Phlebotomist Malpractice

Phlebotomists are people who conduct blood draws. They are trained to draw blood through finger pricks, venipuncture and infant heel pricks. They work in many different settings, including doctor’s offices, clinics, medical and diagnostic labs, and hospitals. If you were harmed by phlebotomist malpractice, you should consult the seasoned Syracuse medical malpractice attorneys of DeFrancisco and Falgiatano.

Many medical specialties require blood draws to diagnose and treat an illness. In most cases, there are no serious injuries incurred as a result of a blood draw. However, there are some instances in which an error in a blood draw results in serious injuries, such as damage to the nerves. Serious injuries may involve numbness, swelling, and loss of function. It may be necessary to perform surgery to correct the harm done.

In order to establish phlebotomist malpractice, you will need to show: (1) the phlebotomist owed you a professional standard of care, (2) the phlebotomist departed from the professional standard of care, (3) causation, and (4) actual damages. There are various phlebotomist errors that could constitute a breach of the professional standard of care. For instance, if a phlebotomist inserts a needle into the arm at an incorrect angle and goes in too deep, the median nerve may be pierced. You may need to go to the emergency room and be referred to a neurosurgeon. You might need to have surgery, but there is no guarantee that surgery will work to correct serious nerve damage, which means you could face paralysis in that arm and disability; you may require regular nerve blocks.

We will need to retain an expert to provide an opinion about what the professional standard of care was under the circumstances, how your phlebotomist departed from it, and causation. The professional standard of care to which a phlebotomist should adhere depends on the accepted medical practices of other reasonably competent phlebotomists in or around Syracuse.

In some cases, it’s also necessary to retain a separate expert on the issue of actual damages; for instance, if the error results in nerve damage that leaves you unable to move your arm and you were a construction worker, you may not be able to work in the same job or any job for which you’re trained; in that case, we may need to retain an expert economist to provide an opinion about what your life expectancy is and what wages you can be expected to lose over the rest of your lifetime.

If we can establish liability, we may be able to recover compensatory damages on your behalf. These are damages meant to make you whole. The amount of damages depends on the nature of the harm that results from the phlebotomist malpractice. Compensatory damages can include both economic and noneconomic losses. Economic losses include lost wages, medical bills, rehabilitation, and therapy. For instance, if you needed surgery and rehabilitation due to severe nerve damage, the expense of the operation and rehabilitation sessions might be something you could recover. Noneconomic losses may include lost earning capacity, loss of enjoyment, loss of consortium, pain and suffering and mental anguish. These losses can vary significantly from plaintiff to plaintiff. Sometimes malpractice results in harm that leaves a patient unable to enjoy the particular activities in which she used to participate. For example, if you used to paint and play music, but could no longer do so because of paralysis stemming from nerve damage, the jury would try to quantify the loss of enjoyment of life and award those in damages.

If you are injured as a result of phlebotomist malpractice, you may be able to recover damages by filing a lawsuit. At DeFrancisco & Falgiatano, our tough, knowledgeable lawyers can fight for you if you were harmed by malpractice in Rochester, Syracuse, or other cities in Upstate New York, including in Lyons, Oneida, Cooperstown, Oswego, Auburn, Canandaigua, Wampsville, Binghamton, Elmira, Watertown, Ithaca, Lowville, Herkimer, and Utica. Contact the attorneys of DeFrancisco & Falgiatano at 833-200-2000 or by completing our online form.