New York Medical Malpractice Legal Questions

It sounds like you have reason to suspect that your problems are related to negligence, but the big question is whether the statute of limitations expired. If you want to investigate a case, you should contact a local medical malpractice attorney (one in your state).  They take these cases on a contingency basis which means you only have to pay if you succeed.  Click here for an article that explains what you can and should expect when pursuing a medical malpractice case. Click here, for more information about me.   Please understand that by answering your question in this informal forum I am not acting as your attorney. I am not doing anything to protect any legal rights that you have.  Medical malpractice cases need to be thoroughly investigated and to know whether you have a viable case, an attorney usually has to obtain and review all of the pertinent medical records and consult an expert.  John Ratkowitz, Esq. 105 Eisenhower Parkway Roseland, NJ 07068 Office: (973) 830-8441 Cell: (732) 616-6278 Fax: (973) 226-0031 Email: jratkowitz@starrgern.com.  Click here for my website. ... Read Answer

I do not think it is a foregone conclusion that a cyst in the scaphoid bone was a non-operative condition. The literature on the subject suggests otherwise. Screw protrusion can happen in the absence of negligence. Finally, if the second surgery fixes all of these problems, there will be a question about whether the case is financially viable. If you want to investigate a case, you should contact a local medical malpractice attorney (one in your state).  They take these cases on a contingency basis which means you only have to pay if you succeed.  Click here for an article that explains what you can and should expect when pursuing a medical malpractice case. Click here, for more information about me.   Please understand that by answering your question in this informal forum I am not acting as your attorney. I am not doing anything to protect any legal rights that you have.  Medical malpractice cases need to be thoroughly investigated and to know whether you have a viable case, an attorney usually has to obtain and review all of the pertinent medical records and consult an expert.  John Ratkowitz, Esq. 105 Eisenhower Parkway Roseland, NJ 07068 Office: (973) 830-8441 Cell: (732) 616-6278 Fax: (973) 226-0031 Email: jratkowitz@starrgern.com.  Click here for my website.   ... Read Answer

If you’ve suffered due to negligence or error by a medical professional, you may sue the doctor, and the hospital or clinic. A hospital may be negligent if they did not properly screen and vet the doctors they have on staff. They can also be sued if the medical error was due to negligence or incompetence by one of their employees. This can include physicians, nurses and other staff. We have a good amount of helpful information on our Medical Malpractice page.    D’Amico, Griffin & Pettinicchi, LLC 465 Straits Turnpike Watertown CT, 06795 Phone: (860) 945-6600 ... Read Answer

You don't say when your injury occurred, but assuming it occurred less than two and a half years ago, your next step is to contact a lawyer. Even if it was more, you should still contact a lawyer to see if it may have been tolled due to your continuously treating with the same phlebotomist. You may have a viable medical malpractice case depending upon a number of factors. The statute of limitations to start a lawsuit for medical malpractice is only two and a half years from the time of the injury. It's fine if the phlebotomist's employer want to pay your bills, but do not sign anything stating that you will not sue them. Hopefully you did not agree in writing to forego a lawsuit in exchange for payment of your medical bills. ... Read Answer

You can sometimes toll the statute of limitations for equitable reasons.   The "discovery rule" is one of the equitable grounds to delay the running of the statute of limitations in most jurisdictions under the common law. Essentially, that doctrine holds that if it was impossible to discover that damages were related to medical malpractice then the statute of limitations does not start running until a reasonable person knew or should have known that he was the victim of malpractice. A common example given is when a surgeon leaves a foreign object in the body during surgery and somebody doesn't discover it until developing symptoms and undergoing exploratory surgery many years later. It would be fundamentally unfair to allow a doctor to defeat a claim with the SOL in those circumstances, because the patient could not reasonably have discovered that he was the victim of malpractice until the second surgeon found the foreign object. Your problem is that you were aware of the staple a few years ago, and arguably since a few years has gone by since then, even if the SOL was tolled earlier it has expired now.  Your argument is that you did not appreciate the significance of the harm until recently. In New Jersey, you would not prevail on this argument because case law explicitly rejects the idea that people can delay the statute of limitations until they fully understand the consequences of somebody's negligence. The public policy argument against this is that it creates a slippery slope that will significantly erode the certainty that the statute of limitations otherwise provides businesses and insurance companies. In most cases involving personal injuries, the exact quantum of damages is never known "for certain" and there is always an element of prognostication in these cases.  Because I am an attorney, when I write to people about legal matters I have to insert language to cover my rear-end and say things that are usually already pretty obvious. This is not because I think you are stupid, it is because lawyers are held to a higher standard than most people when they are providing explanations about legal issues and are easily criticized for being misleading when less than clear. So, please understand that I am not acting as your attorney, I am not doing anything to protect any legal rights that you have and you should not consider this email as legal advice. If you have questions and want to investigate a case, you should contact an attorney in your state. John Ratkowitz, Esq. Starr, Gern, Davison & Rubin, P.C. 105 Eisenhower Parkway Roseland, NJ 07068 Office: (973) 830-8441 Cell: (732) 616-6278 Fax: (973) 226-0031 Email: jratkowitz@starrgern.com.  Click here for my website.  ... Read Answer

I am so sorry to hear about this. I recommend you contact an attorney in your area (in the state where the surgery was performed) who advertises they handle medical malpractice cases as soon as possible.   You should be able to get a free consultation with no problem.  I definitely think it would be in your best interest to speak with an attorney who will review your medical records and give you a better idea of what, if any, steps should be taken next.  Best of luck. NOTE: This response is general in nature and should not be considered legal advice.  No attorney-client relationship exists or is formed by this response.... Read Answer

It doesn't sound like the procedure injured you in any substantial way unless there is something you are not reporting about this incident. While you may have a valid malpractice claim, you still have to have suffered damages and outpatient psychiatric treatment is unlikely to be significant enough to file a malpractice claim. ... Read Answer