Medical malpractice cases can happen at any time, usually when people least expect.
Most physicians and surgeons do a really good job and have hundreds of happy patients. However, doctors are humans and humans do make mistakes now and then. If the error is small, it’s forgivable and forgotten. If the error severely injures someone or his or her life, this is medical malpractice with negligence and it is grounds for a lawsuit.
“Take the case of a woman that we read about who had a partial knee replacement and the doctor never took an X-ray of her knee to see if the hardware was in the right spot until after the surgery. Despite what the X-rays showed, that there was some question about the placement of the hardware, nothing was done about it and the patient was waved on to go to physiotherapy,” said Charlie Donahue, a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States.
As time passed, the patient kept having severe problems with pain that would not quit. In desperation, the woman finally went to an orthopedist to find out what was wrong. He took an X-ray to see what was going on in the knee and lo and behold, it showed the hardware was in the wrong place. That meant the patient needed corrective surgery, less than three months after first having the initial operation.
“To say that the woman was not a happy camper would be an understatement, largely because while she initially went for a partial knee replacement, she now needed a total knee replacement,” New Hampshire personal injury lawyer Donahue said. The first partial knee replacement was intended to last for 10 to 12 years. However, because the first doctor didn’t do his job correctly and place the hardware in the right location, the woman needed surgery earlier than expected under general anesthesia.
In this case, the first surgeon didn’t do his job. He didn’t take an X-ray until the operation was over and then, even when he did take an X-ray and was questioning if the knee hardware was properly placed, he chose to do nothing about what he saw in the X-ray and sent the patient to physiotherapy. Ultimately, the agony she went through initially was a result of medical negligence.
“Does this lady have a viable medical malpractice case? Yes, and she should be able to recover medical expenses for both surgeries, pain and suffering, medications, therapy and other related costs. When things go wrong with your doctor and you wind up hurting, call me. I’d be pleased to assess your case, discuss your rights and outline how medical malpractice cases proceed,” Donahue said. “It’s your life, your body and your future. You depended on a doctor that let you down and changed how you will live the rest of your life. Things like this need to be talked about.”
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