Are you or a loved one suffering because a doctor made a medical error in Port St. Lucie, FL? Preventable medical mistakes can cause innocent patients immeasurable harm. An experienced Port St. Lucie medical malpractice lawyer can help you maximize your compensation for medical bills, lost wages, pain, trauma, and more.
Our team at Graves Thomas Rotunda Injury Law Group has over 50 years of experience handling complicated injury cases. Since we opened our law firm, we’ve helped injured clients and their families recover hundreds of millions of dollars.
If you were injured due to medical negligence, call our law office today. We offer a free initial consultation so that you can get the quality legal advice you deserve without risk. You can contact us online or call (772) 677-0373 for more assistance.
How Graves Thomas Rotunda Injury Law Group Can Help With My Port St. Lucie Medical Malpractice Case
Proving that a doctor committed malpractice in Port St. Lucie, Florida can be extremely challenging. Medical malpractice laws are complicated. Doctors and hospitals have teams of attorneys who defend against medical negligence claims every day.
You deserve to have an experienced Port St. Lucie personal injury attorney fighting for you.
Clients like you have trusted the skilled attorneys at Graves Thomas Rotunda Injury Law Group for over two decades.
We can successfully help you prove your case by:
- Identifying all responsible parties and sources of insurance
- Investigating and collecting evidence on your behalf
- Working with leading medical experts as we build your case
- Determining how much your case is worth
- Negotiating with the defendant’s insurance company and defense teams for a full settlement
- Filing a lawsuit and fighting for you at trial if the insurance deal isn’t fair
Members of our legal team have been recognized by Super Lawyers and the Multi-Million Dollar Advocates’ Forum. Call for a free consultation to learn more about how we can use our skills to help you.
What Is Medical Malpractice in Florida?
No doctor can promise a perfect outcome. All patients are different and respond differently to treatment.
That said, doctors and healthcare providers are required to adhere to certain standards. Those medical standards are developed by members of the medical community itself, based on the condition involved, the patient’s general health, the provider’s position and other relevant factors.
When a medical provider deviates from the applicable “standard of care,” they can be held financially responsible for the serious harm they have caused. All healthcare providers can be liable when they fail to adhere to the medical standard of care.
Our attorneys handle all types of medical negligence claims, including those involving:
- Surgical errors
- Emergency room errors
- Prescription drug errors and adverse drug interactions
- Pharmacy errors
- Anesthesia errors
- Failure to diagnose cancer and other diseases
- Nursing negligence
- Cancer misdiagnosis
- Hospital negligence
- Hospital-acquired infections
- Radiology errors
- Birth injuries
If you suspect you were a victim of medical negligence, call our Port St. Lucie medical malpractice attorneys today. We can start digging to uncover evidence to prove your case immediately.
What Is My Medical Malpractice Case Worth?
Like any personal injury claim, the value of a medical negligence case depends on factors unique to your situation.
Some of the most important variables include:
- The nature of the harm you have suffered
- Your medical treatment costs and other out-of-pocket expenses
- How the ordeal has impacted your physical and mental health
- Whether the mistake has impacted your earnings
- Whether you will suffer a long-term injury that will impact your future earnings and quality of life
- The nature of your doctor’s mistake
It’s common for insurance companies to downplay a victim’s losses. Don’t underestimate the impact that a medical mistake can have on your life. Our legal team can fight for the compensation you deserve.
What Types of Damages Are Available to Victims of Medical Malpractice in Port St. Lucie?
You should be compensated for both economic damages and non-economic damages.
An economic damages award reimburses a victim for any financial expenses they have incurred due to an injury, including:
- Current and expected future medical expenses
- Lost income
- Lost future earning potential
- Physical therapy
- Nursing care
- Rehabilitation and ongoing care
Your damages award should consider your current expenses and future costs.
Your non-economic damages award compensates for things that money really can’t buy, such as:
- Pain and suffering
- Emotional distress
- Diminished quality of life
- Reduced life expectancy
- Lost independence
- Anxiety
- Depression
- PTSD
- Disfigurement or scarring
- Loss of consortium and other damages for wrongful death
If you were a victim, recovering compensation for all of your losses can be critical to your future.
How Much Does It Cost to Hire a Medical Malpractice Lawyer in Florida?
Like most injury law firms, our team at Graves Thomas Rotunda Injury Law Group works on a contingency fee basis. When you hire us, you agree to pay a percentage of your final settlement or verdict. You won’t have to cover initial retainer fees or pay our attorneys’ fees before you’ve received compensation for your injuries.
We Will Fight to Recover Compensation for All the Harm You Have Suffered
We know just how wide-reaching a medical error’s consequences can be.
Patients are often left to struggle with the following:
- Worsened underlying medical conditions
- A need for more invasive, extensive, and expensive treatment
- Severe infections caused by prolonged hospital stays
- Development of new ancillary medical conditions and dangerous side effects
- Blood clots and stroke
- Bed sores
- Amputations
- Chronic pain
- Sepsis
- Shock
- Catastrophic injuries that can lead to wrongful death
The mental trauma caused by a medical error can also have a lasting impact on your life. Many victims suffer severe damage when it comes to their emotional health and wellbeing. These personal losses can also be critical to your damages award.
What Causes Most Medical Errors in Port St. Lucie?
Medical professionals can violate their duties in any number of ways.
The following are some common errors that can result in malpractice:
- Failure to run proper diagnostic tests
- Misinterpreting lab results
- Lab mix-ups
- Failure to take a proper patient history
- Failure to obtain informed consent
- Charting and communication errors
- Failure to recognize a patient’s symptoms
- Inexperienced medical providers
- Failure to refer patients to specialists when needed
- Prescribing the wrong medicine or the wrong dosage
- Failure to provide proper pre-and post-operative instructions
- Failure to monitor the patient before, during, and after procedures
- Wrong site surgeries
- Mistaking patient identities
- Exhaustion, overworking, and physician burnout
When doctors make mistakes, patients shouldn’t have to bear the consequences on their own. Our team is prepared to help you fight for every dollar you deserve.
How Do I Prove My Medical Malpractice Case?
The basic elements of a medical malpractice claim are:
- You were the defendant’s patient, so they owed you a legal duty of care.
- The defendant deviated from the standard of care, so breached their duty.
- That breach of duty caused you to suffer some type of identifiable harm.
- The damages you suffered as a result and their value.
Establishing the scope of the doctor’s duty of care can be particularly challenging. The relevant standard of care can vary widely from case to case. In the most general terms, the standard of care is the level of care that a reasonable, trained medical professional would have provided under the circumstances.
Under Florida medical malpractice laws, you’ll need expert witnesses to prove your case. Before you can even file a lawsuit, a qualified medical expert must testify about the level of care you should have received and how your doctor failed to provide that level of care.
How Long Do I Have to File a Medical Malpractice Lawsuit After a Medical Error in Florida?
You typically have two years to file a medical malpractice lawsuit. Generally, the two-year period begins on the date your injury occurred. However, medical malpractice cases can be challenging because your doctor might not immediately admit their mistake. It might take weeks, months, or even longer for you to realize you were a victim. If you didn’t discover the harm immediately, the two-year clock starts to run when you discovered (or reasonably should have discovered) the injury.
While this discovery rule can give you extra time to take legal action, a statute of repose also applies. You cannot file a lawsuit more than four years after the medical error occurred, regardless of when you discovered it.
Contact a Knowledgeable Port St. Lucie Medical Malpractice Lawyer for a Free Consultation
Do you have questions about your rights under Florida medical malpractice laws? An experienced Port St. Lucie medical malpractice lawyer at Graves Thomas Rotunda Injury Law Group can help. Contact us today to schedule your free case evaluation.
