South Bend Medical Malpractice Lawyer

Medical treatments are not always guaranteed to work, and there is often some level of risk involved in medicine. When doctors begin taking unacceptable risks with patients’ health, their actions quickly lead to negligence and suffering. If you believe your doctor’s lacking skill or poor decisions harmed you, you might have a medical malpractice case.

Medical malpractice happens when doctors negligently harm their patients. This harm might be from a risk they failed to disclose to their patient or from poor or unreasonable treatment decisions. In any case, a lawyer can help you hold the negligent doctor liable and make them pay your damages.

Contact our South Bend medical malpractice lawyers for advice if you were treated by a doctor and experienced new or worsening injuries. We can conduct a free case review and help you figure out whether you have a malpractice case. Call Wruck Paupore at (219) 322-1166 for assistance.

How Do I Know If I Have a Medical Malpractice Case in South Bend?

It might be difficult to know if your case amounts to medical malpractice. Many patients experience new or worsening symptoms as they go through treatment, but this is not definitive proof that malpractice is involved. Our South Bend medical malpractice attorneys can review your case with you and help you determine if your situation meets the requirements of a malpractice lawsuit, including consulting with outside medical experts who can offer their unbiased opinion.

Medical malpractice requires more than mere mistakes made by doctors. Doctors are not perfect, and they do make mistakes. The legal question is whether they met the established standard of care applicable to the procedure. Sometimes, a doctor can act within the standard of care, but there can be recognized complications or side effects of a procedure or treatment. This typically does not amount to malpractice, as long as these risks were appropriately explained to you and you gave informed consent to the medical treatment knowing these risks.

Malpractice instead involves negligence by doctors and treatment that fall below the relevant standard of care. Exactly what the standard of care is in your case depends on what kind of treatment you were receiving and what other doctors with similar training and experience would have done in the same situation, as well as standards established by recognized medical journals and literature.

If you’ve been injured due to suspected malpractice, it is important that you consult with an experienced malpractice attorney as soon as possible so that important evidence is not lost. You may have a right to a substantial settlement because preventable medical malpractice frequently leaves patients in far worse conditions than they started.

Common Injuries in South Bend Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

Medical malpractice is sometimes hard to pinpoint because it can take so many different forms. Many patients do not immediately realize they have been a victim of malpractice until another doctor catches the previous doctor’s mistakes. Sometimes, subsequent doctors will try to “cover” for the first doctor and may not immediately admit that the prior provider committed an error.

Just some examples of medical malpractice include:

• Surgical equipment left behind in your body
• Performing unnecessary surgery or treatments
• Other surgical errors
• Wrong medication dosages
• Ignoring lab results
• Misreading or failing to read diagnostic tests like MRIs, CT scans, blood labs, and other medical tests
• Failing to consider a patient's medical history
• Discharging patients too early
• Not undertaking appropriate follow-up care or aftercare
• Failing to recognize obvious symptoms
• Failing to order proper testing
• Misdiagnosis or failure to diagnose

The injuries a patient sustains from malpractice may depend on how the malpractice occurred. Malpractice can also worsen an existing medical condition or cause additional medical conditions that require additional treatment.

If you are unsure about your case, our South Bend medical malpractice lawyers can help evaluate signs of malpractice and what they mean to your right to legal compensation.

Failing a Medical Malpractice Lawsuit in South Bend

It is not uncommon to settle a medical malpractice claim without the need to file a lawsuit where the evidence is irrefutable.

Where this is not possible, a medical malpractice lawsuit is filed and requires two important steps: filing a complaint and convening a medical review panel. According to Indiana Code § 34-18-8-4, a medical review panel is required in cases of medical malpractice, and the panel must render an opinion before the case is allowed to move forward. However, under Indiana Code § 34-18-8-7, you can file your complaint before the medical review panel has rendered an opinion, which has important advantages, but the court will not allow the matter to fully proceed until the panel’s opinion is completed.

You must request the medical review panel within 20 days of filing your complaint. The panel consists of three health care providers and one lawyer. That lawyer can provide legal guidance to the other panel members but ultimately does not participate in the panel’s final opinion. The panel must decide whether or not the defendant in your case met the appropriate standard of care.

Our South Bend medical malpractice attorneys can help you file your complaint and file for a review panel. You must file your case within the appropriate statute of limitations. This statute imposes a deadline of 2 years on medical malpractice cases in Indiana. However, where governmental entities are potentially involved (for example, government-operated medical facilities) you may be required to provide legal notice within 180-days of the malpractice to preserve your claim.

In limited circumstances, you might be able to “toll” or pause the statute if you could not discover the malpractice until later. For example, patients often do not realize that surgical tools or sponges were left inside their bodies until months or years later when they see another doctor about the resulting complications or pain. However, rules regarding “tolling” of statute of limitations are complicated. For example, the “discovery” rule does not apply in cases of wrongful death.

Because statutes of limitations can completely bar your right to recover money you would otherwise be entitled to, you should obtain legal advice as soon as possible once you suspect malpractice.

How Much is a Medical Malpractice Lawsuit Worth in South Bend?

Medical malpractice lawsuits often involve very large sums of money. Not only do patients have to deal with additional, costly medical bills, but they also often contend with severe physical and mental pain and suffering. In some cases, patients are left with long-term conditions or disabilities that require extensive ongoing care. These costs are also usually recoverable if there is medical malpractice.

While damages in medical malpractice cases can be quite high, they are limited by law. According to Indiana Code § 34-18-14-3(a)(5), damages are capped at $1.8 million. The defendant doctor in your case will only be responsible for up to $500,000 of your damages, and a patient compensation fund may pay the remaining damages.

Assessing and evaluating damages can be difficult, and our South Bend medical malpractice attorneys can help you. Some damages are economic in nature, like medical bills. These damages usually come with an exact value or price attached.

Other damages are non-economic, and they often have a more subjective value. Your pain and suffering are common non-economic damages. We can evaluate these damages by examining how they have impacted your daily life. The more your life is impacted, the more these damages are worth.

Call Our South Bend Medical Malpractice Attorneys for Help

Contact our South Bend medical malpractice attorneys immediately if you believe your doctor’s negligence or mistakes caused you pain, suffering, or medical injuries. We can offer a free case review to get started and pursue maximum compensation. Call Wruck Paupore at (219) 322-1166 for help.