Queens Medical Malpractice Lawyers

When a person visits a doctor or checks-in to a hospital we expect to receive the best in treatment and to make a full medical recovery. While neither the law nor your doctor can guarantee your medical outcome, the law can prescribe the quality of care and treatment to which you are entitled and receive. However to enforce that standard of care, an individual will often need an experienced and dedicated advocate to stand-up for their rights. At Sullivan & Galleshaw. LLP, our attorneys fight for people who have been injured by negligent care or care that otherwise fails to satisfy the medical standard of care in New York.

What is Medical Malpractice?

Medical malpractice has a very precise legal definition in New York and in most states. Medical malpractice occurs when a doctor, physician or other provider of medical services provides care that breaches, or falls below the acceptable standard of care.  A reasonable standard of care is the generally accepted method of treatment or care that is administered to a patient with a specific condition. The exact standard of care varies depending upon the condition, but they can involve scenarios not limited to:

• Failure to diagnose
• Misdiagnosis
• Anesthesia injuries
• Hospital negligence
• Emergency room negligence
• Negligence by doctor
• Home care malpractice
• Nursing home malpractice

Medical malpractice can occur in an array of scenarios. For instance, patients in New York are entitled to informed consent prior to being subjected to a medical treatment or procedure. Informed consent requires the patient to understand the risks, benefits, and alternatives to the treatment being contemplated. However, in New York informed consent applies only to procedures that are considered to be non-emergency treatment, procedure or surgery or invasive diagnostic procedures. Invasive procedures are ones that involve the “invasion or disruption of the integrity of the body.” Other contexts a medical malpractice claim can arise due to lack of informed consent is when the doctor or surgeon has permission to perform a procedure, but the procedure is performed on the wrong side of the body or on the wrong body part.

If I Had a Bad Medical Outcome, Can I Sue?

While every viable medical malpractice action will have an ascertainable injury due to a bad medical outcome, not every bad medical outcome does means that medical malpractice has occurred. In some situations, a bad medical outcome can happens despite a medically accepted treatment or medication being carried out. In other scenarios, the existence of an alternative treatment might even exist but this does not necessarily mean that malpractice has occurred. In still other scenarios the disease or condition may be too advanced for even the best medical treatment to correct. For a sound medical malpractice claim to exist, something more than a bad outcome must be present. The doctor must have failed to provide medical services that met the relevant standard of care and resulted in an injury for a viable medical malpractice claim to exist.

Statute of Limitations on Medical Malpractice Claims

Under New York medical malpractice law, the statute of limitations on a medical injury is 2.5 years. In New York, the statute of limitations will begin to accrue when the act the results in the patient’s injury occurs at the end of a continuing doctor-patient relationship. For lost and forgotten medical devices scenarios an exception applies because the injury is typically concealed from the injured individual. In situations like these, the injured individual may bring their case within one year of actually discovering the injury or when the individual should have discovered the injury.

FAQ Queens Medical Malpractice Lawyer

Medical malpractice cases in Queens can be complicated, and it is important to work with an attorney who can assist you with your case. At Sullivan & Galleshaw LLP, our Queens medical malpractice attorneys receive a wide range of questions from patients about filing malpractice claims and how these cases work. The following are frequently asked questions (FAQs) we hear, along with our responses.

Q: How Can I Know If My Doctor Committed Malpractice?

A: Medical malpractice, which involves a health care provider acting negligently, can be difficult to determine without having an attorney assess your case. It is essential to know that there are many different kinds of circumstances that can constitute malpractice. Yet at the same time, it is essential to understand that patients can have unwanted outcomes in medical procedures without malpractice occurring. For example, certain complex procedures come with risks, and a patient may experience harm even if a doctor For a patient’s injuries to be the result of negligence, and for the patient to be able to file a malpractice case, that patient will need to be able to prove that their health care provider was negligent.

Q: What Constitutes Negligence in a Medical Malpractice Case?

A: Negligence in a medical malpractice case means that the provider deviated from the standard of care that other providers in the same field and geographic reason would consider reasonable. In other words, negligence in a Queens medical malpractice case usually means that a healthcare provider failed to provide a patient with the level of care that another provider in Queens in the same or similar medical field would consider acceptable, reasonable, and appropriate.

Q: Can I File a Medical Malpractice Lawsuit Against Someone Other Than a Physician?

A: Yes, many different types of healthcare providers can be sued in medical malpractice cases, including, for example, physicians, nurses, dentists, surgeons, hospitals, pharmacists, and other parties.

Q: How Much Time Do I Have to File a Medical Malpractice Lawsuit?

A: Under New York law, the statute of limitations for a medical malpractice lawsuit is two years and six months from the date of the healthcare provider’s action that caused the patient’s injury. However, it is important to know that there are a couple of key exceptions to this time limit, including for cases involving a delayed cancer diagnosis or in cases of specific types of surgical errors.

Q: Are There Any Exceptions to the Statute of Limitations?

A: Yes, there are two important exceptions to the medical malpractice statute of limitations, which can give a patient more than two years and six months (the standard clock for the statute of limitations) to file a lawsuit. New York law cites the following as exceptions: “(a) where the action is based upon the discovery of a foreign object in the body of the patient, the action may be commenced within one year of the date of such discovery or the date of discovery of facts which would reasonably lead to such discovery, whichever is earlier; and (b) where the action is based upon the alleged negligent failure to diagnose cancer or a malignant tumor, whether by an act of omission.”

In the latter situation of a delayed diagnosis or failure to diagnose, the clock on the statute of limitations usually begins ticking on the date that the person knew or reasonably should have known of the diagnostic error, or on the last date of continuous treatment from the provider.

Put our Medical Malpractice Experience to Work for You in Queens

If you have suffered an injury due to suspected medical malpractice by a treating doctor, nurse or medical facility you may be entitled to damages for your injuries, pain & suffering, and other consequential damages. To schedule your free and confidential legal consultation following suspected medical malpractice, contact Sullivan & Galleshaw by calling 718-843-0300 or contact us online.