Everyone seeking medical care in Middletown should feel confident in the proficiency and commitment of their healthcare providers. But reality doesn't always align with expectations. Delayed diagnosis and improper treatment can severely compromise your health, livelihood, and prospects.
If you or a loved one suffered due to delayed diagnosis and improper treatment in Middletown, you have legal rights. You can seek compensation for the negative repercussions of the healthcare provider's negligence or incompetence. That's where The Flood Law Firm comes into the picture.
Why Choose The Flood Law Firm?
Choosing the right legal representation is daunting, especially when dealing with the emotional and physical toll of a medical mishap.
The Flood Law Firm has built a solid reputation in Middletown and beyond as a reliable partner for victims of delayed diagnosis and improper treatment. We have recently added a new medical malpractice lawyer to our team, enabling us to provide even more services to injured people in Middletown.
Our track record speaks volumes about our passion for obtaining justice for our clients.
Contact us today for a complimentary case evaluation, and let us guide you through the complex process of filing a medical malpractice claim. With our experience and dedication, we can turn a painful experience into a strong delayed diagnosis and improper treatment case for compensation and closure.
Our office is a stone's throw from Wesleyan University. We take pride in our accessibility and our strong community ties, which keep us closely connected with the issues our clients face.
Compensation for Delayed Diagnosis and Improper Treatment
As the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine explains, diagnostic errors are among the most common and harmful mistakes made in healthcare. These errors account for around 80,000 deaths annually in the United States, leaving many more permanently disabled. Delayed diagnosis is more common than other diagnostic errors, such as wrong or missed diagnosis.
One of the main reasons for delayed diagnosis and other types of diagnosis errors is understaffing. This issue leaves doctors and other medical staff with less time to take an accurate patient history, conduct physical exams, and order laboratory tests that they could use to form the diagnosis.
While providers are generally not at fault for understaffed facilities, they must maintain a standard of care, including an accurate and timely diagnosis so the patient can receive proper treatment for their ailment.
Victims of delayed diagnosis and improper treatment in Middletown can seek compensation or damages for both the economic and noneconomic harm they have incurred. Economic damages include medical expenses, lost earnings, lost earning capacity in the event of permanent disabilities due to a delayed diagnosis, and even the cost of hiring someone to perform household tasks while the patient is recovering.
Noneconomic damages compensate victims for the psychological effects of the injury, such as physical pain and suffering, emotional distress, and loss of enjoyment of life.
Non-economic damages compel insurance providers, judges, and juries to consider the consequences of the injury on quality of life and prevent claims from hinging solely on how much income the claimant lost. This is particularly true for claims involving injured children or retired people who don't have an income.
At The Flood Law Firm, we understand the intrinsic value of a healthy life and the devastating consequences of medical malpractice. We can fight to recover the maximum compensation for your Middletown delayed diagnosis and improper treatment claim. We fight tirelessly to ensure your settlement or verdict accounts for every dollar you need.
Delayed Diagnosis and Improper Treatment in Middletown
Like the rest of the country, Middletown is not immune to delayed diagnosis and improper treatment. These cases occur in our local hospitals, clinics, doctor's offices, and even during home healthcare visits. Diagnostic errors, including delayed diagnosis, are the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States.
Primary care doctors are most often responsible for these errors, as they have the most contact with patients, and their services encompass many medical conditions and treatments.
While understaffing is a leading cause of diagnostic errors in healthcare, other issues can make delayed diagnosis and improper treatment more likely, including:
- Communication issues between primary and secondary care providers: Primary care doctors are often unaware of the conditions specialists of referred patients consider and investigate, which can lead to a lapse in the continuity of treatment.
- Differences in access to preventative healthcare: Lower-income patients commonly seek care in overcrowded facilities where understaffing is likelier and errors are more common.
- Lack of understanding of red flag symptoms: Understanding red flag symptoms can inform the provider's diagnosis, so a bias on the provider's part can cause them to focus on a particular symptom or treatment without considering the patient's physical health holistically.
Every medical malpractice case is unique. To present a successful delayed diagnosis and improper treatment claim, a lawyer must identify and thoroughly investigate specific details about the case. An experienced delayed diagnosis and improper treatment lawyer can identify all sources of liability and their medical malpractice insurance resources.
Understanding Delayed Diagnosis and Improper Treatment
Delayed diagnosis and improper treatment can occur in the same or separate incidents. These malpractice issues have two distinct differences. Delayed diagnosis occurs during an unwarranted delay in detecting and diagnosing a medical condition.
Improper treatment refers to scenarios where a patient receives incorrect or inappropriate medical care. Both situations can have negative health outcomes, escalating into more serious conditions and prolonged suffering.
Both issues are commonly the result of medical negligence or malpractice. Doctors and other licensed healthcare professionals must provide a standard of care, which means taking all reasonable actions to avoid harming a patient.
Diagnosis errors typically result from a failure to perform or correctly read tests, take an accurate patient history, or a host of other issues. Individuals most commonly responsible are those who diagnose and prescribe treatment, such as doctors, dentists, optometrists, podiatrists, and physician's assistants.
A laboratory technician or other hospital employee may also be at fault for improperly labeling or interpreting specimens or tests, leading to delayed diagnosis or improper treatment.
Battling Insurance Companies
While healthcare providers in Middletown and throughout Connecticut must protect their patients from harm whenever possible, they must also obtain a professional liability or medical malpractice insurance policy.
State law requires a minimum coverage limit of $500,000 per incident or aggregate annual coverage of $1,500,000. While policies must have at least that amount of coverage, insurance companies strive to protect their bottom line by keeping payouts on claims as low as possible.
When a patient files a medical malpractice claim against a provider after a delayed diagnosis or improper treatment, the provider's insurance company assigns the claim to a claims adjuster.
The claims adjuster aims to control costs for claim payouts. They also determine whether the company is responsible for compensating for the provider's liability and, if so, how much.
When discussing the claim with a claimant, claim adjusters use overwhelming and confusing tactics, such as offering low settlements with arbitrary deadlines or asking for recorded statements or access to the claimant's entire medical history.
As your legal representative, The Flood Law Firm can stand firm against the insurance companies. We use our extensive experience and legal knowledge to negotiate strongly on your behalf, ensuring that you get the maximum compensation.
A study in BMJ Open noted that the vast majority of medical malpractice claims settle outside court, and only slightly more than three percent ever make it to trial. Litigating these cases is expensive and time-consuming for all sides, not to mention highly public for medical professionals. But you may need to take your case to court if the insurance company refuses to compensate your claim fairly.
In most Connecticut medical malpractice cases, you must file your claim within two years of when you first sustained or discovered your injury.
The legal process of seeking compensation through a medical malpractice lawsuit is far more complex than many personal injury claims.
Nearly all personal injury claims involve insurance coverage, so while there are many similarities, the medical malpractice process sets additional requirements.
The claimant's attorney must confer with a qualified healthcare professional about the merits of the case, for example. This medical professional must then sign a statement of opinion that medical negligence led to the patient's injury.
Steps to Take After Experiencing Delayed Diagnosis or Improper Treatment
If you experienced a delayed diagnosis or improper treatment in Middletown, document all relevant details, such as your symptoms, the treatments you received, and any interactions with healthcare providers. Many claimants find it easy to keep track of this information in a handwritten journal.
Call a delayed diagnosis and improper treatment lawyer from The Flood Law Firm. We can explain your legal rights. We can answer legal questions about your claim and review the services we can provide.
Affording Our Services
Victims who have sustained an injury due to a medical provider's negligence often miss out on the compensation they need because of the overwhelming claims process. They often don't think they can afford to pay for an experienced attorney to handle their case.
You can obtain the services of a medical malpractice lawyer from The Flood Law Firm with no upfront costs or high hourly charges. We use a contingent fee billing method to ensure that anyone who needs us to handle their claim can access our services.
As Cornell Law School's Legal Information Institute explains, a contingency fee is a payment arrangement where the lawyer only receives payment if they secure compensation for your claim. When that happens, the lawyer receives a percentage of the overall compensatory award for their time and services.
After attending a free case evaluation with our experienced medical malpractice lawyer, you will sign a contingent fee agreement if you want our team to handle your case. This agreement outlines the services we will provide and designates a percentage of the compensation we secure as our payment.
We can then begin working on the claim, and you will not receive bills for our services while your case is active. After your case concludes, we will receive your settlement or court award on your behalf, deduct our percentage and any funds you owe for medical liens, and turn the rest of the award over to you.
Contact The Flood Law Firm for a Free Consultation
Contact us for a free case evaluation if you or someone you love has been a victim of delayed diagnosis or improper treatment in Middletown. At The Flood Law Firm, your family becomes part of ours. Our Middletown personal injury lawyers remain committed to helping you secure the compensation you need for the damage you've suffered due to medical negligence or incompetence.
Let us stand by your side in this pursuit of justice. Contact us today through our online form or call us at (860) 346-2695.
