top 10 steps to take if there has been a MEDICal error

(Other than calling a medical malpractice attorney)

If you suspect you’ve been a victim of medical malpractice, taking proactive steps can strengthen your case. Here are the top five things to do immediately:

Request Your Medical Records: Obtain a complete copy of all relevant medical and billing records, including test results, treatment notes, and any imaging. These documents are critical for evaluating what went wrong and identifying potential negligence.
Request Your Billing File: Your billing records often are not necessarily part of your patient file. Obtaining the billing for the medical service often sheds light on what the doctors are telling they did versus what they actually did (or are trying to get paid for)
Document Everything: Keep a detailed journal of your symptoms, medical visits, treatments, and any communication with healthcare providers. Include dates, names of doctors, and specifics about how the injury has impacted your daily life.
Seek a Second Opinion: Consult another qualified medical professional to confirm the error and assess whether different treatment could have prevented or mitigated harm. A second opinion can provide clarity and strengthen your claim. Do NOT mention lawsuits or lawyers in seeking further medical opinions.
Preserve Evidence: Keep any physical evidence related to your injury, such as prescriptions, medical devices, or even photographs of visible injuries. This can be valuable in establishing the connection between the malpractice and your harm.
Be Cautious with Communication: Avoid discussing your situation with the involved healthcare providers or their insurance representatives without legal advice. Any statements you make could potentially be used against you.
Take Photos in the hospital or medical setting OF EVERYTHING.
Request and Keep all of your Explanation of Benefits (EOB) correspondence from your Health Insurance Carrier
Gather Witnesses: Identify anyone who may have witnessed the medical procedure or its aftermath, the most important being other healthcare workers. Their testimony could be helpful in establishing what happened. Get first and last names. There are many occasions that "helpful" witnesses (often nurses) do not appear in the medical records.
Remain Calm and Professional: Avoid direct confrontations with healthcare providers or hospital staff. Any hostile interaction could complicate your case. Stay focused on collecting evidence and seeking professional legal guidance.

Taking these steps quickly can help protect your rights and provide the foundation for a strong medical malpractice claim.

common MEDICAL malpractice questions

What is the Failure to Diagnose or a Missed Diagnosis?

As a Fresno-based medical malpractice attorney, the most frequent call I receive often relates to a doctor’s failure to diagnose properly which lead to devastating consequence for a patient. A failure to diagnose can occur when a medical professional overlooks critical symptoms or fails to order necessary tests, causing a condition to worsen unnecessarily. For example, if a doctor fails to diagnose cancer early, delaying treatment could significantly reduce a patient’s chances of survival. However, not every failure to diagnose is actionable. To have a valid claim, there must be causation—meaning the doctor’s error directly caused harm. For instance, if a condition like a fast-progressing cancer would have caused the same outcome regardless of when it was diagnosed, there may not be grounds for a lawsuit. If you believe you’ve suffered due to a diagnostic error, I can evaluate your case and help you understand your legal options.

Here are three additional examples of causation in failure-to-diagnose medical malpractice cases:

Heart Attack Misdiagnosis: If a doctor fails to recognize symptoms of a heart attack, such as chest pain or shortness of breath, and the patient suffers severe heart damage or death that could have been prevented with timely intervention, there is clear causation. However, if the heart attack would have caused the same damage even with immediate treatment, causation may not be established.
Missed Fracture Diagnosis: Suppose a patient visits an emergency room with wrist pain after a fall, and the doctor fails to diagnose a fracture. If the untreated fracture leads to improper healing or permanent loss of function that could have been avoided with early intervention, the failure to diagnose caused the harm. But if the fracture heals correctly without treatment and no harm occurs, there is no causation.
Stroke Symptoms Ignored: A doctor might dismiss a patient's early signs of a stroke, such as weakness or slurred speech. If the delay in treatment leads to permanent brain damage or disability that could have been avoided with timely intervention, causation exists. Conversely, if the patient would have suffered the same level of damage even with immediate treatment, causation would not be present.

Causation is a critical element in determining the viability of a medical malpractice claim, and an experienced attorney can analyze the facts to assess whether it applies to your case.

medical malpractice Lawyer

Medical Malpractice

Failure to Diagnose *Wrongful Death

Foreign Objects Left After Surgery *Medication Errors

Falls *Birth Injuries *Eye Injuries

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