Connecticut Medical Malpractice Lawyer
When you place your trust in a healthcare provider, you expect to receive competent, professional care that meets accepted medical standards. However, medical errors occur far too often, leaving patients with worsened conditions or additional injuries. In some cases, the consequences are fatal. If you or a loved one has suffered harm due to substandard medical care, a Connecticut medical malpractice lawyer at D’Amico Pettinicchi can help you seek maximum compensation and accountability.
Our medical malpractice law firm has spent over 35 years fighting for patients who have been failed by the healthcare system. Our experienced legal team combines the resources of a big firm with the personal attention you deserve, and we’ve recovered millions of dollars for Connecticut clients through settlements and trial verdicts. Contact us today for a free, no-obligation consultation to discuss your potential medical malpractice case.
How a Connecticut Medical Malpractice Lawyer Can Help
Medical malpractice cases are among the most complex areas of personal injury law. Insurance companies and healthcare institutions have teams of experienced lawyers working to minimize their liability. You need equally skilled representation to protect your interests and seek fair compensation for your injuries.
A Connecticut medical malpractice attorney from D’Amico Pettinicchi can support you through every stage of your case, from initial investigation to trial, if necessary. Our dual board certification in civil trial advocacy and civil pretrial practice by the National Board of Trial Advocacy demonstrates our commitment to excellence in representing injured clients.
How Is Medical Malpractice Legally Defined in Connecticut?
Connecticut law defines medical malpractice as a healthcare provider’s failure to exercise the degree of care and skill that a reasonably prudent practitioner in the same field would have under similar circumstances. It is worth noting that the law recognizes that medicine inherently involves risks and uncertainty. As such, simply experiencing a poor outcome or unsuccessful treatment doesn’t automatically constitute malpractice.
To establish a valid medical malpractice claim, you must prove that your healthcare provider’s breach directly caused your injury, and you suffered actual harm as a result. This legal framework ensures that only truly negligent care results in liability.
What Are Common Forms of Medical Malpractice?
Some of the most common forms of medical malpractice include the following:
Misdiagnosis or Delayed Diagnosis
Misdiagnosis occurs when healthcare providers incorrectly identify a patient’s condition, leading to inappropriate or unnecessary treatment. Delayed diagnosis refers to the failure to identify a serious condition promptly, allowing it to progress and become more challenging to treat. These errors may result from inadequate examination, failure to order appropriate tests, or misinterpretation of diagnostic results.
Surgical Errors
Surgical errors may include operating on the wrong body part, performing the wrong procedure, leaving surgical instruments inside the patient, or causing unintended damage to organs, nerves, or blood vessels during surgery.
Many surgical errors result from poor communication among surgical team members, inadequate preoperative planning, or failure to follow established safety protocols.
Medication Errors
Medication errors may involve prescribing, dispensing, or administering the wrong medication. They may also take the form of prescribing an incorrect dosage or administering drugs that interact dangerously with other medicines. These errors can occur at any point in the medication process, from the doctor’s initial prescription to the pharmacy’s dispensing to the nurse’s administration in a hospital setting.
Childbirth Injuries
Birth injuries can result from negligent prenatal care, improper monitoring during labor and delivery, or inadequate response to complications during childbirth. These errors can result in permanent disabilities to both the mother and the child.
Common birth injury scenarios include the following:
- Failure to diagnose fetal distress
- Improper use of delivery instruments like forceps or vacuum extractors
- Delayed cesarean sections when complications arise
- Inadequate management of high-risk pregnancies
Failure to Treat
In some instances, healthcare providers might correctly diagnose a condition but then fail to provide appropriate treatment or follow-up care. This might take the form of dismissing a patient without proper treatment or failing to provide adequate monitoring of a patient’s condition.
Anesthesia Errors
Anesthesia errors can have life-threatening consequences. Common anesthesia mistakes include administering too much or too little anesthesia, failing to monitor the patient’s vital signs during surgery, or not reviewing the patient’s medical history for potential complications.
These errors can result in brain damage from oxygen deprivation, awareness during surgery, cardiac complications, or even death.
