When you receive medical treatment from a licensed physician, you assume you’ll get the quality of care that you bargained for. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. Doctors can—and do—make life-threatening mistakes.
When medical malpractice, drug injuries, or elder abuse/negligence in a nursing home happens, you deserve to have a Tysons medical malpractice lawyer on your side. A personal injury attorney at Brien Roche Law will fight hard for your rights to get you the justice you deserve.
How do I Find a Medical Malpractice Lawyer?
There is no easy way to find a Tysons medical negligence lawyer. Word of mouth is probably the most reliable. Online searches of course can help. You need an attorney who knows how to evaluate complex cases. You need an attorney who is prepared to file suit on your behalf if necessary. You need an attorney who is prepared to take the case to trial if the insurance carrier is not prepared to reach a reasonable settlement.
Medical Malpractice Cases We Handle
Medical malpractice occurs when a hospital, doctor, or other health care professional causes an injury to a patient through a negligent act or omission. To pursue a medical malpractice claim, you must generally prove two (2) things: substandard care and what did that substandard care then cause in terms of injury.
Medical malpractice cases can be classified into three broad categories. One of them is surgical. Another is non-surgical. A third is the failure to properly disclose or to obtain informed consent.
The surgical cases involve some improper surgical technique or perhaps the performance of surgery when it was not necessary. The non-surgical cases typically involve some misdiagnosis or a failure to diagnose.
The third category of cases involves a failure to obtain informed consent. In any medical context, before performing a procedure, the doctor must inform the patient of what the risks are. The alternatives must be disclosed. And all of that should be explained to the patient in such a fashion that they give informed consent to the procedure being performed.
Here are some of the types of medical malpractice cases in Tysons that attorney Brien Roche handles:
- Misdiagnosis
- Surgical Injury
- Anesthesia Injury
- Failure to Diagnose
Here are some of the types of medical malpractice cases in Tysons that attorney Brien Roche handles:
- Misdiagnosis
- Surgical Injury
- Anesthesia Injury
- Failure to Diagnose
Who Do You Sue in a Medical Malpractice Case?
That can be a difficult question. Medical malpractice lawyers in Tysons are frequently accused of over-litigating. That is, sometimes you sue more people than may be absolutely necessary. That is sometimes done because you don’t know who the truly responsible party is.
In a complicated surgery, there may be several fingers in the pie. In Virginia, you have a two year statute of limitations. If you’re confronted with that statute of limitations, then sometimes you need to sue everybody in the operating room to be safe. If you don’t sue them within the time allowed, your claim against them is barred.
The most obvious persons to be sued are of course the person performing the procedure and their professional entity that they work for.
How Do You Prove the Relationship?
Without the help of a medical malpractice attorney, sometimes, it’s difficult proving the relationship between the person directly performing the procedure in Tysons and other persons that may be involved. That surgeon may be part of a large medical group. That surgeon may be an employee of the hospital. That surgeon may be an employee of some other entity, whose identity you will only learn by finding the bill that was issued.
What is Substandard Care in a Medical Malpractice Case?
Substandard care is proven by having another doctor in that specialty testify as to what the standard is. If the doctor you are suing fell below that standard, that doctor may be negligent. In addition to that, you then have to prove what damages that substandard care caused.
The important thing to keep in mind is the substandard care normally is proved through another physician. There typically is no textbook or manual that tells you what the standard is for that particular procedure, so it is important to have your medical malpractice attorney connect you with medical experts in Tysons.
What Damages Can be Recovered in a Medical Malpractice Case?
In Virginia, there is a cap on damages. That cap on damages goes up slightly every year. That cap is an absolute cap. It is not just a cap on noneconomic damages. It is a cap on all damages. If your medical bills caused by the negligence of the doctor were $3 million, you may not even recover your medical bills.
The insidious thing about caps on damages is that the insurance company will never pay you voluntarily what the cap amount is. If they know that their exposure is limited by the cap, then the real cap for purposes of settlement is much less than what the statutory cap is.
In general in Tysons medical malpractice cases, the damages an attorney may help you seek include any medical bills, loss of income and pain and suffering caused by the negligence.
What is the Statute of Limitations for a Medical Malpractice Case?
This can be a tricky question. The statute of limitations in general is two years from the date that you were injured. The tricky question becomes when does the statute of limitations begin to run. It may not begin to run until the continuous treatment by that provider ended. Those are difficult questions that need to be addressed by a competent medical malpractice attorney who has reviewed all of the facts of your case in Tysons.
Choose Brien Roche as Your Tysons Medical Malpractice Attorney
Brien Roche, a Tysons medical malpractice lawyer, has tried hundreds of jury cases to conclusion. He is the author of three well-recognized legal texts. Two of those legal texts deal exclusively with Virginia law. The Virginia Torts Case Finder was published nearly 40 years ago by Lexis Nexis. The Virginia Law Foundation, the arm of the continuing legal education system, is the publisher of Objections. Both of those texts deal exclusively with Virginia law. Law 101 was published nearly 30 years ago by Sourcebooks Publishing. The book has sold over 30,000 copies. Contact Brien Roche Law Firm today.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can we prove a medical malpractice case?
In a medical malpractice case, you need to be able to prove what the standard of care is, a breach of the standard of care, that the breach was a cause of damage and what those damages are. Typically the breach is proved through an expert witness in that same specialty. Likewise that witness may testify as to what the breach caused. You then need to prove what the actual damages are.
What types of damages can be awarded?
In a medical malpractice case, the damages typically fall into what is called “compensatory damages.” These damages are designed to compensate you for your loss. Those losses may be economic or non-economic:
- Economic damages are such things as medical bills and lost wages.
- Non-economic damages are intangible damages such as pain and suffering, emotional distress, grief, loss of a loved one, etc.
- Punitive damages may be recovered in certain instances but that is relatively rare in the medical malpractice context.
Who can be held accountable for my injury?
When most people think of medical malpractice, they think of physicians doing harm. But anyone who provides health care services that harm or injure a patient can be held accountable. So nurses, therapists, and a host of other people involved in your care may qualify as health care providers.
How long do I have to file a claim?
This differs from state to state, but in Virginia, the time limit for malpractice cases typically is two years. There are several exceptions to that and as such, each case must be evaluated individually.
What types of compensation can I recover?
The goal of a medical malpractice claim is to seek compensation for your losses or damages. So the compensation you can recover should match your specific loss or damage.
If you lost income due to time off of work, you should be able to recover compensation for the lost wages. If you were injured and incurred medical care and bills to address the injury, you should be able to get compensation to cover those costs.
As indicated above, your damages in a medical malpractice case may be either economic or non-economic. Sometimes the economic losses are minor and the non-economic damages are the more compelling ones.
What kind of records do I need to prove nursing home negligence
Many records can help bolster your claim, such as admission sheets, progress notes, doctor notes, records of therapy, medication records, and lab/imaging studies, to name a few.
What is drug injury medical malpractice claim based on?
It is based on the usage of the product. Or, it may also be based upon a failure to obtain informed consent. That is, the fact that the intended use of the medicine varies from the actual use may be malpractice.
If the drug is being used for a purpose not approved by the FDA, then the patient has a right to know that. The doctor’s failure to provide that information may be malpractice. How strong that claim is may be a function of how far the doctor strayed from the FDA-approved usage.
