Miami Medical Malpractice Lawyers

What types of medical malpractice claims to do you handle in Miami?

There are many ways in which a doctor or medical professional can deviate from the proper standard of care – “the type and level of care an ordinary, prudent, health care professional, with the same training and experience, would provide under similar circumstances in the same community.”

At Hickey Law Firm, we represent patients and families in the following types of medical malpractice claims:

• Diagnostic errors. This happens when a doctor or medical professional doesn't discover the patient’s illness or makes a mistaken diagnosis which leads to further injury, illness, or death. Delays or a mistaken diagnosis can be fatal if a patient has heart disease, cancer, or other severe illnesses. Diagnostic mistakes can also include failing to order the correct diagnostic tests and failing to read the test results correctly.
• Improper treatment. This can occur when a medical professional does not treat symptoms as another competent doctor would, or if the doctor or medical professional administers the appropriate treatment incorrectly which results in a negative outcome.
• Failure to warn of risks. Medical professionals have a duty to adequately warn patients of known risks of procedures, treatments, and medications known as the duty of informed consent. If this duty is not performed and a patient is injured from the treatment, a medical malpractice suit may be filed. Doctors should obtain informed consents explaining known dangers in writing from their patients.
• Surgical errors. Surgeons and those who assist them have undeniably difficult jobs. The law recognizes that surgery is a complicated, sensitive endeavor and that a tragic outcome is not always cause for a medical malpractice claim. However, the fact remains that a patient is intensely vulnerable during surgery. You’re putting your life in another person’s hands and that means the surgeon and his or her team carry significant responsibilities. Preventable surgical errors kill thousands of Americans every year. Common examples of surgical errors include:
  • Anesthesia errors
  • Amputation of the wrong limb
  • Unnecessary damage to surrounding tissue, ligaments, and nerves
  • Infections
  • Surgical instruments left in patients
  • Failure to competently respond to emergencies
  • Failure to monitor the patient during and after surgery
• Prescription errors. When a pharmacy incorrectly fills a prescription, this error can be extremely serious. At Hickey Law Firm, we have decades of experience filing medical malpractice cases against drug producers, distributors, and pharmacies that make mistakes when distributing prescriptions. There have been times when the cases were due to the inexperience and negligence of a pharmaceutical assistant as well. 

Your pharmacist has a duty to ensure that the prescriptions you are receiving are not only in accordance with what your physician prescribed, but also to double-check the prescription for reactions with any of your other medications. Your pharmacist should also give you a general description of your prescription and its application, side effects, and warnings. Failure to do these things, along with several other mistakes can lead to severe, if not fatal, side effects.

Our Miami lawyers have encountered many breaches of duty on the part of pharmacies, including the following:

• • Inadequate training.
  • Lack of prescription review, resulting in mistakes.
  • Pharmacy rushing to complete orders and making mistakes.
  • Failure to establish and maintain an appropriate “continuous quality improvement program” as required by Florida Administrative Code 64B16-27.300.
  • Failure to call the physician to clarify the amount of the dosage of the prescription.
  • Failure to counsel the patient or the patient’s agent about the dosage in violation of Florida Administrative Code 64B16-27.820.
  • Failure to interpret and assess the prescription order for potential adverse reactions, interactions, and dosage regimen.
  • In Florida, the pharmacy and the pharmacist have a duty of due care which arises under Florida case law and under the Florida Pharmaceutical Regulatory Statutes and Administrative Code. In addition to the pharmacist's duties to provide an exceptional level of care, the pharmacy is equally responsible for the care of its patients.

Nurses and nursing homes may also be liable if residents fail to receive the proper medications, in the correct dosages, at the correct times.

• Birth Injuries. When medical malpractice occurs during childbirth, your new child can suffer an injury that lingers for the rest of his or her life. We have significant experience evaluating potential cases and determining if there's a viable claim. Common birth injuries include:
  • Erb's palsy
  • Cerebral palsy
  • Damage to the limbs
  • Lack of oxygen, causing brain damage and other injuries

Many birth injuries simply cannot be treated, and your child will be dealing with them for the rest of his or her life. He or she will have to deal with the pain, discomfort, and inconvenience of the injury, but the injury can also dramatically hurt your child's ability to work and earn a living. This is why it's so important to vigorously pursue compensation after a birth injury.