Injuries Caused By Healthcare Provider Negligence

When you’re struggling with a medical issue, you put your faith in healthcare professionals. You trust that they have training and specialized medical knowledge, so you accept their diagnosis and follow their instructions. If your physician gets it wrong, their negligence can worsen your condition and diminish your trust. If their actions harmed you instead of healed you, they may owe you compensation.

At Baber Law, we understand that healthcare professionals sometimes harm their patients. When this happens, you must remain proactive. If you feel worse than before you began treatment, or you feel something’s not quite right, you must ask questions and demand answers. You must realize that if your provider committed an error, omission, or negligent act, they won’t always let you know.

Prompt Legal Action

Contact us as soon as possible if you suspect your healthcare provider committed a negligent act. Whether the act involves you, your child, or a family member, timing is important. Medical malpractice cases involve complex analysis and focused legal attention. As your attorney, we commit to investigating and evaluating your case, protecting your legal rights, and taking action on your behalf.

Types of Medical Negligence

As there are so many medical specialties, it’s not easy to create a comprehensive list of all types of potential medical malpractice. Here are a few:

• Negligent Surgery: While operating on patients, physicians can commit a variety of negligent acts: accidental lacerations while cutting with a scalpel, items left inside the patient, contamination, and other problems.
• Missed or Delayed Diagnosis: When a patient has a serious condition such as cancer, a delay can affect their chances for recovery.
• Wrong Diagnosis: If a medical professional diagnoses and treats the wrong condition, their actions allow the real problem to remain untreated.
• Prescription Errors: Inaccurate patient instructions, incorrect dosage, or the wrong medications can affect recovery and cause adverse reactions.
• Negligent Anesthesia Administration: Some patients have adverse reactions after receiving too little or too much anesthesia.
• Inappropriate or Dangerous Practices: A physician may be liable for adverse reactions to experimental treatments or drugs prescribed for off-label use.
• Psychiatric/Mental Health Malpractice or Negligence: Mental health professionals are responsible for non-standard practices or therapies.

If your healthcare provider realizes they committed an error, omission, or negligent act, they may not choose to share the information with you. As a patient, you will be the first one to realize there may be a problem. Unfortunately, your physician might not acknowledge your concerns. It’s up to you to recognize what’s happening and get the legal help you need.

How We Investigate Connecticut Medical Malpractice Cases

When we accept a client’s medical malpractice case, we begin an immediate investigation. Medical professionals tend to keep potentially negative records confidential. That’s why we begin our investigation by focusing on our clients’ treatment history and medical outcomes. We seek to confirm that the injury occurred solely because of the negligent act.

• We may request an independent medical examination to verify the harm caused.
• We may also engage a medical expert to confirm the healthcare provider’s negligent act.
• If a case involves a fatality, we obtain any autopsy, coroner reports, or other official reports.

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Liability For Medical Malpractice Injuries

When we complete our initial investigation, we assess the evidence to determine if your provider breached their duty of care. We ask and answer the following basic questions:

• Duty owed: Did the patient have a valid healthcare provider-patient relationship?
• Breach of the standard of care: Did their treatment fall below the accepted standard of care?
• Causation: Is there a direct link between this breach of duty and an injury or death?
• Damages: Did the patient endure harm because of the breach of duty?

Filing a Medical Malpractice Suit

When we initiate legal action against a medical professional, the standard of proof differs from other personal injury cases. When we file a lawsuit, our law firm must demonstrate that we have grounds for a good faith belief that a healthcare provider was negligent. Any initial complaint/pleading we file on a client’s behalf must meet standards outlined in CGS §52-190a:

• Our medical malpractice attorney must certify that we made a reasonable inquiry into the circumstances of our client’s claims.
• We must state, in good faith, that we believe the healthcare practitioner provided negligent care.
• We must demonstrate good faith by providing a certificate with a written, signed opinion from a board-certified healthcare provider with a similar practice specialty.
• The opinion must agree that there appears to be evidence of medical negligence.
• The “similar healthcare provider must include a  “…detailed basis for the formation of such opinion…” The court grants an automatic 90-day extension to comply with this requirement.
• Our law firm must retain the original certificate and attach a copy to the complaint without identifying the opinion provider.
• Once we complete discovery, if the court finds no justifiable issue to confirm malpractice, they may sanction the attorney who submitted the certificate of good faith. The court may also refer the attorney for disciplinary review.

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Damages We May Recover

When we settle or try your medical malpractice claim, we may recover economic, non-economic, and in some cases, punitive damages:

• Economic Damages: These are current and future out-of-pocket costs for treatment, recovery, and rehabilitation. These may include medical bills, lost income, medications, and other related expenses.

• Non-Economic Damages: We negotiate these damages based on your personal feelings and how your pain, suffering, disfigurement, psychological issues, and permanent disabilities affect your life.

• Punitive Damages: A Connecticut jury may award punitive damages when a defendant acted recklessly, intentionally, and maliciously.

Settling Your Case

When possible, our medical malpractice lawyer settles claims outside of the courtroom. Unfortunately, the complicated nature of these cases often forces harmed parties into litigation.

• Hospitals, doctors, and other healthcare providers prefer not to admit that they were negligent.
• Sometimes it’s difficult to find a similar provider who’s willing to certify a fellow professional’s negligence.
• Some medical malpractice policies give negligent medical professionals the right to agree or disagree with settling a case.

As settlement offers benefits to both sides, we resolve many medical malpractice cases without enduring a lengthy court process. Settlement allows the healthcare provider to avoid negative publicity. Plaintiffs and defendants avoid the unpredictable nature of a jury trial. However, if the liable party refuses to agree to fair terms, we will be fully prepared to go to trial to decide your case.

Alternative Dispute Resolution

Connecticut’s Judicial Branch offers a series of voluntary Alternative Dispute Resolution programs for parties to resolve cases without going to trial:

• Arbitration (Civil cases under $50,000): Parties may go to trial if they don’t like the decision.
• Attorney Trial Referees (Civil, non-jury cases, no limit): A court must review and approve decisions.
• Judicial-ADR (J-ADR) – Formerly Court-Annexed Mediation: Litigating parties hold a conference with a judge.

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Medical Malpractice Filing Deadlines

Connecticut’s medical malpractice statute of limitations gives victims two years from the date the malpractice occurred to file a lawsuit. With few exceptions, if you miss this deadline, you may lose your right to recover damages. Certain exceptions may change the deadline.

• Discovery: The statute of limitations begins running after you discovered or should have discovered your injury through the exercise of “reasonable care.”

• Statute of Repose: This provision limits the discovery deadline. It limits your statute of limitations to a maximum of three years after the act of malpractice.

• Minors: When a healthcare professional injures a minor, their statute of limitations begins running at the age of majority. Once they reach age 18, they have two years to file a lawsuit or settle their claim.

Statute of limitations issues can be complicated. For clarification, we recommend that you contact Baber Law Firm as soon as possible once you suspect a medical malpractice injury.

Connecticut Medical Malpractice Attorney

If you believe your medical professional injured you, contact Baber Law as soon as possible to schedule a free consultation. Attorney Nate Baber and our legal team can review your case, protect your rights, and take the appropriate steps to resolve your claim.

• Call Us: 855-285-3425
• Schedule A Consultation: On this page or Visit Our Contact Page