Leesburg, VA Medical Malpractice Lawyer

Skilled Medical Malpractice Lawyer Pursuing Justice for Patients in Leesburg, Virginia

Patients rely on doctors, nurses, surgeons, and other medical providers to ensure that they receive the proper care that will address their health issues. When medical professionals provide negligent care, the consequences for patients can be serious. Medical malpractice can lead to severe injuries that may permanently affect people's lives.

At Shevlin Smith, P.C., our attorney understands the role that negligence plays in medical malpractice cases, and he works to ensure that clients can hold medical providers and facilities responsible for the harm that people have suffered in these situations. He can help injury victims understand their rights, and he will provide guidance on the best steps to take to secure compensation for the harm that medical negligence has caused.

Doctor Malpractice

Doctors play a central role in medical care for patients. They are responsible for diagnosing conditions correctly, selecting the appropriate treatments, prescribing medications safely, and making sure patients are fully informed about their options. Negligence by doctors can lead to serious injuries, and it may include:

Misdiagnosis and Delayed Diagnosis

A correct and timely diagnosis will need to be made to ensure that the proper medical care can be provided to treat a specific condition. When a doctor does not fully assess a patient's condition, does not order the proper tests, or does not consider all available information, they may make a misdiagnosis. This may involve incorrect conclusions about what is causing a patient's symptoms, failure to recognize a condition entirely, or taking too long to identify a serious illness.

Patients may be harmed by misdiagnosis in multiple ways. Incorrect treatment may have harmful side effects or lead to complications while failing to address a person's actual medical issues. The failure to treat a condition may cause a disease to progress, requiring more invasive treatments in the future or preventing a person from receiving the life-saving treatments that would have been available earlier.

The misdiagnosis or failure to diagnose cancer can be especially serious. When cancer is identified at an early stage, it may be treatable. However, if there are delays in diagnosing cancer, several months or years may pass, and the disease may advance to a more serious stage. At this point, more aggressive treatments may be needed, and a patient's prognosis may be worse. The patient may suffer serious harm that could have been prevented if a correct diagnosis had been made earlier.

Strokes are another condition in which patients may suffer injuries due to misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis. During every minute in which a stroke goes untreated, millions of neurons in the brain may die. If a doctor does not recognize a stroke and attributes symptoms like facial weakness, arm weakness, speech difficulty, or severe headaches to a migraine, anxiety, or inner ear disorder, irreversible damage may occur.

Other conditions can also have serious effects on the health of patients when they are misdiagnosed. Heart attacks, pulmonary embolisms, or serious infections can be medical emergencies that require treatment within small windows of time. Delays in diagnosing these conditions can threaten the health of patients or even lead to wrongful death.

Prescription Errors

When doctors prescribe medications, they will need to make sure the drugs they select are appropriate and that patients will receive the proper doses. They will also need to review a patient's medical history to avoid potential allergic reactions or dangerous interactions with other drugs. Informing patients of potential side effects can help ensure that their health and safety will be protected. When medication errors are made during the prescription stage, people may suffer serious harm.

Surgical Malpractice

When patients undergo surgery, errors by surgeons or other medical professionals can cause serious injuries. Surgical negligence may take place before, during, or after a procedure. Prior to surgery, a surgeon may not give a patient enough information to ensure that they can provide informed consent. A surgical team may fail to conduct a pre-operative assessment or implement the proper safety protocols, which could lead to wrong-site surgery or other errors.

During a procedure, a surgeon may not use the correct techniques. This may lead them to injure a patient by damaging internal organs or severing nerves or blood vessels. If they fail to keep track of the tools being used, they may leave objects inside a patient's body, which can result in infections or other injuries.

Medical providers may provide negligent care during the post-operative period, causing patients to suffer harm. They may fail to monitor a patient for complications or provide the proper wound care to prevent infections at the site of surgery. Premature discharge from a medical facility before a patient's condition is stable may put the patient at risk of injuries or medical issues that could affect their overall health.

Nursing Malpractice

Nurses will often spend the most time with patients while they are receiving medical care. In hospitals, emergency rooms, medical clinics, or other facilities, nursing negligence can cause patients to suffer serious harm.

Medication Administration Errors

Nurses will need to verify the identity of patients before giving them medications, and they must also confirm that the right drugs and doses are being provided. A nurse may administer a medication to the wrong patient, or they may provide a patient with a dose that is too high or too low. Injuries may also occur if nurses provide medications through the wrong route, such as by an injection rather than an oral dose.

Failure to Monitor Patients

Nurses will need to check the vital signs of patients at the required times, look for changes in a patient's status, evaluate wound sites and IVs, and address symptoms or other concerns that patients report. When nurses do not provide the monitoring that is needed, they may not recognize complications or symptoms. They may fail to report serious concerns to doctors, which may prevent patients from receiving the proper treatment.

Contact Our Leesburg Medical Malpractice Attorney

Because medical negligence can lead to serious harm, patients who have been affected by these issues will need to work with a skilled and experienced attorney to address their injuries and recover financial compensation. At Shevlin Smith, P.C., we can assist with multiple types of negligence by medical providers, and we will work to protect our clients' rights and help them obtain the compensation they deserve. Contact our Leesburg, VA medical malpractice injury lawyer at 703-591-0067 to set up a free consultation.