Medical Malpractice Lawyer in Hollywood

We count on our medical professionals and health care providers to be there when we need them the most. We rely on their expertise and guidance to help keep us on the path of good health and, at times, to steer us towards the road of complete recovery. Unfortunately, our Hollywood medical malpractice lawyer knows that there are times when these same healthcare providers are the cause of pain and suffering that could lead to catastrophic injuries or even wrongful death.

Surprisingly, the third leading cause of death in America is preventable medical error after heart disease and cancer. ^[1] Healthcare providers may include hospitals, doctors, surgeons, nurses, pharmacists, and physical therapists, to name a few. When their negligence leads to a careless mistake, the result could lead to temporary or permanent disability, disfigurement, mental anguish, or wrongful death. If you believe that you or your loved one including newborn babies, have suffered because of a generally avoidable medical error, then our Hollywood medical malpractice lawyer may help you to fight back when something this devastating and unacceptable happens.

Here are Schlacter Law, our Hollywood medical malpractice lawyer appreciates the adversities that a family who is dealing with a preventable medical error may be enduring now and the challenges to be met in the future. Negligence, diagnostic errors, delayed deferrals, and poor communication on behalf of medical staff (or a medical practice or hospital) may have caused your family financial loss, emotional harm, and physical damages that should have been unavoidable.

To reduce their liability for the health care professionals that they insure, an insurance company may target you to take the blame for someone else’s negligence or mistake. Our lawyer knows about this unscrupulous practice and is prepared to demonstrate that the medical errors belong to the health care professionals. The blame should not be put on you. We do this by hiring medical experts and providers including experts to prove your present and future damages. We can help you recover damages such as medical bills, pain and suffering, lost wages, and loss of consortium, to name a few. To hear more about how our experienced medical malpractice lawyer can begin to preserve your rights in Hollywood, Florida, call Schlacter Law today at (305) 999-1111.

When your healthcare provider (such as a nurse, doctor, or hospital) did not heal you as a reasonably prudent doctor would have or caused reckless injuries, you may be the victim of medical malpractice.  In Florida, there are four elements to prove that an injury or wrongful death was the result of medical malpractice.

1. Did the healthcare provider owe the patient a duty of care? This is also known as the standard of care and it is important to assess what obligations a healthcare provider owed to you.
2. Did the healthcare provider fall below that standard of care? This is simply whether the provider failed to do what a reasonably prudent provider would have done in similar circumstances and with similar training.
3. Did you or your loved one suffer a recognized injury or damage as a result? This is whether the damages caused to you are compensable under Florida law for medical malpractice, and whether such damages are actionable.
4. Is there a connection between the injury or damage and the healthcare provider’s breach of care? This is known as causation, which requires a victim to establish that, but for the provider’s mistakes, the victim would not have suffered injuries. Our lawyer knows that most of the time, an insurance lawyer or defense lawyer will hotly contest this element.

Our experienced medical malpractice lawyer in Hollywood knows how to call expert witnesses who can reveal just how a healthcare professional or hospital failed to meet the basic standard of care for you or your loved one. An expert witness will know what that standard of care is because they will be in the same line of professional work with a comparable skillset.

Our lawyer will locate those expert witnesses on your behalf and will be ready to demonstrate that there was a breach of duty that resulted in needless suffering. This expert will need to review your records and opine to a reasonable degree of medical certainty that the defendant failed to meet the standard of proof and that this failure harmed you. The lawyer for the defense will do their best to discredit this expert, so it is very important to have an experienced and savvy lawyer to fight back.

Florida recognizes many causes of medical malpractice, and most cases involve reckless or inexperienced behavior or negligence. Other situations include staffing shortages, unqualified staff, or inadequate communication between the nurse and the medical provider.

Many healthcare malpractice causes will easily be recognized by a Hollywood medical malpractice, and include some of the following:

• Emergency room delays or errors
• Failure to recognize symptoms
• Delay or failure in proper diagnosis and treatment
• Not taking patient history
• Failure to order proper testing
• Birth injuries
• Hospital infections
• Physical therapy malpractice
• Poor technical performance
• Wrong patient surgery
• Wrong surgery site
• Failure to warn patient of known risks
• Recommending unnecessary surgery
• Anesthesia errors
• Dental malpractice
• Nursing home errors
• Medication overdoses or errors
• Misreading of test results
• Premature discharge of patient
• Poor follow-up or aftercare
• Wrongful death

A Hollywood medical malpractice lawyer should always review a case with personal injuries or a case that resulted in a wrongful death, whether it happened here or anywhere else in Florida. In either situation, the victim could suffer not only unfortunate but possibly catastrophic results. Your lawyer may review your case and represent you for some of the following unacceptable situations:

• Infections including hospital-acquired injuries (HAIs)
• Sepsis especially due to improper care of wounds or inflection protocol care
• Spinal cord damage (resulting in paraplegia or quadriplegia)
• Nerve damage
• Organ damage
• Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs)
• Hypoxic damage (not enough oxygen to the brain)
• Anoxic damage (total lack of oxygen to the brain)
• Hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (lack of oxygen or blood flow causing brain damage)
• Cerebral palsy
• Kernicterus (high levels of bilirubin in a baby’s blood causing brain damage)
• Broken bones
• Nursing home injuries (such as pressure sores)
• Surgical errors (such as poor technical performance or bad clinical judgement)
• Anesthesia errors (such as negligent patient airway monitoring)

Traumatic birth injuries are serious and unacceptable. Traumatic birth injuries require legal assistance and an experienced and compassionate medical malpractice attorney. In the state of Florida, these birth injuries may happen at any point before, during, or after labor and delivery. Unfortunately, traumatic birth injuries are often caused by a lack of oxygen to the baby’s brain may be the result of improper care during delivery or immediately after. The most serious injuries to a newborn in which you should seek the help of a medical malpractice lawyer include:

• Cerebral palsy: Cerebral palsy (CP) is an umbrella term that covers a group of conditions related to damage to the parts of the brain dedicated to voluntary and involuntary movements. ^[2] The primary cause of cerebral palsy is a lack of oxygen to the brain during the birthing process or shortly thereafter, or it can happen when lesions develop in the brain during development due to a lack of proper prenatal care. There is no cure for cerebral palsy, but there are treatments to help with the symptoms. If a newborn or very young child has CP, then a family should contact a medical malpractice lawyer because the child will need a lifetime of medical care. That medical care could be up to twenty-six times higher for someone diagnosed with cerebral palsy over their lifetime as compared to an individual without cerebral palsy. ^[3] There are four types of cerebral palsy:
  1. Spastic CP: Characterized by rigid muscles.
  2. Dyskinetic (or athetoid CP): Characterized by involuntary jerking or shaking uncontrollable movements.
  3. Ataxic CP: Characterized by involuntary tremors when trying to make planned movements, especially fine motor functions like grasping a pencil.
  4. Mixed CP: Characterized by a combination of at least two of the above forms of cerebral palsy.
• Hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE): HIE is a brain disorder where the brain does not receive enough oxygen for a length of time because there is not enough of it or it is somehow restricted. It could result in cerebral palsy. In order for proper brain development, oxygenated blood flow is necessary. HIE is an avoidable brain disorder if the baby has proper fetal monitoring and care during labor. If your baby suffers from HIE, then contact our Hollywood medical malpractice lawyer. This condition may have been the result of negligence or a careless error.
• Brachial plexus nerve injuries: The brachial plexus is the group of nerves beginning in the base of the neck and spine and radiating from the shoulders to the fingertips. This type of birth injury can happen if the baby’s neck is stretched to one side. When these nerves are stretched, compressed, or ripped apart from the spinal cord during a traumatic birth, then the baby may suffer numbness, or a loss of sensitivity or weakness in the hand or arm.

Anesthesia uses a combination of drugs to sedate and to paralyze a patient temporarily during surgery, while also blocking pain. Anesthesia is needed for many surgical procedures, and it is generally safe with high standards of monitoring. Even so, medication errors are common in healthcare and are the seventh most common cause of death overall. ^[4] If you believe that you or your loved one has suffered personal injury, you will want to have our Hollywood medical malpractice lawyer review your case for any of these anesthesia errors:

• Medication errors such as too much or too little medication
• Administering improper nerve blocks, which may result in long-term or permanent nerve damage
• Failure to intubate (getting oxygen into the airway) a patient properly
• Poor monitoring of patient’s airways
• Failure to monitor a patient in post-anesthesia care units
• PCA pump malfunctions

Even common surgeries and routine medical care may result in mistakes and personal injuries including wrongful deaths. The idea of the wrong person being wheeled into surgery or the surgeon operating on the wrong limb is the stuff of nightmares. These are referred to as “wrong patient, wrong-site” surgeries. Surgical sponges, clamps, or tools may even be forgotten inside the patient, leading to infection.

Even unnecessary surgeries can result in personal injuries. When healthcare professionals make mistakes because they are rushing or lack good communication between staff, then the patient and their family are left vulnerable and suffering from mistakes. If you did not achieve the results of surgery that you anticipated, then you should contact our Hollywood medical malpractice lawyer to review your records and help you protect your rights.

Most times a victim of medical malpractice does not know that a doctor, nurse, or healthcare provider caused him or her serious injuries. This is because a provider usually hides the fact that he or she made serious errors which could have been avoidable. This is why anyone who suffered an adverse or unexpected injury after treatment with a healthcare provider should call our medical malpractice lawyer in Hollywood, Florida for a FREE consultation. Call our lawyer at Schlater Law today by dialing (305) 999-1111 to learn how we can get started today.

How We Handle Cases

1. Investigation
   • Your attorney will aggressively investigate your case. Schlacter Law will compile all necessary evidence needed to maximize the value of your case. Which includes but is not limited to photographs, police reports, security camera footage, witness statements, medical bills and medical records.
   • You will remain in constant contact with Schlacter Law about the progression of your case.
2. Negotiation
   • Your attorney will present your case to the insurance company and will attempt to resolve your case before the case goes to court for maximum compensation.
   • Your attorney will make every effort possible to resolve the case as quickly as possible for the most amount of money you may be entitled to. You will be actively involved in the negotiation process with your attorney. Schlacter Law understands that this is your one opportunity to get justice for your loss.
3. Litigation
   • If settlement negotiations are unsuccessful, Schlacter Law will be fully prepared to bring your case to court to fight for the justice you deserve.
   • At no cost to you, Schlacter Law will hire any experts and professionals needed to maximize your recovery and present your case in the strongest form possible.