Medical Malpractice

Indianapolis and Evansville Malpractice Lawyers

“Although no doctor wants to cause harm to a patient, the law requires hospitals and physicians to treat their patients with the standard of care required by their profession. When the medical care rendered is substandard and a loved one is seriously hurt, then the law dictates fair compensation.”
– Todd Barsumian

Malpractice means a tort or breach of contract based on health care or professional services that were provided, or that should have been provided, by a health care provider, to a patient. Medical errors have been reported to be the third leading cause of death in the U.S., leading to at least 250,000 deaths every year. Common cases brought by medical malpractice attorneys include allegations of a missed diagnosis or failed diagnosis, birth injuries, medication errors, surgical mistakes, and anesthesia errors.

Medical malpractice lawsuits can involve medical providers at every level: doctors, specialists, nurses, support staff and even hospitals, medical practices or healthcare clinics. Some of the most common cases handled by a medical malpractice attorney arise from surgery, OB/GYN and women’s health, otolaryngology, urology, orthopedics, plastic surgery, radiology, emergency medicine, gastroenterology, and anesthesiology.

An Indiana medical malpractice attorney bringing a lawsuit on behalf of the injured or deceased patient must prove that they were owed a duty (e.g., that a physician-patient relationship existed), that the defendant breached that duty, and that the breach of that duty proximately caused harm. To establish negligence, a patient must show that a doctor failed to exercise the degree of skill and care ordinarily possessed and exercised by a reasonably skillful and careful practitioner under the same or similar circumstances. The best Indiana medical malpractice attorneys recognize that expert testimony is almost always required to establish a failure to comply with the applicable standard of care. Consequently, Indiana medical malpractice lawyers will almost always consult early on with a physician qualified to evaluate the injured or deceased’s care before bringing a negligence or wrongful death claim.

Even the best Indiana medical malpractice law firms recognize that medical malpractice claims can be some of the most difficult to prosecute in light of the protections afforded healthcare providers under the Indiana Medical Malpractice Act. The Indiana Medical Malpractice Act requires that medical malpractice lawsuits against qualified healthcare providers first be submitted to a medical review panel before the lawsuit can be prosecuted in court. Unlike other claims, damages and monetary compensation for acts of malpractice are capped, the statute of limitations is shortened in some cases, and contributory fault applies.

An Indiana medical malpractice attorney must be able to:

• Gather the appropriate medical records and other evidence;
• Understand the potential medical issues involved;
• Research and review the medical records and other evidence, with the assistance of experts and medical literature, to establish a deviation from the applicable standard of care;
• Understand and be familiar with how medical malpractice claims in Indiana are prosecuted under the Indiana Medical Malpractice Act; and
• Convince medical review panels and juries to hold the provider to the applicable standard of care no matter how accomplished, prominent or mistake-free the provider has been in the past.

Medical doctors and healthcare providers help people. They save lives. However, when that conduct does occur that is below the standard of the profession, and when those mistakes cause serious harm, the patient is entitled to seek fair compensation for their physical injuries and economic losses, including medical bills and lost wages. To qualify under, and be afforded the protections of, the Indiana Medical Malpractice Act, healthcare providers must demonstrate their financial responsibility in the form of medical malpractice insurance coverage.

The Indianapolis and Evansville medical malpractice attorneys at Barsumian Armiger Injury Lawyers respect the efforts of health care providers who serve our community and carefully review medical malpractice inquiries. Nonetheless, situations have arisen and will arise where medical care falls below the expected standard of care, causing great harm to patients and their families. When this happens, professional standards must be upheld, accountability enforced, and compensation paid.

Cases considered by Indiana medical malpractice law firms may include:

• Failure to diagnose stroke, or heart and vascular conditions such as congestive heart failure or coronary artery disease
• Failure to treat infection or sepsis
• Failure to provide deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE) pharmacological and/or mechanical prophylactics
• Delay in diagnosis and treatment of infection, sepsis, or cancer
• Delay in diagnosis and treatment of cauda equina syndrome
• Surgical errors such as surgery performed on the wrong body part, surgery performed on the wrong patient, the wrong surgical procedure performed on a patient, iatrogenic injury, and intra-operative or post-operative death in a normal, health patient
• Environmental errors such as electric shock, wrong gas/contamination in patient gas line, burn injury, falls during transfer, falls from improper use of bedrails, and entrapment and suffocation through the improper use of bedrails
• Botched cosmetic surgeries
• Plastic surgery malpractice
• Anesthesiology errors
• Emergency room errors
• Unnecessary procedures
• Nursing home abuse or neglect
• Defective or contaminated drugs
• Prescription medication and IV-infusion errors in the selection, dosing, and monitoring of a medication, including overdose and underdose, leading to death, heart failure or hear attack, stroke, renal failure, kidney damage, vestibular damage, oscillopsia, or ototoxcity
• Failure to properly sterilize equipment leading to infection or fear of infection
• Foreign object or medical equipment such as scalpel, sponge, gauze or needle left in the body leading to post-surgery infection or other bodily injury
• Failure to intubate or establish a clear airway leading to an anoxic brain injury
• Birth injuries such as placental abruption, brachial plexus palsy from shoulder dystocia, traumatic birth injury such as head trauma from forceps and vacuum extractors, hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) caused by birth asphyxia, cerebral palsy (CP), periventricular leukomalacia (PVL), and facial nerve palsy or paralysis

Evansville and Indianapolis Malpractice Lawyers Serving the Injured

You are invited to contact Barsumian Armiger Injury Lawyers to confidentially discuss your medical injury and the prospects for a successful claim. You may also find information about some of the frequently asked questions of Indiana medical malpractice lawyers here or you may call Barsumian Armiger Injury Lawyers with questions about your potential Indiana medical malpractice case at (812) 490-0820 or at (317) 644-6975.