Fairfax, VA Medical Malpractice Attorney

Respected Medical Malpractice Lawyers Protecting Injured Patients in Fairfax, Virginia

When you receive medical care, you trust that doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals will take the proper steps to protect your health and well-being. When providers are negligent in the care and treatment they provide, you may suffer serious harm. Understanding how to address injuries that you have suffered because of negligent medical care is not always easy, but with legal help from a skilled lawyer, you can take steps to recover compensation for your damages.

Medical malpractice cases can be complex. They will require a detailed understanding of medical issues and the legal concerns that may affect claims. At Shevlin Smith, P.C., our attorney has the experience needed to ensure that these issues will be addressed correctly. He can obtain and carefully analyze medical records, consult with qualified medical professionals, and take steps to demonstrate that injuries occurred because medical providers failed to meet the proper standards of care.

Addressing Different Types of Medical Malpractice

Misdiagnosis and Delayed Diagnosis

A correct and timely diagnosis is crucial to ensure that a person can receive appropriate medical care. When a doctor does not diagnose a patient's condition correctly or takes too long to identify the cause of a patient's symptoms, the person may not receive the treatment they need. Their actual condition may continue to progress, and they may suffer harm when the wrong types of treatment are provided. Misdiagnosis may involve issues such as:

• Cancer: A timely diagnosis can be crucial when treating cancer. When cancer is identified at an early stage, steps may be taken to prevent it from spreading while protecting a person's overall health. The delay caused by a missed or incorrect diagnosis of cancer may limit a person's treatment options or require them to undergo more invasive treatments. Our lawyer represents patients who have been affected by misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis of breast cancer, colorectal cancer, lung cancer, and other types of cancer.
• Heart Attacks: Every minute matters when a person is experiencing a heart attack. The muscles in the heart can be permanently damaged due to a lack of blood flow. The extent of that damage may depend on how quickly treatment is provided. If a doctor believes that chest pain, shortness of breath, or other symptoms are related to a less serious condition or does not provide the proper treatment for a heart attack within the right timeframe, a person may experience lasting damage to the heart.
• Infections/Sepsis: Medical providers will need to recognize serious infections, and when they fail to do so, an infection can progress to sepsis, which can lead to issues such as organ failure, permanent disability, or death. A provider's failure to recognize an infection or sepsis, failure to administer antibiotics, or failure to take the proper steps when a patient's condition worsens may be responsible for injuries that occur as a result.

Medication Errors

Multiple medical providers may be involved in prescribing, administering, or dispensing medications. Medication errors made by providers can cause patients to suffer serious harm. Negligence may include prescribing the wrong medication, ordering the wrong dose, failing to check for allergies or dangerous drug interactions, dispensing the wrong drug from a pharmacy, or administering a medication incorrectly in a hospital or medical office. Our attorneys can address medication errors by doctors, pharmacists, nurses, or other providers.

Surgical Errors

Surgical procedures can be risky, and the teams that perform surgery will need to follow the correct procedures and take steps to protect the health and safety of patients. Surgical errors can cause patients to suffer serious harm, and they may include surgery on the wrong body part, improper techniques that damage organs or other body parts, surgical instruments or objects that are left inside a patient's body, or the failure to provide the proper care after a procedure. Our lawyer can help address injuries that have occurred during surgical procedures, ensuring that negligent providers will be held responsible.

Anesthesia Errors

During surgery or other procedures, patients may receive anesthesia to control their pain or ensure that they will remain unconscious. Anesthesia errors can cause patients to suffer serious harm, and in some cases, they may lead to wrongful death. Administering too much anesthesia can lead to heart problems or brain injuries. Administering too little anesthesia can result in a patient regaining consciousness during surgery. Failure to manage a person's airways correctly while they are under anesthesia can lead to oxygen deprivation. Our attorney works to ensure that anesthesiologists will be held responsible for injuries caused by their negligence.

Birth Injuries

During pregnancy, labor, and delivery, a mother and baby may be at risk of injuries due to negligent medical care. Birth injuries can affect a child for the rest of their life, or they may result in serious or fatal harm to a mother. Our lawyer can address multiple types of birth injuries, including cerebral palsy caused by oxygen deprivation and brain injuries during labor and delivery, Erb's palsy resulting from brachial plexus injuries, failure to treat infections correctly, improper use of delivery instruments, delays in performing C-sections, and infant death or maternal death due to medical negligence.

Negligence By Different Medical Providers

Medical malpractice can occur at any point during a patient's care. Our attorney can address:

Doctor Malpractice

Physicians are responsible for diagnosing conditions and making decisions about a patient's treatment. Doctor malpractice may include misdiagnosis, prescription errors, failure to obtain informed consent, mismanagement of a patient's treatment, or failure to refer patients to specialists when necessary. Our lawyer can help address malpractice by primary care providers, specialists, or other types of physicians.

Nurse Malpractice

Nurses will often spend the most time with patients, and they are responsible for monitoring patients' conditions, administering medications, and ensuring that doctors are informed about issues that may affect patients' health. Nursing negligence may include the failure to recognize changes in a patient's condition, medication administration errors, failure to communicate findings to doctors, and failure to advocate for a patient whose health and safety may be at risk. Our attorney can assist with nursing malpractice claims against individual nurses and the facilities that employ them.

Hospital Malpractice

Hospitals are required to meet certain standards to ensure that the health and well-being of patients is protected. When they fail to do so, they may be held responsible for injuries suffered by patients. Hospital malpractice can take many forms. Inadequate staffing may prevent nurses from being able to manage the care of patients. Infections may occur due to a failure to follow the proper sanitation procedures. Fall injuries may occur when patients are not supervised correctly or when assistance is not provided when necessary. Our lawyer can take legal action against hospitals to address their failure to provide the proper care for patients.

Emergency Room Malpractice

When patients receive treatment for emergency medical issues, they will often need to be provided with timely care to prevent them from suffering serious harm. Emergency room negligence can have catastrophic consequences. Triage errors may prevent a patient from being seen and treated in time. The failure to recognize conditions such as heart attacks, strokes, pulmonary embolisms, or sepsis may prevent a patient from receiving timely treatment. The proper diagnostic tests may not be ordered, or patients may be discharged prematurely. Our attorney can help address injuries that have occurred because of negligent care in emergency rooms.

Contact Our Fairfax Medical Malpractice Lawyer

At Shevlin Smith, P.C., our lawyer can help address injuries that have been caused by medical negligence. He will make sure the right steps are taken to obtain compensation for the damages a patient has suffered. Contact our Fairfax, VA medical negligence attorney at 703-591-0067 to set up a free consultation.