Everyone seeking medical treatment has the right to rely on the competence and professionalism of the healthcare provider who treats them. Sadly, sometimes, a patient does not receive a test or other procedure that could have saved their life or had a positive impact on their outcome.
The attorneys at D’Amico & Pettinicchi, LLC, have decades of experience representing patients who received inadequate care from healthcare providers. They have a well-deserved reputation for achieving excellent results and obtaining maximum compensation from incompetent or negligent medical professionals. Contact our failure to perform procedure malpractice lawyer in Connecticut to discuss your case.
Medical professionals must adhere to the standard a similarly trained professional would provide to their patients. A mistake or bad decision isn’t malpractice unless the error was unreasonable, and another healthcare provider in a similar situation wouldn’t have made the same mistake.
Malpractice allegations of failure to perform a necessary procedure often arise from emergency department visits. A patient could claim that an emergency room doctor didn’t perform a procedure that could have spared them suffering or might have made a better outcome more likely. When a patient dies, their family could claim that they wouldn’t have died if the doctor had performed a specific procedure.
The emergency room is not the only place where this type of malpractice can occur. Dentists also could commit malpractice by not performing a procedure that would benefit the patient. Other doctors might not perform a procedure that could help, instead recommending a different, more costly procedure that puts the patient at greater risk.
Connecticut General Statutes § 52- 184c(a) establishes the standard of care that a healthcare practitioner must meet. The law says that a healthcare provider must provide care, skill, and treatment that a similarly qualified healthcare provider would consider acceptable and appropriate in a similar circumstance.
Establishing what a similar provider would consider acceptable and appropriate is sometimes challenging. When a patient brings a malpractice lawsuit, there are often disputes between the patient and the healthcare provider about the standard of care that applies to their case.
D’Amico & Pettinicchi, LLC, has a network of qualified medical experts developed over decades of pursuing medical malpractice cases. We will submit your medical records to one or more of these experts for an opinion about whether the standard of care was met in your case. If not, and you can prove that you suffered harm due to the healthcare practitioner’s failure to perform a necessary procedure, you could file a medical malpractice lawsuit in Connecticut.
A medical malpractice lawsuit is more complex than a standard personal injury lawsuit. One reason for the complexity is the additional steps the law requires when bringing these types of lawsuits.
Everyone who files a medical malpractice lawsuit must include a statement from a medical expert affirming that the care was substandard and explaining why or how it didn’t meet the applicable standard of care. The law specifies the training and experience an expert must have to provide an opinion in a specific case. Sometimes, a defendant doctor questions whether the patient’s medical expert is qualified to submit an opinion or asserts that their assessment of the standard of care is wrong.
The law also requires the parties to a medical malpractice lawsuit to engage in mediation before the court schedules a trial. Although this requirement is seldom enforced by the court, mediation is often agreed to by the parties. Mediation can result in a reasonable settlement but sometimes just leads to delays. Our team of Connecticut lawyers at D’Amico & Pettinicchi, LLC, will provide aggressive representation at mediation but will be equally aggressive at trial if a mediated settlement over a failure to perform a procedure claim isn’t reached.
A medical provider’s failure to initiate appropriate treatment, including medical tests and procedures, can be medical malpractice in some cases. When you suspect you should have been given a test or other procedure but the option wasn’t offered or simply was not done, speak with a failure to perform procedure malpractice lawyer in Connecticut.
D’Amico & Pettinicchi, LLC, is an established leader in medical malpractice law. Call today to schedule a free remote or in-person consultation with one of our knowledgeable legal professionals.
