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3 Factors To Help You Decide If You Need To Hire A Lawyer Following A Car Accident
After being involved in a car accident, truck accident, motorcycle accident, pedestrian accident or bicycle accident, you may be wondering if you need to hire an attorney in order to seek a financial recovery from the insurance company. It may surprise you to read our answer, but we believe not every case requires legal representation. For example, some collision cases are so minor that there is no reason to hire a lawyer.
Determining When You Would Need a Lawyer
After a motor vehicle crash, you can benefit from hiring an attorney if any of the following factors are true:
Beware: Appendicitis May Be Misdiagnosed In The ER
Make no mistake about it, appendicitis is a true medical emergency as the appendix can rupture if treatment doesn't occur in a timely fashion. Sadly, many people are misdiagnosed, which causes a delay in treatment, resulting in serious injuries or even death.
Although many people are aware that low pain on the right side of the abdomen is a sign of appendicitis, sometimes appendicitis doesn't start out in the right quadrant of the abdomen. In fact, many people experience pain in the center of their stomachs along with vomiting and diarrhea that cause them to believe they have the flu. However, because the pain can become so bad, many people eventually end up at the emergency room to seek relief and treatment.
Diagnosing Appendicitis
In order to make an accurate diagnosis regarding any type of health condition, emergency room staff should conduct a personal history questionnaire to find out more about the patient. For example, a nurse or doctor would attempt to find out if a young female patient is anorexic, which would be a good indicator that the pain and symptoms she is experiencing are from appendicitis.
How Do Surgeons Operate On The Wrong Patient?
It may seem unthinkable that a surgery could be performed on the wrong patient, but it does occur. Although rare, these never events-wrong-site, wrong-procedure, wrong-patient errors-should never occur but when they do, medical malpractice action should be taken.
What Are Some of the Problems That Lead to Wrong-Patient Surgeries?
Generally, there isn't just one error that occurs that causes a patient mix-up, but a series of small mistakes, such as distractions, poor communication, verification errors, and more. Some of the issues that have contributed to people receiving operations intended for other patients include:
- Failure to have time-out meetings. Prior to surgery, surgeons have what they call "time-out" meetings with their surgical teams in the operating room. During these short meetings they are supposed to verify the patient's identity and other surgical information. Unfortunately, breakdowns in communication occur and sometimes patient identification is skipped over altogether.
LASIK And Vision Loss: Is My Virginia Doctor Giving Me All The Facts?
Ever since the procedure was introduced, LASIK has been the most commonly performed surgery in the United States. There are a number of TV ads claiming how fast, easy and effective LASIK is, that you can "throw away your glasses," that there's no reason to live without the fullest extent of your vision.
Unfortunately, many LASIK patients end up losing more than they gain.
Find out if your LASIK error is a case of malpractice in our FREE book: Do I Have A Case? A Patient's Guide to Virginia Medical Negligence Law.
LASIK surgery errors in Virginia are fairly common, but most patients have no idea how much they are risking when they enter the operating room. They buy into the advertising idea that the procedure is quick and painless-and above all, completely safe.
But those LASIK surgery ads are chock full of misleading information. For example:
- Inaccurate clinical information. Beware of any LASIK advertising that cites facts and figures, such as "effective in 90 percent of patients," without backing them up with references.
Emergency Car Kits for Virginia Crashes
The first thing you probably experienced after your Fairfax car accident was shock. Your head begins to spin. What do you do first? Should you get out of the car? Is anyone injured? Are YOU injured?Many people will freeze in their seats, held in by fear and panic. They wait for the police to arrive, afraid to make a move, afraid of making it worse. But the truth is, with a few deep breaths and little preparation, you may be able to save time-and even lives-while waiting for help to arrive.
Essential Items To Keep In Your Car's Emergency Kit
So what items should you pack in your car's emergency kit?
- First-aid kit. Car accident injuries can go well beyond band-aids. Think to extremes when packing: burn cream, scissors, gauze, medical tape, tourniquets, pain relievers and any medication your family could require in an emergency, such as an inhaler. Even if you think you won't need them, you don't want to be without them.
- Lights and road flares. An overwhelming majority of DC car crashes happen at night, but many drivers will neglect to carry a flashlight in their car. Lights can also help you inspect your vehicle after an accident and flag down passing motorists. Use flares to alert speeding drivers to your distress.
When Doctors Misdiagnose Colon Cancer
Colon cancer (also known as colorectal cancer) is the second deadliest type of cancer in the U.S.-affecting both men and women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This is why it is important that people over the age of 50, as well as younger people who experience symptoms of colon cancer, get screened on a regular basis. If colon cancer is found at an early stage, the survival rate is high. But the sad reality is that sometimes colon cancer is misdiagnosed, allowing it to progress and advance too far.
How Is Colon Cancer Misdiagnosed?
Some ways in which colorectal cancer may be misdiagnosed by medical professionals include:
- Signs and symptoms are missed. Doctors may miss the signs of colon cancer in women because it is often thought to be a man's disease. This is why many women are misdiagnosed, even though they may experience several signs of colon cancer such as stomach discomfort, abdominal pain, changes in stool, rectal bleeding, weight loss, weakness, and more. Also, colon cancer usually affects an older population, which is why some doctors may disregard the seriousness of certain symptoms in younger people.
Medical Negligence: When Children Are Given Incorrect Dosages Of Medication
Medications are powerful. Although they have the power to heal, they also have the power to cause serious harm. This is especially the case when the wrong medication or incorrect dosage of drug is administered in a hospital or filled at a pharmacy.
While any type of medication mishap can have unfortunate consequences, medication mistakes involving babies and children can be deadly. Sadly, these types of mistakes occur far too often and are the result of carelessness and negligence by trained medical professionals, such as nurses, doctors, and pharmacists.
Children Are Seriously Affected by Medication Mistakes
One common type of medication mishap that affects children is when they are given the wrong dosage of medication. Most medications are formulated for adult dosages. When the same medication is used for children, it must be diluted using calculations performed by the doctor or pharmacist based on the child's weight. This leaves huge room for error-a misplaced decimal point increases a dosage by ten times. When a small child is given an overdose of medicine it can be life-threatening due to the child's small size and immature kidneys, liver, and immune system. Even a small increase in dosage could prove fatal for children, especially premature infants.
The Reality Of Medical Negligence Causing Physical Injuries
Patients are often injured as a result of medical negligence-whether on the part of a doctor, nurse, anesthesiologist, pharmacist, technician, or other health care worker. When a trained medical professional makes a bad judgment call, slip of the hand, medication mistake, or other critical error, life can forever change for the patient who put his life in the hands of a health care professional.
Not only can medical negligence cause a patient to have a longer hospital stay, extra medical bills, more time off work, and the inability to return to his regular routine, but sometimes a medical error can lead to disabling injuries. Sadly, one of the biggest adverse effects of medical negligence is the physical disabilities patients can suffer as a result of a serious medical error.
The Many Disabling Effects of Medical Negligence
Some of the disabling injuries caused by medical malpractice include:
- Birth-related physical injuries. An injury to the mother or child during labor and delivery can lead to a permanent physical injury. For example, an anesthesiologist may have made a critical error in administering the epidural or spinal block, which caused the mother to suffer paralysis of the legs. Or an obstetrician may have been too forceful pulling the baby out of the birth canal and caused the baby to suffer cerebral palsy or a brachial plexus injury such as Erb's palsy. This can lead to a lifetime of physical challenges, such as the baby being born with a paralyzed arm.
What Can I Do If My Colon Cancer Was Misdiagnosed By A Virginia Doctor?
When people worry, it affects them physically. A stressful day at work or harrowing personal problems may often leave people feeling sick to their stomachs.
But what if, while you're worrying about everyday life, you actually have something much bigger to worry about?
Was your Virginia cancer misdiagnosed? Learn what to do with our FREE book: Do I Have A Case? A Patient's Guide to Virginia Medical Negligence Law.
Many people shrug off stomach difficulties as facts of life, swallowing antacids and coping with the pain. But many of these people are actually suffering the symptoms of colon cancer-and may not find out the truth until it's too late.
Colon cancer in Virginia is often misdiagnosed as one of the following conditions:
- Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). IBS has become a common condition in the past few years. Unfortunately, it has also become a "go-to" diagnosis for overworked doctors who believe their patients are over-concerned about their pain.
How Do Family Dynamics Change When A Parent Suffers A Brain Injury?
There are many different relationships a person has in his or her lifetime, but a parent-child relationship is one of the most important. Although the relationship starts at birth, a parent-child relationship continues to develop over many years. As the relationship matures, both the parent and child develop an understanding of one another. For example, a child comes to expect that the parent will care for him or her, and a parent will learn to anticipate the child's needs.
Brain Injuries Can Affect Parent-Child Relationships
Typically, parents are nurturers and providers. When something causes this to change, such as a brain injury, a parent may no longer be able to provide affection, guidance, or support. Unfortunately, a brain injury can put a strain on the parent-child relationship, especially if the child is young and doesn't fully understand the reason his or her parent has changed.
Some of the reasons a parent-child relationship changes due to a brain injury include:
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From our office in Fairfax, Shevlin Smith, P.C. serves clients throughout Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C., including Alexandria, Annandale, Arlington, Ashburn, Burke, Centreville, Dale City, Fair Oaks, Leesburg, Manassas, McLean, Oakton, Reston, Springfield, and Woodbridge, as well as Fairfax County, Arlington County, Fauquier County, Loudoun County, and Prince William County.
Results listed are not a guarantee or indication of future case results.
