Nursing Malpractice Attorney
When you go to a hospital, doctor’s office, or other medical clinic, you trust that the healthcare professionals will provide competent care and not cause further harm. Unfortunately, this reasonable trust may be misplaced. Negligent nurses sometimes make serious errors that can lead to patient injury or death. When this occurs, patients and their families can take legal action against those nurses or the healthcare groups that employ them, seeking rightful compensation for their injuries.
If you have been injured due to a negligent healthcare provider, contact Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard P.C. for a free consultation with a compassionate and caring nursing malpractice attorney. We’ll review your case, explain your legal options, and discuss how we can help you seek the justice and compensation you deserve.
What Is Malpractice in Nursing?
Malpractice in nursing occurs when nurses harm patients by failing to provide treatment consistent with the accepted standard of care when performing their duties. Like other medical professionals, nurses must provide care that meets established medical guidelines. When they fail to uphold that obligation, either through their actions or inaction, injured patients can hold them liable for resulting harm.
Types of Malpractice in Nursing
Nursing malpractice can take many forms depending on the medical setting and the nurse’s specific duties. However, many incidents of nursing malpractice result from nurses taking actions that go against medical standards or failing to take actions that are medically necessary. Common types of malpractice in nursing include:
- Failure to Monitor Patients – Nurses are often charged with monitoring a patient’s condition for changes, including drops in blood pressure or difficulty breathing. Failure to notice these changes or other signs of medical distress can result in the patient not receiving the treatment they need.
- Medication Errors – Nurses are frequently responsible for administering medications to patients. Giving a patient the wrong medication, an incorrect dose, or administering the drug at the wrong time can cause health issues.
- Inadequate Documentation – Nurses must accurately record patient information, including vital signs, medication allergies, and the time and date of medication administration. Incomplete or incorrect documentation can lead to errors down the line.
- Poor Communication – Effective communication about a patient’s condition with doctors and other medical staff is a core part of a nurse’s job. Doctors may not provide the correct treatment if a nurse fails to effectively communicate a patient’s symptoms.
- Failure to Follow Procedures – Standard medical procedures are in place to protect patients’ health and well-being. If a nurse fails to clean wounds, administer medication, or use medical equipment properly, it can be malpractice.
- Patient Neglect – Ignoring a patient’s request for help, failing to reposition immobile patients, ignoring a patient’s hygiene, or delaying necessary care is all considered medical malpractice.
Medical malpractice victims can take legal action against nurses who have caused these injuries to recover compensation. Our Chicago medical malpractice lawyers can meet with you during a free consultation to determine if the medical errors rose to the level of malpractice and explain how we can help.
Examples of Negligent Nurses in Different Medical Settings
Malpractice can happen in any healthcare environment. For example, in a busy hospital, a nurse might administer medication to the wrong patient if they don’t double-check their chart, leading to a potentially dangerous interaction with other medications the patient is taking. Nurses can also make other mistakes that lead to a wrong diagnosis or other injuries.
In nursing homes, a nurse may forget to turn an immobile resident regularly, resulting in painful nursing home injuries, such as bedsores that can become infected. Or an emergency room nurse may fail to recognize the symptoms of a severe condition like a heart attack or stroke, delaying a patient’s life-saving treatment and causing lasting impairment or wrongful death.
Nurses may also fail to properly prepare patients for surgery or not account for all surgical tools, resulting in an object being left inside the patient’s body. These surgical errors can cause significant harm, often necessitating additional surgery to correct the issue.
Reasons Why Malpractice in Nursing Happens
Several factors can contribute to nursing malpractice, including:
- Lack of Training – New or inadequately trained nurses may not understand the specific procedures used at the healthcare facility and may not know how to respond in high-stress situations.
- Understaffing – Many hospitals and nursing facilities suffer from understaffing, which can lead to nurses making rushed decisions about patient care, missing critical patient symptoms, or failing to check in on patients at regular intervals.
- Overwork and Fatigue – Nurses often work long hours with minimal breaks, especially those in emergency care. This overwork can lead to fatigue, which may result in serious errors or lapses in judgment.
- Poor Communication – While nurses may fail to communicate a patient’s symptoms to doctors, poor communication can occur in both directions. If nurses aren’t provided with accurate information, they may administer medication at the wrong time or make other errors that should have been avoided.
- Inadequate Supervision – In some medical malpractice cases, supervisors or doctors fail to provide adequate oversight for nurses working under them. This can cause additional parties, including the supervisors and the healthcare facility, to share in liability for medical malpractice.
At Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard P.C., we have a network of legal professionals and medical experts who can thoroughly investigate your case to determine if a negligent doctor, nurse, or other healthcare provider committed medical malpractice. We then demand full and fair compensation on your behalf. Since we work on a contingency fee basis, you will not have to pay for attorney fees unless our attorneys are successful in recovering financial compensation for your claim. You have nothing to lose by reaching out to us for a free case review.
Can I Sue a Negligent Nurse?
In the event that a nurse’s negligent care resulted in your harm, you can file a medical malpractice lawsuit against them. In addition to the nurse, other medical care providers and the facility where the nurse works could share liability for the malpractice, depending on the circumstances of the case.
Through this type of personal injury claim, you can seek compensation for the harm caused by the negligent care, including medical bills, lost wages, reduced earning capacity, other expenses related to your injury, pain and suffering, and emotional distress.
However, it’s essential to note that Illinois law only allows malpractice victims two years to file lawsuits against medical providers who have injured them. Failure to file your lawsuit within this period can result in the courts preventing you from seeking compensation. It is crucial to begin working with a medical malpractice attorney as soon as possible so they have time to gather the evidence needed to hold the nurse liable before the time limit expires.
Contact Our Chicago Medical Malpractice Attorneys
The attorneys of Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard P.C. have recovered over $2.5 billion for our clients to date, including the highest compensatory verdict award to an individual plaintiff in Illinois history and more than 375 verdicts and settlements of $1 million or more. Our diverse team of 20+ top litigators and 35+ supporting staff gives us the resources and skill to aggressively fight for our clients and recover the compensation they need to rebuild their lives.
Contact our law office today for a free consultation with an experienced attorney about your case. A nursing malpractice attorney can review the actions that caused your injury, explain your legal options for seeking financial recovery, and answer your questions about the legal process so you know what to expect.
