You depend on your medical care providers to deliver exceptional services that prioritize your health and improve your quality of life. Unfortunately, medical staffers are often overwhelmed, overworked, and ultimately unable to provide the level of care each patient warrants and deserves. Per California law, a medical care professional can be held legally responsible for making a detrimental medication error, significantly injuring a patient, or committing a “surgical never event.”
Examples of medical malpractice include, but are not limited to:
- Misdiagnosis or failure to diagnose
- Surgery performed on the wrong body part
- Surgery performed on the wrong patient
- Patient injury or disability due to prescription errors
- Transfusion of incompatible organs
- Directly injuring a patient with equipment or a surgical tool
- Patient injury or disability due to contaminated surgical devices
If you’ve been injured by a medical professional while seeking treatment, you may be able to file a medical malpractice claim and recover damages that can facilitate your recovery, account for any lost wages, and compensate you for your pain and suffering. There is, regrettably, a controversial $250,000 cap on non-economic damages, which includes pain and suffering.
It’s important to understand the statute of limitations in California before you pursue your claim. All states have unique deadlines when it comes to filing personal injury or medical malpractice lawsuits. These deadlines are called the “statute of limitations.” In California, a plaintiff can file a medical malpractice claim within three years of the date of the injury, or 1 year after the discovery of the injury.
Possible exceptions to the statute of limitations include:
- Cases involving minors
- The healthcare provider committing fraud to hide the injury
- A surgeon or doctor leaving a foreign object (like a surgical tool) inside a patient
Pursue Damages with an Experienced Attorney
If you’re ready to file a medical malpractice claim, contact the Northern California medical malpractice lawyers at the Law Offices of Larry S. Buckley. Not only can we represent your case in court, we can also help you contact a network of dependable doctors and therapists who can provide you with any medical treatments you require.
Call the Law Offices of Larry S. Buckley at (530) 413-0245 to schedule a free consultation.