Medical Malpractice

handle a variety of medical malpractice cases including those arising from:

• Surgical Errors: It goes without saying that an error during surgery can be catastrophic for the patient. Every year, thousands of surgical errors occur in the United States, resulting in amputations, infections, permanent disabilities, and death. Common examples of surgical errors include leaving a foreign object inside a patient and operating on the wrong patient or the wrong body part. In some cases, surgical patients suffer lacerations to their tendons, nerves, organs, and other structures. Post-surgical infections can also occur when medical staff provide substandard care.
• Infections: Healthcare providers are required to take reasonable steps to reduce the likelihood of an infection occurring. When they fail to do so, the result can be deadly. Infections can happen when medical staff fail to care for a surgical wound properly. They can also occur when an IV insertion site is not adequately sanitized and when bedsores are left untreated. Sometimes healthcare providers fail to diagnose infections despite manifesting obvious symptoms, which can cause the patient’s condition to worsen.
• Delayed or Misdiagnosis: There are many reasons why a doctor might fail to diagnose a particular condition. Some illnesses have similar symptoms to others or are so rare that they are overlooked by the physician. But when a doctor fails to diagnose a condition or perform the necessary diagnostic testing despite showing obvious symptoms, this may constitute medical negligence. In serious cases, such as cancer or pneumonia, a late diagnosis or misdiagnosis can be fatal.
• Birth Injuries: Medical negligence that occurs during labor or delivery can be devastating for the mother, the baby, or both. Birth injuries often have lifelong repercussions for newborns, causing permanent cognitive or physical disabilities. Examples of conditions that may be caused by medical malpractice include brachial plexus injuries, shoulder dystocia, hypoxic injuries, cerebral palsy, facial paralysis, and fractures.
• Medication Errors: An error during the prescription, dispensing, or administration of medication may constitute medical malpractice.
• Joint Replacement: The consequences of a failed hip, knee, or other joint replacement are often worse than the original condition. If you or someone in your family suffered complications due to a failed joint replacement, contact Gump, Faiella & Bugalski to discuss your case.
• Emergency Room Errors: There are established protocols that ER staff must follow to reduce the likelihood of errors. Failing to abide by these protocols can lead to severe injuries and wrongful death. For example, a common error made in ERs is sending a patient home too early due to misdiagnosis. If a physician mistakes a heart attack for a digestive issue or meningitis for the flu, the patient’s condition can deteriorate rapidly upon leaving the ER. Another common (and often fatal) emergency room error is failing to monitor a patient’s condition. If ER staff do not perform repeat monitoring and this results in a serious complication or wrongful death, the victim or surviving loved ones may have grounds for a medical malpractice claim.
• Hospital Errors: Tens of thousands of patients die each year in the United States due to hospital errors. Those who are fortunate enough to survive often suffer debilitating injuries and illnesses. The Missouri medical malpractice attorneys at Gump, Faiella & Bugalski can evaluate your case to determine if negligence contributed to your injury or to your loved one’s death. We represent clients who have been injured due to inadequate staffing, hospital-acquired infections, medication errors, misreading of diagnostic imaging, and improper placement of IV lines.
• Anesthesia Errors: Delivering too much anesthesia can be deadly or result in permanent brain damage, but delivering too little can cause a patient to remain conscious during an operation. In either case, the victim may have grounds for a medical malpractice claim.
• Dental Malpractice: It’s easy to associate medical malpractice with invasive surgeries, but any healthcare provider can be negligent. In dental offices, medical malpractice can occur due to anesthesia errors, oral nerve damage, failure to diagnose oral diseases, negligent tooth extraction or root canal surgery, and infections.