QUESTION

Can I sue malpractice years after it occurred?

Asked on Jul 20th, 2017 on Personal Injury - California
More details to this question:
I gave birth to my first child via normal delivery. Then after 24 hours, I couldn’t walk. X-ray was done and found out that I have a pelvic separation. It’s like a pelvic fracture and when I was physically checked after giving birth, she had a left clavicle fracture at birth. During the delivery, it wasn’t found out, only after my epidural subside that’s when the pain on my pelvic was 10/10 that I couldn’t walk at all. I had a physical therapy done almost 6 months and it was healed without any surgery done but the pain until now is like chronic. It triggers every time I do exercise. If I wear high heels, I couldn’t tolerate as the pain radiates to my pelvic bones. I did file a grievance back in year 2014 but I was feeling depressed and decided to ignore the issue because every time I think of it, I feel depressed and just go on with life. Then I got pregnant with my second child but with same hospital and requested for a cesarean section delivery as I don’t want to experience my previous pregnancy. I had no issues with my second delivery but during my pregnancy, it was hard. I had to stop working during my eighth month as the pelvic pain is worsening. The pain is on and off. Now when I enrolled to the gym class, the pain is still there on and off once triggered after what happened in 2014. My daily activities that I used to is different and limited. I cannot use high heels as compared to my normal life. I cannot tolerate gym class although x-ray results said it was healed but it became chronic.
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1 ANSWER

No, your case would be barred by the Statute of Limitations as you knew in 2014 malpractice might have occurred. The time limitation is not suspended while you still have pain, it starts when the improper act occurred and you did or should have known you had been improperly injured. Also, you do not say what the hospital did wrong. Did they use any medical tools on you to cause the separation or was it caused by bearing the child? Merely because you suffered a physical problem does not automatically lead to a conclusion malpractice was involved. It would be very costly to get expert witnesses to support your claim.
Answered on Oct 02nd, 2017 at 10:40 AM

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