Oswego Hospital has two sites and has served patients in Oswego County in New York for more than 130 years. It has 164 beds available for acute care. It also provides the following health care services: emergency, maternity, surgical care, and behavioral health. Both the hospital and the health services center provide outpatient services at a laboratory and medical imaging facility, and they also provide physical therapy, occupational health, orthopedics, and cardiopulmonary rehabilitation. Doctors and other health care providers have substantial power over their patients. They can heal, but they can also cause harm. When a doctor's failure to abide by accepted practices in the medical community causes a patient harm, this may constitute medical malpractice. If you suspect that you were a victim of medical malpractice at Oswego Hospital, you should consult the Oswego medical malpractice attorneys at DeFrancisco & Falgiatano.
Claims Based on Hospital NegligenceMany medical procedures may seem ordinary to a health care provider but may be very stressful for the patient. For example, surgeries may seem straightforward, but unexpected emergencies can arise, and there are risks that something will go wrong. Between 1990 and 2010, more than 4,000 people who went through surgery were injured as a result of a preventable surgical error. Some of these were never events, mistakes that are so egregious that they should not have happened at all. For example, amputating the wrong body part, infusing contaminated blood into a patient, performing surgery on the wrong person, or leaving surgical instruments in a body cavity are never events.
However, there are also more subtle errors. For example, mistakes can be made while providing anesthesia to a patient undergoing surgery. An anesthesia error might include providing too much anesthetic, providing too little anesthetic, administering anesthesia to someone with allergies, or failing to provide the appropriate oxygen. An anesthesia error can result in nerve damage, dizziness, brain damage, cardiovascular problems, seizures, or spinal cord injuries. An anesthesia error could also result in a wrongful death.
If someone at Oswego Hospital made a mistake that caused you harm, you may be able to hold them accountable in a medical malpractice lawsuit. Generally, your attorney will need to prove that it is more likely than not that there was a doctor-patient relationship with the defendant, the defendant deviated from the accepted standards and practices of the medical community, and the deviation caused your harm. Often, it is crucial to retain an experienced and credible expert to prove what the accepted standards and practices were, that the defendant deviated from them, and causation. When what is at issue is a never event, you may not need to have an expert testify because those events are so shocking that they may be comprehended by the laypeople on the jury without the assistance of expert testimony.
Compensatory damages that your lawyer may be able to recover for medical malpractice include both economic and noneconomic losses. Economic losses could include past and future medical expenses, lost income, rehabilitation, and replacement services. Replacement services could include, for example, the cost of household services that you would ordinarily perform yourself but that you cannot perform because of the injuries caused by the health care provider's medical negligence. Noneconomic losses could include disfigurement, scarring, pain and suffering, and loss of enjoyment of life.
Sometimes the harm caused by a doctor or other health care provider is fatal. In these cases, a personal representative of the decedent's estate may be able to recover pecuniary losses through a wrongful death claim.
Retain a Hospital Malpractice Attorney in OswegoIf you believe that you may have been a victim of medical malpractice while you were a patient at Oswego Hospital, our law firm may be able to help you recover damages from the parties responsible for your injuries. At DeFrancisco & Falgiatano, we know how to build these claims and can retain credible experts on your behalf. Call us at 833-200-2000 or contact us via our online form.