Settlements for Emergency Room Malpractice

There is little room for error in the emergency room. When you go to the emergency room, you expected to be diagnosed and treated appropriately. Unfortunately, like other health care providers, ER doctors do make mistakes, which are compounded by the hectic and fast-paced conditions in the emergency room, and these mistakes can have terrible consequences. If you need to obtain an emergency room malpractice settlement, you should consult the seasoned Syracuse medical malpractice lawyers of DeFrancisco & Falgiatano Personal Injury Attorneys. We have secured awards and settlements of millions of dollars for our clients.

Often emergency room malpractice involves diagnostic errors. Sometimes ER doctors do not accurately and immediately diagnose serious medical conditions. A patient can develop serious injuries or die due to delay or failure to properly triage. However, not every mistake made in an ER is grounds for a medical malpractice lawsuit. To recover damages, we will look at whether ER staff departed from the professional standard of care. The professional standard of care consists of accepted medical practices and can vary based on geographic region and specialty. The professional standard for an on-call heart specialist in Syracuse may be different from the professional standard of care for one of the regular ER doctors in another region of New York. In most cases, we’ll need to consult a medical expert about what our clients’ ER doctors should have done differently.

Emergency room errors happen for a range of reasons. These include improper triage, lack of training, understaffing, overwork, failure to diagnose illnesses or injuries, failure to follow procedures, performing improper procedures, failing to obtain an ER patient’s medical history, failure to provide prompt medical care, failure to refer a patient to a specialist, medication errors, and failure to perform emergency surgery.

The nature of your injuries will determine the amount of settlement money we seek. Certain mistakes result in minor injuries, while others inflict catastrophic harm on a patient and his or her family. For example, a failure to act when there are symptoms of stroke could result in brain damage, permanent disability or even wrongful death. An ER doctor’s failure diagnose an internal brain bleed could cause a patient to develop difficulties breathing and brain damage.

In most cases, the damages recovered in a successful emergency malpractice case are compensatory. Both economic and noneconomic losses may be recovered as part of a settlement, and these damages can cover past, present, or future losses.

Settlement of economic damages requires documentation. Economic damages are tangible losses, usually documented, that arise as a result of the malpractice. They may include:

• Lost wages,
• The costs of medical treatment arising out of the error,
• Caregiving,
• Medical equipment,
• Medications,
• Out-of-pocket costs,
• And replacement services.

Suppose, for example, that an ER doctor failed to diagnose your heart attack and sent you home. If, as a result, you had a more massive heart attack and needed multiple surgeries, along with replacement services such as a housekeeper, and around-the-clock care for months, these may be recoverable. We would submit receipts, invoices, bills, and perhaps expert testimony to support your claim; this aspect of settlement negotiations can be more straightforward in cases involving minor injuries inflicted in the ER.

Noneconomic damages from emergency room malpractice can include pain and suffering, emotional distress, and mental anguish. These can vary dramatically based what the defendant, its attorneys, and insurer believe about how a jury interprets your case and what would flow from your losses.

If your loved one died due medical malpractice in an emergency room, you may have grounds to bring a wrongful death lawsuit and recover a settlement that includes medical bills, funeral costs, burial costs, lost wages a victim was earning, reduction in inheritance a victim would have left to survivors, services that victim provided like childcare, and loss of parental guidance based on the parent’s life expectancy.

If you were injured or a loved one was killed, call our seasoned Syracuse attorneys. DeFrancisco & Falgiatano Personal Injury Attorneys has more than 30 years of experience seeking the best possible settlements and awards for injured ER patients and their families in Herkimer, Oswego, Canandaigua, Lowville, Auburn, Buffalo, Oneida, Utica, Rochester, Albany, Elmira, Wampsville, Watertown, Lyons, Ithaca, Cooperstown, Binghamton, and all of Upstate New York. For a free consultation, complete our online form or call us at 833-200-2000.