic. If you have significant symptoms, your doctor should be interested in getting to the bottom of them.
When they order no or basic tests and don’t find anything, you may need further testing to get a better idea of what’s going on. Sometimes, the doctor doesn’t take the patient’s symptoms seriously despite repeated visits for a health problem.
On the other hand, if you were diagnosed with a serious condition after only a few basic tests, you may want to get confirmation of your condition from another provider. Serious conditions are often diagnosed after the doctor runs more advanced tests, such as imaging or a biopsy.
You Were a Patient in an Understaffed Facility
Being in an understaffed facility doesn’t prove you suffered medical malpractice, but it definitely increases the risk. One review of 35 studies found that higher nurse-to-patient staffing ratios were associated with reduced mortality and fewer medication errors, for example.
If you suffered a severe complication in an understaffed hospital, you may want to learn more about what happened. While you should avoid antagonizing the hospital staff, you can ask what caused your condition and if you can take steps to prevent it from recurring.
Pay careful attention to your doctor’s answer – if they seem evasive or brush off your concerns, it’s possible they made a mistake in your care.
What Should You Do if You Suspect Medical Malpractice?
Obtain copies of your medical records and speak with a medical malpractice lawyer right away. We will review your case and investigate further if necessary, including seeking the opinion of a qualified medical expert.
What Is a Medical Expert Affidavit, and Why Do You Need One?
Under Georgia law, a medical malpractice lawsuit must be accompanied by an affidavit from a medical expert who can explain at least one incidence of negligence or omission committed by the defendant (the healthcare provider or facility) and a factual basis for this claim. The medical expert should also be able to explain how the healthcare provider departed from the typical standard of care for the patient’s condition.
If your attorney believes you have a case, they can locate an appropriate expert to review the details of your treatment and give an opinion on whether medical negligence occurred.
How Long Do You Have to File a Medical Malpractice Claim in Georgia?
In most cases, there is a two-year statute of limitations, but please remember that your lawyer will need time to gather evidence and build a case. As a result, even if it seems like you have plenty of time, you may not, so we recommend contacting a lawyer as soon as possible.
Depending on the circumstances, the two-year statute of limitations can be interpreted to mean two years from the date of injury or death or two years from when you should have known about the error. This allows some leeway in situations where a patient may not have known about a medical error for months or years.
However, there is a statute of repose of five years, meaning a lawsuit has to be filed within five years of the error, regardless of when it was discovered. For this reason, we encourage you to explore the cause of any serious complications you’ve suffered sooner rather than later.
When minor children suffer medical malpractice, the statute of limitations does not begin until the child’s seventh birthday, no matter when the injury occurred. This is helpful in situations where the effects of a birth injury or other complications don’t become evident until the child is older.
The statute of repose doesn’t begin until the child’s tenth birthday.
Seek Help From a Kennesaw Medical Malpractice Law Firm Today
It can be difficult to know if your serious health complication was the fault of a negligent healthcare provider or facility or simply an unfortunate but unavoidable illness or injury. The CEO Lawyer Personal Injury Law Firm will help you learn more about what happened and your options for pursuing compensation in your medical malpractice case. Please contact us for a free, confidential consultation.
Attorney Ali Awad founded the CEO Lawyer Personal Injury Law Firm only a few years ago and swiftly transformed it into one of the fastest-growing personal injury law firms in the country. Since then, he and his team have recovered millions of dollars in compensation for injured people and their families.
When he’s not negotiating with insurance companies or fighting for clients in the courtroom, you can find Mr. Awad giving no-nonsense legal advice to more than a million followers on social media. Have him work your case by calling 833-254-2923.