If you or a loved one has been in an accident or incident in Illinois, you might be wondering how long you have to file a police report. It’s right away to ensure you are complying with the law.
If you or someone you love has been hurt due to a mistake at a hospital, you might be considering legal action. It’s important to understand your rights and the steps involved in pursuing a medical malpractice case. An Illinois medical malpractice lawyer will help you through this complex process and seek the justice and compensation you deserve.
Find a Medical Malpractice Lawyer In Your Area
The first thing you should do is find a lawyer who understands and pursues justice for medical mistakes. These professionals are called medical malpractice attorneys.
They can help you because:
- They understand the complicated laws about suing hospitals.
- They know how to talk to doctors and hospitals.
- They can tell you if you have a good case or not.
- They can help you get the money you need for medical bills and other costs.
Steps for Suing a Hospital
If you decide to sue a hospital, here’s what usually happens:
- Talk to a lawyer: They’ll listen to your story and decide if you have a case.
- Gather evidence: Your lawyer will get your medical records and other important information.
- Get expert opinions: Other doctors will look at your case and say if the hospital made a mistake.
- File the lawsuit: Your lawyer will send official papers to the court saying you’re suing.
- Discovery: Both sides share information about the case.
- Try to settle: Sometimes, the hospital will offer money to solve the problem without going to court.
- Go to trial: If you can’t agree to a settlement, a judge and jury will hear your case and decide.
Reasons to Sue a Hospital
People sue hospitals for many reasons, including:
- Wrong diagnosis or late diagnosis
- Mistakes during surgery
- Giving the wrong medication or the wrong amount
- Falls or injuries that happen in the hospital
- Not listening to your symptoms or concerns
- Infections you get while in the hospital
Who Should You Sue a Hospital?
Sometimes it’s hard to know who to sue. It could be:
- The hospital itself
- A specific doctor
- A nurse or other staff member
- The company that makes medical equipment
Your lawyer will help you figure out who is responsible for what happened to you.
Suing a Hospital vs. Other Medical Malpractice Cases
Suing a hospital can be different from suing a single doctor because:
- Hospitals have more money and lawyers to fight the case.
- There might be more people involved in your care.
- Hospital rules and policies might be part of the problem.
Your lawyer will know how to handle these differences.
What are Some Examples of Hospital Malpractice?
Medical malpractice in hospitals can happen in many different ways, and the following are only some examples.
Diagnostic Errors
This is when a doctor or nurse makes a mistake in figuring out what’s wrong with you. It could mean:
- Missing signs of a serious illness
- Saying you have a condition you don’t actually have
- Taking longer than usual to diagnose a problem
These errors can lead to wrong treatments or delays in getting the right care.
Triage Errors
Triage is when hospital staff decide how quickly patients need care. Triage errors happen when they make wrong decisions about this. For example:
- Not realizing a patient needs immediate care
- Making a patient with a serious problem wait too long
- Treating a less urgent case before a more serious one
These mistakes can make a patient’s condition worse.
Medical Treatment Errors
Sometimes, the hospital provides the wrong treatment. This could mean:
- Doing the wrong procedure
- Not following the right steps during treatment
- Using equipment in the wrong way
Some of these errors can be fixed, but others can cause long-lasting harm or even death.
Medication Errors
Mistakes with medication are a serious type of hospital malpractice. These can include:
- Giving the wrong medicine
- Giving too much or too little of a medicine
- Mixing medicines that shouldn’t go together
- Not checking if a patient is allergic to a medicine
These errors can cause serious health problems.
Record-keeping Errors
Hospitals need to keep careful records of patient information. Mistakes in record-keeping can lead to wrong treatments. For example:
- Writing down the wrong information about a patient’s condition
- Mixing up patient records
- Not recording important details about treatments or medicines
These errors can cause confusion and lead to wrong decisions about a patient’s care.
Surgical Errors
Mistakes during surgery are usually very serious, and might include:
- Operating on the wrong body part
- Leaving surgical tools inside a patient
- Not following proper procedures during surgery
These errors can cause severe harm and often require more surgeries to fix.
What Does it Take to Win a Lawsuit Against a Hospital?
If you’ve been hurt by hospital malpractice, you might consider suing the hospital. To win a lawsuit, you usually need to prove four things:
- Duty of Care: You need to show that the hospital has a responsibility to take care of you. This is usually easy to prove if you were a patient at the hospital.
- Breach of Duty: You must show that the hospital didn’t give you proper care. This means proving that they made a mistake that other reasonable hospitals wouldn’t have made.
- Causation: You must prove that the hospital’s mistake directly caused your injury or illness. This can be tricky and often requires expert medical opinions.
- Damages: You have to show that you were actually harmed. This could be physical injuries, emotional suffering, extra medical bills, or lost wages from missing work.
Hospitals often have teams of lawyers to defend them, so it’s always a good idea to have a lawyer experienced in medical malpractice to help you. They can gather evidence, talk to medical experts, and guide you through the legal process.
Hospital or Independent Contractor: Who Was Negligent?
Sometimes, doctors who work at hospitals aren’t actually hospital employees. Instead, they are independent contractors. This can make things tricky because:
- If the doctor is an independent contractor, you have to sue them directly, not the hospital.
- If the hospital didn’t check the doctor’s background properly, you might be able to sue the hospital, too.
- Sometimes, you might need to sue both the doctor and the hospital.
Contact An Illinois Medical Malpractice Lawyer from Walton Telken
Illinois will help you navigate this complex situation and determine the best course of action for your case. They will ensure that all responsible parties are held accountable and that you receive the compensation you deserve. Contact us by calling 618-272-2284 or reach out online.
With over 150 years of combined legal experience, we passionately fight for victims’ rights and strive to achieve the best possible outcomes for our clients. Troy E. Walton and Stephen J. Telken understand the immense challenges faced after an injury, and we’re committed to helping you recover the maximum monetary damages for your physical, financial, and emotional losses. Real practice is in our DNA, and we’re unafraid to aggressively advocate on your behalf to ensure you receive the compensation you
deserve.
We’re a Midwest-based law firm, small by choice, with a big impact. At Walton Telken, our mission is simple: achieve the best possible outcomes for each of our clients. Powered by our passion for victims’ rights and 150 years of combined legal experience, we work hard towards this goal every day—and we have the track record to prove it.
