Irvine Emergency Room Errors Lawyer

Being injured by a medical professional when you go to the emergency room for help can be very distressing to most people. In an emergency situation, you trust the hospital to take care of you or your family’s medical needs. When that trust is misplaced or violated, an Irvine emergency room errors lawyer can help you find justice.

Whether the error resulted in physical harm or emotional damages, you may be eligible for compensation for those injuries. Most medical personnel are also covered by medical malpractice insurance, so an experienced medical malpractice lawyer may be able to work with them directly instead.

Common Emergency Room Errors

There are several ways an individual can be harmed in an emergency room.

Some of the most common scenarios are:

  • Misidentifying an illness
  • Overlooking serious symptoms
  • Prescribing the wrong medication
  • Administrating the wrong dosage of medicine
  • Refusing to treat a patient because of their lack of insurance or inability to pay
  • Not ordering the correct tests or misreading the tests
  • Failing to provide adequate follow-up care
  • A serious delay in treating patients
  • Not taking an appropriately thorough medical history

Emergency Room Errors Laws

There is no specific law for emergency room errors. Instead, this is covered under California’s medical malpractice laws. One important thing to know is that California has a statute of limitations for medical malpractice, meaning that a person has to bring the case to court within three years of the injury or one year after discovering the injury or they lose the right to do so altogether. An Irvine emergency room errors lawyer can help loved ones navigate the claim-filing  process if they are interested

Are There Exceptions to the Statute of Limitations?

The exceptions to the statute of limitations are if the medical provider committed fraud, intentionally concealed the error or left an instrument in the person’s body. There is a different statute of limitations for children. Like the normal statute of limitations, generally, a case should be filed within three years of the injury. However, for children under eight, a loved one can file within three years or before they turn eight. Filing all depends on whichever time period is longer.

How Does a Lawyer Prove Medical Malpractice?

To prove medical malpractice, a lawyer will have to show that the medical care professional that caused the injury was not following the standard of care that other medical professionals are held to. This is done through expert witness testimony to establish what the medical professional standard is. Then the lawyer will show how the plaintiff’s provider did not meet that standard.

California follows the comparative negligence standard. If the medical professional can show that the patient contributed to their injury (by failing to follow medical directions, for example) then the amount of damages can be reduced by the amount the patient was responsible. If the injuries caused $1,000 worth of damages but the patient was 10 percent responsible, then the patient can only recover $900.

Speak to an Irvine Emergency Room Errors Attorney

Individuals decide they do not want to deal with the court system because of its expense and how long a trial can take. In that case, an Irvine emergency room errors lawyer can help you negotiate a settlement directly with the hospital or with the medical malpractice insurance company. If you do want to proceed to trial, a lawyer can help you by showing that the medical professionals involved in your care did not meet the standards held by other medical professionals.