Douglas Gardens Hospital is comprised of only 32 beds. It has been recognized as being a skilled nursing facility that is focused on acute-care and providing diagnostic service and complex care to all of their patients. They have a wide variety of medical professionals ready to assist their patients including nurse practitioners, registered nurses, social workers, mental health professionals, physical, occupational, speech, and respiratory therapists, therapeutic recreation specialists, and other medical professionals as needed.
With the little number of bed capacity in the hospital, they are able to offer better attentiveness and quality towards their patient, right? With that being said, the Miami, FL professional medical malpractice lawyers are realistic in that with the help of medicine, comes a vast majority of risks that a patient can suffer from, even by the most competent healthcare providers.
At the end of the day, all of those practiced in medicine are only human, and human error occurs. In fact, for all the medical malpractice cases that happen on an annual basis, 80% of them happen due to a medical mistake committed by the medical professional that could have been prevented.
Douglas Gardens Hospital medical malpractice can happen in services that are offered there, including:
- Blood transfusions
- Cardiac monitoring
- Congestive Heart Failure
- Diabetes
- Diagnostic imaging studies
- Hospice care
- Intravenous medication administration
- Pain management (Rosomoff Comprehensive Rehabilitation Center)
- Pneumonia treatment
- And more
Within their campus, they also offer a variety of different programs through various facilities right there for your convenience. Those include:
- Brucker Biofeedback
- Rosomoff Comprehensive Rehabilitation Center
- Douglas Gardens Ambulatory Health Clinic
- Alzheimer’s and Memory Services
- Skilled Nursing Facility
Situations of medical negligence could occur at any of these facilities and by any of the services they offer. The medical negligence could be so critical that the patient is required to file a medical malpractice lawsuit. That is a complex process that our specialized attorneys at Percy Martinez Law Firm in Miami are experienced with. It is essential to know of all the details wrapped with medical malpractice prior to pursuing a claim due to all of the complexities and provisions tied with these types of personal injury claims, which are completely different than any other PI lawsuit.
Medical Malpractice / Personal Injury
While medical malpractice and personal injury are under the same law and share similarities, they also face various disparities. This chart below will demonstrate that for you:
| Similarities | Disparities |
| Someone gets injured due to negligence | PI follow the duty of care |
| Victim sustains substantial damages | Medical malpractice follows the standard of care |
| Under the law of personal injury | PI can be based on intentional wrong |
| Statute of limitations |
It is important to note that while they fall under the same category, there are specific needs for each area. Only a personal injury lawyer that is an expert in medical malpractice cases can handle one.
Categories of Common Cases of Medical Malpractice
As you have evaluated the similarities and disparities, now it is essential to discover the main reasons why individuals file medical malpractice lawsuits across the United States. Any of these moments of medical negligence can transpire into a lawsuit for medical malpractice.
- Medical malpractice lawsuit for surgical incompetence: When you undergo a surgery, you expect that you will wake up and be better than what you were when you went into the operation. You hope that the problem that was causing you suffering is now gone, right? Of course. Why else would we go under the knife if we didn’t hope for the best? Unfortunately, surgeons tend to be the medical providers that are sued the most often for medical malpractice. A conjunction of human error during operations can be tied with these occurrences including, distractions, operating under the influence, lack of communication, lack of skill, lack of experience, and more. Any of these medical negligence’s could lead to unrepairable damages to a patient. Some surgical incompetence can include lack of informed consent, removing a wrong body part, performing an operation on an incorrect patient, cutting into a nerve, incorrect administration of anesthesia, and more.
- Medical malpractice lawsuit for errors in diagnosis: Errors in diagnosis is a constant subject that has been brought up in the medical world. Every year, a large portion of medical malpractice lawsuits have the underlying cause being due to an error in diagnosis. Whether a medical provider failed to diagnose cancer, did not diagnose a condition in time, or couldn’t provide the patient with the right diagnosis, American’s are suffering from misdiagnosis and a high rate (12 million cases a year). Many of these cases have been linked to the lack of tests offered to the patient, failure to properly read lab results, disregarding symptoms of the patient, and more. This medical negligence can lead to serious complications, permanent injury, and even as far as death. When a misdiagnosis takes place, a patient does not receive the proper treatment that they may require ending with damages, particularly if it is a critical condition.
- Medical malpractice lawsuit for medication mistake: Millions of Americans are required to take medications for conditions they are suffering from on an annual basis. In fact, 70% of the American population is consuming at least one form of medication, and about 50% are on two or more drugs. When you factor in the 327 million Americans currently living in the US, that means that about 228 million Americans are on some type of prescription. That is a large number of individuals taking drugs, which is no surprise that medication errors injure about 1.3 million Americans each year, according to the FDA. Various different medical errors can add up to a medical malpractice lawsuit, some of those mistakes include multiple drug adverse effect, medication not being properly administered, giving too much or too little of the prescription, incorrect drug being prescribed, and more. Sometimes, medication errors can be because the patient did not follow the directions of their medication.
- Medical malpractice lawsuit for birth-related injury: Were you aware that from 1,000 infants that are born, about 8% of them will sustain a birth injury? In addition, mothers are also injured sometimes in the process. An injury to a baby or mother can come at any time of her pregnancy and at the moment she is giving birth. Whether it is natural birth or C-section, every birth of a child is also tied to risks. Perhaps the medical team failed to see that the baby was in distress and delayed the C-section, or during the mother’s pregnancy, they did not test for possible conditions like preeclampsia. There are many possibilities to suffer from damages during childbirth, of which every parent should be aware of.
Adding on to the detailed list above, medical malpractice lawsuits can derive from:
- Improper treatment lawsuit
- Anesthesia errors lawsuit
- Failure to monitor vital signs lawsuit
- Lack of informed consent lawsuit
- Delaying operation lawsuit; and
- More
Knowing the possible outcomes after every medical procedure you undergo at Douglas Gardens Hospital will save you from a possible medical malpractice case in the future.
Medical Malpractice Surprising Stats
The talk about the term “medical malpractice” has increased over the years. More attention has been brought to the subject due to it rising as the third cause for deaths across the US. These are some more interesting facts:
- Six to eight percent of newborns will be born with a birth injury
- Florida is classified as in the top five states for medical malpractice claims
- One-third of all claims for medical malpractice come due to misdiagnosis, and about 24% for surgical mistakes
- In 2014, the state of Florida saw 2061 medical malpractice claims against physicians
- About 1.3 million Americans suffer from adverse effects of medication each year
- 12 million cases of misdiagnosis happen every year
- Neurosurgeons and general surgeons are the most commonly sued, while anesthesiologists tend to be the less sued
- A total of 3.8 billion was awarded to patients of medical malpractice in the year 2014
Chart shows the percentage of the type of injury acquired through medical malpractice 2016
| Major permanent injury | 33% |
| Death | 30% |
| Lifelong care, quadriplegic, brain damage | 16% |
| Major temporary injury | 8% |
| Minor permanent injury | 8% |
| Other | 5% |
*Source from 2016 National Practitioners Data Bank
Case Study Cases in Miami-Dade County
Below are some medical malpractice cases that have occurred in Miami-Dade County:
- In 2004, a woman underwent an operation to repair a spinal fluid leak. During the operation, the surgeon injected her intrathecal space with Methylene Blue, which caused her to suffer from a neurological disability and intense burning pain. She was forced to give up her profession as a nurse and remained bedridden in extreme pain. Because the nurses during the surgery lacked knowledge about the medication given to the surgeon, the allegations were for negligence in that aspect. The patient was awarded $38 million for all her damages.
- In 2017, a federal doctor failed to perform a C-section after providing medication to the patient. The physician was constantly leaving the mother for long periods of time in order to address some phone calls. This medical negligence resulted in the baby’s permanent brain damage. The physician attempted to conceal his mistake by false charting and lies. The verdict for the plaintiff and her family was 33 million.
Crucial Importance of Experienced Miami, FL Medical Malpractice Legal Counsel
The crucial reality of needing a skilled medical malpractice attorney in Miami, FL after suffering damages through a medical negligence or having a loved one suffer harms cannot be disregarded, as you can see with all the information provided here. Medical malpractice is a difficult portion of personal injury that faces different requirements and laws than the average personal injury case. Do not worry, our Percy Martinez Law Firm in Miami, FL has efficient lawyers for medical malpractice ready to fight for your every need against Douglas Gardens Hospital. They rest at nothing to obtain the maximum compensation for the damages that you have had to endure due to another person’s negligence, especially by someone who you entrusted your health to.
References:
- https://miamijewishhealthsystems.org/healthcare-services-programs/hospital/
- https://www.personalinjurysandiego.org/personal-injury/personal-injury-vs-medical-malpractice/
- http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/us-population/
- https://www.aarp.org/health/drugs-supplements/info-2017/medication-errors-rise-fd.html
- https://www.hg.org/legal-articles/common-types-of-medical-malpractice-31330
- https://www.kairelaw.com/medical-malpractice/statistics/
- https://www.npdb.hrsa.gov/resources/annualRpt.jsp
- https://www.colson.com/miami-jury-awards-38-million-in-tragic-pharmaceutical-and-medical-negligence-case/
- https://www.google.com/search?q=malpractice&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwih2tCr5pTdAhWExFkKHaHvCvsQ_AUICygC&biw=1920&bih=933#imgrc=YUEHRqfJHb_dcM: – image
- https://www.google.com/search?q=malpractice&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwih2tCr5pTdAhWExFkKHaHvCvsQ_AUICygC&biw=1920&bih=933#imgrc=uMKw74H7jdgFDM: – image