Health is one of the most precious things we have in life and when we fall ill or become injured, we rely on doctors and other medicals professionals to help alleviate our pain and symptoms. As patients, we place our lives in the hands of medical professionals and expect them to use proper care and their professional training to help us get better. Unfortunately, sometimes doctors and staff fail to abide by the standards that Illinois law requires and patients end up suffering severe health consequences.

At the Law Office of Adrian Murati, our Rockford personal injury law firm holds negligent healthcare professionals accountable for injuring their patients or failing to properly diagnose and treat them.

Determining liability in a medical malpractice case can be tricky and oftentimes more than one healthcare professional may be responsible for the injuries. For example, an orthopedic surgeon performs surgery on the wrong leg of a patient using medical equipment that a hospital nurse did not properly sterilize. The patient wakes up from surgery and soon realizes that not only does the broken leg still hurt, but now there is throbbing pain in the other leg. To make matters worse, the patient develops a serious infection in the leg because of the unsterilized medical equipment used in the surgery. In a situation like this, the orthopedic surgeon, the hospital, and the nurse, may all be responsible for the injuries under joint and several liability.

Under Illinois Law, physicians are not the only ones who can be held responsible for your injuries and liability can extend to the following:

• Doctors
• Surgeons
• Nurses
• Physician assistants
• Dentists
• Chiropractors
• X-ray and radiological technicians
• Hospitals or healthcare facilities
• Pharmacists
• Other Healthcare Professionals

Our Rockford personal injury law firm is dedicated to thoroughly investigating your medical malpractice case so we can hold each and every person who contributed to your injuries responsible for their negligent actions. 

As a medical malpractice attorney, I stand up for patients and bring claims against their negligent healthcare providers for:

• Pain and Suffering Past and Future
• Medical Bills
• Lost Wages
• Disfigurement
• Disability/Loss of a Normal Life
• Increased Risk of Harm
• Shortened Life Expectancy
• Loss of Earnings or Profits
• Loss of Future Earnings
• Caretaking Expenses
• Punitive Damages

Misdiagnosis / Failure to Diagnose – When a doctor makes the wrong diagnoses or fails to make a proper diagnosis, patients do not receive the proper treatment they need which can cause severe health consequences and even death. Not only can patients suffer consequences from their ailments going untreated but they can also suffer from receiving treatment for a wrong diagnosis.

Delayed Diagnoses – If a doctor has the necessary medical data to diagnose a patient but delays in diagnosing the patient and starting them on the proper treatment plan, a patient can suffer severe health consequences and even death. For example, a doctor who fails to diagnose cancer in its early stages and the cancer advances to become lethal.

Error in Diagnostic Tests – A manufacturer or designer of medical equipment that is used for diagnostic tests can be liable for inaccurate results that cause harm to a patient. Another possible reason for inaccurate results is human error, such as contaminating samples, which could make the lab technician responsible for a patient’s injuries. Lastly, a doctor can be held liable for misinterpreting diagnostic tests that did not contain errors.

Surgical Errors – Negligence during surgery can occur when surgeons and operating room personnel operate on the wrong patient, operate on the wrong body part, leave surgical instruments like scalpels in the patient, anesthesia complications, and severe post-operative infections. 

Medication Errors –  A doctor or healthcare professional may be liable if they prescribe medication that have an adverse reaction with a patient’s other medication or if the drug contains ingredients that the patient is allergic to. Another dangerous situation involves a doctor starting a patient with too high of a dose or abruptly stopping a medication that should be tapered off. Of course, failing to prescribe a medication that would help a patient can also expose a doctor to liability.  

Pharmacy Errors – Pharmacies and pharmacists can also be responsible for a patient’s injuries for dispensing the wrong drugs, dispensing the wrong dose, mislabeling the prescription, providing bad guidance on taking the drugs, or dispensing expired drugs.

Pregnancy Complications and Birth Injuries – When a woman has certain risk factors for preterm labor, her doctor needs to monitor her closely for any warning signs or symptoms. Complications during delivery can have severe and permanent consequences for both the newborn baby and mother.

Lack of Informed Consent – Doctors have a duty to discuss reasonably foreseeable risks of treatment or surgery with a patient and obtain consent before proceeding further. For example, a doctor may be liable if he recommended a particular surgery for a patient but did not discuss complications which the patient experiences and the patient would not have chosen to go forward with the surgery with knowledge of those risks.