Amputation is a significant disability which permanently alters lives. At Powers & Santola, LLP, our New York medical malpractice lawyers have assisted many people who lost a limb due to preventable medical error. They often don’t know how this happened, and they want answers. Please contact us. Our legal team can quickly jump in to review medical records and speak to your providers. We can also analyze whether you have a strong medical malpractice claim against a doctor or hospital.
Amputation Costs
When someone loses a limb, they often stagger beneath the financial costs:
- You might have to leave your job because your disability prevents you from working there anymore.
- You probably need to pay and maintain prosthetic devices.
- You might need ongoing medical care, such as stump surgery or rehabilitation.
- You might need to modify your home or vehicle.
According to one study, those who suffered amputation had lifetime costs over $500,000. Everyone’s journey is different, so contact a New York medical malpractice lawyer at our firm for help understanding the ongoing costs associated with amputation.
Do You Have a Malpractice Claim?
Medical providers in New York must provide quality care. They do not have to be perfect, but they can’t make some serious mistake that ends up hurting you.
You have a medical malpractice claim for limb loss if you can show:
- You were a patient of the person you are suing.
- The defendant failed to follow the correct standard of care.
- The defendant’s negligence caused your limb loss.
- You have suffered damages, such as financial loss or pain and suffering.
A major question is whether the doctor followed the correct standard of care. You might have lost a limb, but sometimes that’s unavoidable. For example, you might have been in such a bad accident that your limb is damaged beyond repair, and no physician skill can repair the limb.
You only have a legal case when your doctor’s negligence led to the amputation. That is a complicated question. Our firm can work with experts to identify what steps your doctor should have taken.
Medical Errors that Lead to Amputation
Certain medical errors are to blame for preventable amputations.
Surgical Errors
This sounds shocking, but some doctors remove a limb because they get patient records mixed up and perform the wrong surgery on a patient. You might be wheeled into the operating room to have a gallbladder removed only to wake up with your arm missing.
Improper Wound Care
Infection is a leading cause of amputation. Proper wound care is necessary to keep infection at bay. Your medical team, including nurses, could improperly care for a wound, leading to a devastating infection and amputation.
Diagnostic Errors
Your doctor might fail to diagnose a medical condition which ultimately leads to amputation. For example, a doctor could fail to diagnose an infection in a timely manner or realize that you have diabetes. Diagnostic errors keep patients from receiving the critical care they need, when it can make a difference. Some reasons for diagnostic errors include physician inexperience, mixed up records, and burnout.
Treatment Errors
Your doctor should also provide necessary treatment to address your medical condition. A doctor might carelessly prescribe the wrong medication, which leads to a worsening of your physical health, or they recommend no treatment. Another example of treatment error is discharging you from the hospital too soon.
How Powers & Santola Will Help
Suing a doctor or hospital is one of the hardest things to do in New York. Various laws shield providers from legal accountability. Injured patients should quickly reach out to an experienced law firm, who will:
- Begin an investigation into the surrounding circumstances that lead to your amputation.
- Talk with nurses or doctors about what happened in your case.
- Request medical records related to your injuries.
- Consult expert witnesses to better understand what choices your medical team should have made.
- Pay close attention to all deadlines related to your case.
- Draft a demand letter for your case.
- Open negotiations with the defendants and their insurance companies.
- Handle all communication and document production for our clients.
- Answer your questions throughout this process.
- Conduct depositions and prepare our clients for their depositions.
- Litigate your claim to trial, if necessary.
The process for obtaining a settlement is long and winding. We have settled some cases within a year, while other cases take years before we ever arrive in court for a trial. Consult with our legal team for a better understanding of timelines.
Ongoing Expenses & Your Settlement
A medical malpractice case seeks to hold a negligent provider accountable for their mistake. We might end up suing multiple defendants, including doctors, surgeons, nurses, or hospitals for your amputation. These are civil claims for financial compensation to cover:
- Past medical care, such as ambulance transportation, surgical costs, and doctor visits.
- Future or ongoing medical expenses, including future stump surgery, rehabilitation, prescription drugs, and prosthetics.
- Past and future lost income, if you can’t work due to your injuries or need to accept a lower-paying job to work while disabled.
- Pain and suffering for the physical pain and anguish of losing a limb.
- Disfigurement and disability damages.
To calculate how much to request, our team reviews your prognosis and works with doctors to estimate the full cost of your future losses. Many amputees go on to lead fulfilling lives and find useful employment, but they should receive the maximum financial compensation allowed.
Speak with a New York Medical Malpractice Attorney
Powers & Santola, LLP is an established firm helping those injured by preventable medical mistakes. Injured patients and their families turn to us with questions about what happened and what options they have. They need answers to why they ended up losing an arm, leg, hand or foot, and they are concerned that their families will suffer financially. Let us put our decades of combined experience to work for you. We have successfully sued doctors, clinics, hospitals, and nurses. Please contact us to schedule a consultation.
