It’s hard to see your child in pain. But it’s even harder when a medical error is what caused your child so much harm.
You trusted a children’s hospital to help your child, and it let you down. Now your kid’s life has changed, maybe forever, because of a doctor’s careless mistake.
Your child needs you to fight for them, for the care they need to get better, for the money to afford their treatment. And Console and Associates can help. Our Pennsylvania personal injury lawyers will stand up for the rights of your injured child.
For a free, confidential review of your child’s case, call (215) 225-2040 today.
When your child is sick or hurt, you want his or her recovery in the hands of the most knowledgeable doctor you can find. That’s why you took your child to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. CHOP’s doctors specialize in treating children, especially those suffering from serious medical conditions.
More than 31,000 children are admitted to CHOP per year, according to U.S. News & World Report. An additional 88,212 families visit the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s emergency room. All in all, CHOP doctors perform close to 26,000 inpatient and outpatient surgeries.
The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia has a reputation for being one of the best children’s hospitals in the country. The facility has earned national recognition for its success in pediatric specialties such as:
With CHOP’s reputation, it’s no wonder so many parents across the Philadelphia region and beyond choose the hospital to treat their kids, cancer, heart conditions, diabetes, and other severe medical conditions. But no hospital is perfect — all run at least some risk of human error, of negligence.
You’d be hard-pressed to find a hospital with no record of any past medical errors. And CHOP, unfortunately, is no exception.
As a parent, you know there’s nothing more priceless and precious than your child’s wellbeing. So, if your child’s health declines while under a doctor’s care, you might wonder what went wrong.
Serious complications can happen when medical professionals make mistakes, even seemingly small ones. But a doctor or hospital isn’t likely to admit to making an error, especially one that caused irreparable damage.
You’ll have to fight to get the answers your family deserves, not to mention the care, and the compensation, your child needs.
In the legal industry, we call a case against a negligent doctor a medical malpractice claim. You might also hear terms like hospital negligence and medical error.
Don’t concern yourself with legal terminology right now. Let a Philadelphia hospital negligence lawyer deal with the legal aspects of your situation. You just focus on your child.
The number-one thing parents need to know about children’s medical malpractice claims are that these cases are complicated. There’s a lot of misinformation out there about what malpractice is and how a case like yours works.
Here are some of the facts parents should know before pursuing a Children’s Hospital medical malpractice lawsuit.
Your child’s negative health outcome doesn’t make it malpractice.
You can’t sue a doctor simply because a bad outcome occurred. Sometimes doctors do everything right, but the patient still suffers a negative outcome.
This is tragic, especially when it affects your child. But in the eyes of the law, it’s not malpractice. Not yet, anyway.
Your child’s doctor must have deviated from the standard of care for there to be a case.
What makes a bad health outcome a case of medical malpractice is negligence. A negligent doctor doesn’t use appropriate caution. He or she acts carelessly or recklessly and endangers your child as a result.
Medical negligence revolves around what’s called the standard of care. These are the expectations and acceptable practices established by the medical community as a whole.
Every doctor must adhere to the standard of care. Your child’s physician might prescribe a medication, order a test, or even perform a surgery that might not be another doctor’s first choice. But the doctor’s actions must be acceptable under the standard of care.
To put medical malpractice occurs only when a healthcare professional does something the medical community would consider unacceptable.
The damage to your child must be serious and long-term for there to be a case.
Even if it’s clear that your child’s physician made a mistake, your family still might not have a claim. Pennsylvania law doesn’t allow you to sue for what might have happened, only what did happen.
Over our 20+ years of practice, our attorneys for CHOP medical malpractice have heard some pretty traumatizing situations. Innocent children almost lost their lives because doctors made a mistake. Kids were hurt badly enough that they were almost left paralyzed.
As parents ourselves, we realize how truly terrifying a situation like this must be. But as Philadelphia medical malpractice attorneys, we know that the law sees things differently.
The injury your child suffered due to a doctor’s mistake must make a serious and long-term impact on your child’s life. In most medical malpractice claims, the injury required a long and expensive road to recovery, or else, it was permanent.
You’re not limited to suing doctors.
Physicians aren’t the only ones who make mistakes. Nurses administer medications incorrectly. Radiology professionals misread diagnostic tests. Aides make errors handling medical equipment.
Every one of these medical professionals can put your child in danger by making a single mistake. So Pennsylvania state law gives you the right to pursue a medical malpractice claim against any of them.
If you believe any healthcare professional involved in your child’s care made a serious error, don’t wait to take action. You may have a Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia medical malpractice case.
Only doctors can determine if a doctor committed malpractice.
If doctors are the ones who set the standard of care, then it takes a doctor to decide if a physician’s actions deviated from that standard.
You might wonder if only a doctor can find out whether actions departed from the standard of care, what you need a lawyer for. An attorney for a medical malpractice claim at CHOP is the one who handles the legal aspects of your claim. We build a case against the doctor, incorporating the opinions of respected medical professionals into that demand for compensation.
Of course, we’re not counting on the doctor who made a mistake to own up to committing malpractice. We know that’s unlikely to happen.
So we locate medical experts who are trained and experienced in the same specialties as your child’s doctor. We cover the upfront costs of having these physicians review your child’s medical records. And we represent your family in all legal proceedings, guiding you through the process.
If you have a feeling that a doctor’s error is what caused your child’s condition to worsen, don’t dismiss it. Your parental instincts could be right. Medical mistakes are far more common than most people realize.
Medical malpractice is particularly common in hospital settings. Every year, more than 80,000 patients die from hospital-acquired infections, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) reported.
Another 12,000 hospital patients lose their lives due to unnecessary surgeries. Medication mistakes inside hospitals claim an additional 7,000 lives, JAMA reported. And 20,000 more patients die from unspecified, other hospital errors.
Perhaps the scariest fact of all: One out of every three patients admitted to a hospital experiences a medical error, according to the American Association for Justice (AAJ).
These figures are conservative estimates. As of 2000, JAMA believed that 225,000 deaths result from medical errors yearly in the United States.
But the Journal of Patient Safety now suspects that the death toll could be far higher. This publication estimated that 440,000 patients lose their lives to avoidable medical errors each year.
Think a medical error at CHOP, or any hospital, put your child at risk? Call (215) 225-2040 to get our Philadelphia medical malpractice lawyers involved.
How can you determine for sure if what happened to your family is the grounds for a Children’s Hospital medical malpractice case?
The only real way to find out is to speak with a lawyer for CHOP medical malpractice. But there are facts you can look at to determine if it’s worth reaching out to an attorney.
Your family may have a case if:
1. Your child’s condition worsened, or your child developed a new medical condition while under the hospital’s care.
It’s possible that no medical error caused your child to get worse, that it would have happened no matter what action a doctor took. But if you think the timing is suspicious, or if you didn’t expect the complications that occurred, it’s worth finding out if you have a CHOP medical malpractice claim.
2. You have observed hospital workers break sanitation rules or fail to comply with paperwork requirements.
A medical professional who cuts corners in one area could very well be negligent in other regards. Even a seemingly small act of negligence can have severe consequences.
A medical provider who fails to follow handwashing requirements can put patients at risk of infections, and these can be deadly. A healthcare worker who ignores paperwork and recordkeeping could end up administering the wrong dose of medication or giving it to the wrong patient.
3. You tried to bring a concern to a medical professional’s attention, but your concern was brushed off without further investigation or explanation.
You know that doctors are busy, especially in a demanding facility like the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. But you also know your child, and you can tell when something is wrong. If you have questions or concerns about your child’s condition or treatment, the medical providers in charge of your child’s care should answer them, not ignore them.
Any of these situations might indicate that you need to pursue a Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia medical malpractice lawsuit.
Now that you realize how complex a medical malpractice case can be, you might wonder how you’ll ever prove that the medical error occurred. Don’t worry, that’s a job for a Philadelphia medical malpractice lawyer, not for you. We’ll guide you through the process every step of the way and handle everything.
A thorough investigation is a major factor in proving a CHOP medical malpractice case. Our Philadelphia hospital negligence attorneys use our extensive knowledge to explore your child’s medical records for any possible signs of a doctor’s error. Then we’ll locate medical experts who are qualified to comment on your child’s doctor’s actions. We will have them review the medical records and find out whether your child’s physician strayed from the standard of care.
It can cost thousands of dollars just to have medical experts take a look at patients, records. But you don’t have to worry about that expense right now. Our lawyers for medical malpractice at CHOP will cover the upfront cost. And if we don’t succeed in getting compensation for you, then you’ll never have to pay us back.
When a child becomes a victim of medical malpractice, life changes instantly, for the whole family. You need compensation for all that’s happened, and you deserve every dollar available.
The key to getting maximum money damages for your Children’s Hospital medical malpractice claim is finding the right lawyer to handle the case for you. You need someone with experience. Someone with a history of success. Someone who will fight for your child, just like you will.
Our lawyers for medical malpractice at CHOP know that no one should have to suffer at the hands of a negligent doctor. We also know how it feels to be a parent, and how devastated we would be if our own children fell victim to medical malpractice.
That’s why we’ll put our decades of experience to work gathering evidence for your family’s Children’s Hospital medical malpractice claim. We’re committed to getting our clients results.
Don’t let an instance of CHOP malpractice ruin your child’s life. Call (215) 225-2040 today to learn how we can help your family.
