Medical malpractice is a deviation from acceptable medical standards that causes an injury to the patient. The act of negligence can be committed by a physician, doctor, nurse, technician, hospital, dentist and other healthcare providers. Medical malpractice victims can range from babies who suffer an injury during birth to adults who were given unnecessary medical procedures. The injuries received from medical malpractice are varying in degree from disfigurement or a permanent injury such as a brain injury or possibly even cause a wrongful death.
While these damages are applicable to other personal injury or injury lawsuits such as trip and fall or an injury from a dog bite, our Manhattan Medical Malpractice Lawyer team will focus on two main types of damages:
Compensatory Damages
Compensatory damages are an award of monies paid to individuals to remedy the negligent acts of the healthcare providers, a reimbursement of lost wages and potential lost wages, and monies to compensate for pain and suffering. Compensatory damages are intended to compensate the injury of a person so they will be better off than prior to the medical malpractice incident. Our Manhattan Medical Malpractice Lawyers will fight for you to receive compensatory damages.
Punitive Damages
Punitive damages are damages awarded when a medical provider willfully, recklessly or negligently commits medical malpractice. On your behalf, the Manhattan Medical Practice Lawyer will seek punitive damages to punish the physician for their negligent actions.
If the negligent behavior of a physician or healthcare provider is the cause of your injury, each Manhattan Medical Malpractice Lawyer in our office will focus on several areas of concern. First of all, was the procedure or treatment necessary and appropriate for the patient’s medical condition? Malpractice is committed on many patients, including when the patient has the wrong surgery or procedure or when no procedure was necessary to treat the patient’s condition. These unfortunate situations can be a result of misinterpretation or misreading of the patient’s initial tests.
Medical malpractice includes a variety of misconduct by a doctor or another healthcare provider including:
Under New York law, a Manhattan Medical Malpractice Lawyer has two and a half years to file a medical malpractice lawsuit against the offending health care professional. If the medical malpractice incident includes the presence of a foreign item in the patient’s body, the lawsuit must be filed within one year from the date the object was left or should have been found.
Sometimes, a case may involve more than one type of claim. For instance, your injury may have been caused by a scaffold accident or another form of construction accident, but during your medical treatment, your treating physician commits a negligent act. This case could possibly involve a workers compensation claim as well as a medical malpractice claim.
If you or a family member are a victim of medical malpractice, please contact Stephen Bilkis & Associates, PLLC for a free consultation online or at 800.696.9529 or stop by our Manhattan office to schedule an appointment. In addition to other locations, we also have offices located in Brooklyn, the Bronx, as well as in as Staten Island, for your convenience.