Additionally, health care facilities can be liable for injuries resulting from an unsafe environment and failing to adopt or implement appropriate protocols. If you or a loved one has been the victim of medical negligence, our attorneys can review your claim and determine if a claim exists. We will carefully examine the circumstances involving the care provided by the health care professional or medical facility, establish liability, and fight on your behalf for fair compensation. Contact Bertram & Graf. L.L.C. to schedule a complimentary case consultation today.

If a health care professional fails to follow accepted medical guidelines, hospitals may be held liable for any injuries that result. If you have suffered physically, financially, or emotionally as a result of substandard medical treatment, you may have grounds for a medical negligence lawsuit. Listed below are common types of medical negligence:

Misdiagnosis/Failure to diagnose
Many health conditions, when not diagnosed promptly, can result in serious, even life-threatening problems. Misdiagnosis occurs when a physician incorrectly diagnoses an illness or medical condition, leading to inappropriate or detrimental treatment. Failure to diagnose occurs when a medical professional fails to detect an illness or medical condition (such as cancer or a heart attack) altogether.

Birth Trauma/Cerebral Palsy/Brain Damage
While not every child's cerebral palsy is caused by medical negligence, there are many circumstances in which doctors' or nurses' errors do result in a birth injury. This negligence may occur due to inadequate testing during the prenatal period, or by failing to appropriately respond to fetal distress during labor, or by failing to provide emergency care to a distressed newborn. Lack of oxygen to the baby's brain, before or after birth, can cause permanent brain injury, which is known as cerebral palsy.

Surgical mistakes
All surgeries, no matter how common or "simple," expose patients to certain risks. Surgical errors may occur when doctors perform the wrong procedure on a patient, cause accidental injury to the body, or fail to properly monitor a patient's condition during treatment.

Nursing errors
Often overworked or undertrained, nurses may act carelessly and cause their patients harm. Common nursing errors include: medication mistakes, delays in vital care, performing tasks beyond the scope of the nurse's abilities, failing to notice signs that additional treatment is required, and failing to report changes in the patient's condition to a doctor.

Hospitals/ER negligence
Hospitals and emergency rooms have a responsibility to provide a safe environment and a high standard of care for patients. However, patients can be harmed by untrained or incompetent hospital staff performing procedures beyond the scope of their abilities, careless physicians or support personnel, medication mistakes, and lax sanitation standards.

To successfully prove a medical negligence case, our lawyers must demonstrate the following:

• The client was injured or harmed.
• The health care professional had a duty
  to provide.
• The health care professional rendered
  negligent or substandrad care.
• The injury or harm was the result of the
  administered negligent or substandard care.