How can you sue a hospital for wrongful death due to medical malpractice?

By VSCP LAW

If you believe your loved one died as the result of the actions or omissions of his or her health care providers at a hospital, you may be able to file a wrongful death lawsuit. Read on to understand what steps you should take to sue a hospital who may be liable for your loved one’s death.

1) HIRE A LAWYER. 

The first thing you should do is find a medical malpractice attorney — or a wrongful death attorney who has experience trying medical malpractice cases. This lawyer will be able to make sure you abide by all the necessary regulations, such as the wrongful death statute and the wrongful death statute of limitations. When you meet with this lawyer, you must provide as much information as you can about the circumstances before, during, and after your loved one died. That will enable your lawyer to evaluate the viability of the claim – that is, whether the claim is likely to be successful in court.

You should find medical malpractice lawyers who will take your case on a contingency basis. That means that the attorney gets paid contingent on the case being successful (either winning a plaintiff’s verdict at trial or receiving a payment through a settlement agreement). In a contingent based case, you don’t pay any money to the attorney to try your wrongful death case. When the case resolves in a successful verdict or settlement, the attorney is paid a percentage of the verdict or settlement amount.

2) PRESERVE RECORDS

It is imperative that all necessary records are preserved and not inadvertently destroyed. There are certain actions that must be taken early in the process such as ordering an autopsy for the decedent (which needs to take place before burial, obviously). Toxicology reports may be ordered as well – toxicology measures the amounts and types of chemicals or drugs in the blood, saliva, and urine. 

Other examples of evidence that needs to be gathered in a timely fashion include medical records, intake forms, labwork, prescription slips, photographs and videos, death certificate, and physical objects that are related to the wrongful death (eg, prescription bottles, medical devices, etc).

Make sure you hire an experienced wrongful death lawyer so that they can guide you on how best to retain critical evidence, the addition or absence of which could determine the success (or failure) of your lawsuit.

3) IDENTIFY ALL RESPONSIBLE PARTIES 

Your wrongful death attorney will review all of the records and – with your help – identify all possible responsible parties. There may not be only one person whose negligence caused your loved one to die – there may be multiple people who all played a part in the tragedy. It might have been a nurse who handed the wrong tool to the surgeon. It may have been an assistant who was doing intakes in the medical office and wrote down the wrong information. It may have been the pharmacist who doled out the wrong dosage or potency of the medicine. An experienced wrongful death lawyer will know all of the parties involved and who should be added to the Complaint.  

4) SEEK EXPERT REVIEW

Your medical malpractice attorney has a collection of top-notch medical experts who can review the circumstances of the case and give an expert opinion as to the liability of the hospital and its staff. The expert has to be strategically selected – for instance, a cardiologist who has never operated on a patient should not give an expert opinion as to how to perform a quadruple bypass surgery. Your medical malpractice attorney will be able to find the perfect expert for your case. 

5) RESPOND TO YOUR LAWYER’S REQUESTS FOR INFORMATION

Your lawyer will need information from you during the process. Be readily available for your lawyer so that the lawyer can gather the necessary information exactly as soon as possible. Your lawyer will do most of the hard work to make sure your lawsuit against the hospital is successful, but your lawyer certainly needs your cooperation to ensure the best possible outcome.

If you wish to sue a hospital for wrongful death due to medical malpractice, contact the premiere medical malpractice lawyers in Philadelphia – VSCP Law at vscplaw.com  – for a thorough evaluation of your claim.

PHILADELPHIA BRAIN INJURY LAWYER

Your brain is the processing center for your body. It controls what you think, h...

The Most Common Medical Malpractice Errors in Philadelphia

People often confuse medical errors and medical malpractice. Medical errors are...

Personal Injury Attorneys in Philadelphia: Transforming Your Legal Journey

A term that you may hear in the context of personal injury cases is “catastrophi...

Contact Us
tag on yout theme's header.php Read the detailed step-by-step at https://humbertosilva.com/visual-composer-infinite-image-carousel/ */ // auxiliary code to create triggers for the add and remove class for later use (function($){ $.each(["addClass","removeClass"],function(i,methodname){ var oldmethod = $.fn[methodname]; $.fn[methodname] = function(){ oldmethod.apply( this, arguments ); this.trigger(methodname+"change"); return this; } }); })(jQuery); // main function for the infinite loop function vc_custominfiniteloop_init(vc_cil_element_id){ var vc_element = '#' + vc_cil_element_id; // because we're using this more than once let's create a variable for it window.maxItens = jQuery(vc_element).data('per-view'); // max visible items defined window.addedItens = 0; // auxiliary counter for added itens to the end // go to slides and duplicate them to the end to fill space jQuery(vc_element).find('.vc_carousel-slideline-inner').find('.vc_item').each(function(){ // we only need to duplicate the first visible images if (window.addedItens < window.maxItens) { if (window.addedItens == 0 ) { // the fisrt added slide will need a trigger so we know it ended and make it "restart" without animation jQuery(this).clone().addClass('vc_custominfiniteloop_restart').removeClass('vc_active').appendTo(jQuery(this).parent()); } else { jQuery(this).clone().removeClass('vc_active').appendTo(jQuery(this).parent()); } window.addedItens++; } }); // add the trigger so we know when to "restart" the animation without the user knowing about it jQuery('.vc_custominfiniteloop_restart').bind('addClasschange', null, function(){ // navigate to the carousel element , I know, its ugly ... var vc_carousel = jQuery(this).parent().parent().parent().parent(); // first we temporarily change the animation speed to zero jQuery(vc_carousel).data('vc.carousel').transition_speed = 0; // make the slider go to the first slide without animation and because the fist set of images shown // are the same that are being shown now the slider is now "restarted" without that being visible jQuery(vc_carousel).data('vc.carousel').to(0); // allow the carousel to go to the first image and restore the original speed setTimeout("vc_cil_restore_transition_speed('"+jQuery(vc_carousel).prop('id')+"')",100); }); } // restore original speed setting of vc_carousel function vc_cil_restore_transition_speed(element_id){ // after inspecting the original source code the value of 600 is defined there so we put back the original here jQuery('#' + element_id).data('vc.carousel').transition_speed = 500; } // init jQuery(document).ready(function(){ // find all vc_carousel with the defined class and turn them into infine loop jQuery('.vc_custominfiniteloop').find('div[data-ride="vc_carousel"]').each(function(){ // allow time for the slider to be built on the page // because the slider is "long" we can wait a bit before adding images and events needed var vc_cil_element = jQuery(this).prop("id"); setTimeout("vc_custominfiniteloop_init('"+vc_cil_element+"')",500); }); }); });