Medical Malpractice

Medical malpractice is any form of substandard medical care. Some of the more common types of medical malpractice are in the emergency room setting where sometime a combination of lack of staffing, lack of training, poor communication and poor follow-up occurs.

MR. MICHAEL GALPERN: Medical malpractice is defined legally as a doctor or a nurse or another healthcare provider offering services beneath the standard of care or breaching the standard of care. In layman’s terms, it’s medical negligence, similar to an automobile driving through a red light is automobile negligence, a doctor performing the wrong type of surgery, a nurse administering the wrong type of medication, a physician failing to follow-up on a complaint or diagnose a problem properly is known as medical negligence. Some of the more common types of medical malpractice, unfortunately, are in the emergency room setting where, for a lot of reasons, sometimes a combination of lack of staffing, lack of training, poor communication and poor follow-up, we see some of the worst type of medical disasters, but medical malpractice is by no means limited to the ER. Medical malpractice happens every day of every week of every month of every year in a doctor setting, in a doctor’s office, in a hospital, in a surgical suite, in terms of follow-up between a provider and a physician. Medical malpractice, in this day and age, is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States and it’s a tremendous problem, it’s an epidemic. Over 20,000 people a year die of medical malpractice. That’s the equivalent of a jumbo 747 fully loaded going down every single day for a year. That’s how pervasive and significant the problem of medical malpractice is in the United States today. In terms of who’s responsible, it’s important to think about what the patient expects. When we go to a doctor or we go to a therapist or we go to a specialist, we expect them to have basic, minimum training to properly diagnose--easily diagnose problems, properly treat easily treatable problems. People make mistakes, but when a mistake is made due to poor training, poor follow-up, poor communication, that’s medical negligence. Another cause is the medical society does a pretty poor job of policing their own members and these malpracticing physician, malpracticing nurses, malpracticing hospitals are not rooted out. They’re not exposed and the only recourse a patient has is through the legal system. If you believe you or a loved one is a victim of medical malpractice or medical negligence, you need to speak to an attorney who regularly handles these types of cases. There’s a select, small percentage of attorneys who handle these type of cases. At the Locks Law Firm, we’ve been handling these cases for 40 years. We have the resources. We have the skills. We have the wherewithal and we have the expert witnesses to help us decipher whether this was simply a bad medical result or truly medical malpractice. And it’s very, very important to see an attorney early. If you believe you or a loved one are the victim of medical negligence, it’s important to call the Locks Law Firm now. Don’t wait. Don’t delay. There’s no charge. There is no risk and it’s important to have an attorney review the case thoroughly as early as possible.