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New Orleans Medical Malpractice and Negligence Lawyers - Metairie, Kenner, Surrounding Areas

Medical malpractice occurs when a patient is harmed because of a negligent act or omission by a doctor or other medical professional. Negligence by a medical professional may include errors in diagnosis, treatment, or illness management. According to a recent report by HealthGrades, medical errors by hospitals harm up to one in 25 patients admitted to the hospital. This number would be even higher if researchers at HealthGrades factored in mistakes at nursing homes, outpatient settings and doctors' offices. As Dr. Samantha Collier, vice president of medical affairs at HealthGrades puts it, "the equivalent of 390 jumbo jets full of people are dying each year due to likely preventable, in-hospital medical errors, making this one of the leading killers in the United States."

Even using conservative estimates, medical errors are the eighth leading cause of death in this country- higher than motor vehicle accidents (43,458), breast cancer (42,297), or AIDS (16,516).
At the New Orleans firm of Harrell & Nowak, serving Metairie, Kenner, and nearby communities, our medical malpractice and negligence attorneys are experienced lawyers who handle cases that fall under the Louisiana Medical Malpractice Act. We help clients recover damages if they are injured because of negligence or misconduct on the part of a healthcare provider. There are various situations in which a patient may have been injured by a doctor, hospital, or medical professional, including:

Delay or Failure to Diagnose a Disease
Delay or Failure to Treat a Disease
Failure to Obtain Patient's Consent for Health Care or a Surgical Procedure
Medication Prescription and Administration Errors
Improper Technique or Medical Mistake during Treatment or Surgery

Delay or Failure to Diagnose a Disease

You may have been harmed if there was a delay in the diagnosis of your condition because of the negligence of your physician. In addition to diagnostic errors which can lead to lack of treatment or the wrong treatment, the doctor may have failed to order the correct diagnostic test, misinterpreted the test results, or failed to take proper actions on abnormal results. For example, we handle cases that involve:

Failure to Diagnose Cancer of the breast, lung, prostate, colon, pancreas, cervix, ovaries, testicles, kidney, skin, blood, or stomach
Failure to Diagnose Stroke
Failure to Diagnose Heart Attack
Failure to Diagnose Bacterial Meningitis

Delay or Failure to Treat a Disease

Even if your condition was diagnosed correctly, you may have been harmed by the negligence of your doctor or medical professional for failing to timely treat your disease or condition. Sometimes even a short delay can dramatically affect the outcome of the treatment.

Except in the case of an emergency, the doctor must get your consent before performing any treatment. This does not always happen. Your doctor may have been negligent if you did not consent to the treatment you received. If you or a loved one has been harmed by a medical professional's negligence, contact the attorneys of Harrell & Nowak. Our New Orleans office serves Metairie, Kenner, and all nearby areas.

Medication Prescription and Administration Errors

Medication errors are preventable and occur more than one million times each year. About 7,000 people per year are estimated to die from medication errors - 16 percent more deaths than the number attributable to work-related injuries. Errors occur in hospitals and other healthcare settings, such as physicians' offices, nursing homes, pharmacies, urgent care centers, and in-home care. According to a 1997 study, antibiotics, cardiovascular agents, gastrointestinal agents, and narcotics were the most common medications involved in errors.
The American Hospital Association has identified the most common medication errors including:

Incomplete patient information - not knowing about patients' allergies, other medicine they are taking, previous diagnoses, lab results
Unavailable drug information - such as lack of up-to-date warnings
Miscommunication of drug orders - due to poor handwriting, confusion between drugs with similar names, misuse of zeroes and decimal point, inappropriate abbreviations
Failure to label a drug that is prepared and repackaged into small units
Environmental factors - lighting heat, noise, interruptions that distract healthcare professionals

You may have a case for medical malpractice if your doctor or medical professional:

Ordered the wrong drug or ordered a drug that interacted with other drugs you were already taking
Ordered the wrong dosage of a drug
Gave you the wrong drug
Gave you the wrong dosage
Ordered a drug that you were allergic to

Improper Technique or Medical Mistake during Treatment or Surgery

Mistakes can happen during treatment for a medical condition or as the result of a surgery. Examples of negligence that our lawyers have seen include:

Improper implantation of pacemaker
Post-op hemorrhage or hematoma (bleeding)
Post-op hip fracture or a hip fracture from falling out of bed
Complications from anesthesia
Foreign body left in during a surgical procedure, such as forceps or sponges
Blood transfusion reaction because you were given the wrong type of blood
Accidental puncture or laceration or other injury
Infections due to medical care
Post-op pulmonary embolism or deep vein thrombosis
Post-op sepsis or sepsis as the result of negligent treatment
Decubitus ulcer or pressure sore
Post-op respiratory failure or respiratory failure due to negligent treatment
Improper use of stents, such as colonic stents
Improper insertion of cardiac stent
Birth Injury Malpractice
- Cerebral Palsy
- Erb's Palsy
- Shoulder Dystocia

New Orleans, Metairie, Kenner Medical Mistake: Contact Our Lawyers

If you or a loved one is the victim of medical malpractice or negligence by a healthcare provider, contact the attorneys of Harrell & Nowak, lawyers serving New Orleans, Metairie, Kenner, and all surrounding Louisiana areas. A lawyer at our firm would be pleased to meet with you and discuss the details of your claim.

If you have been injured in a serious accident, you'll need legal representation from experienced, determined lawyers. New Orleans firm Harrell & Nowak serves Metairie, Kenner, Covington, Mandeville, Slidell, and other areas throughout the region. Make the smart choice and contact Harrell & Nowak to represent you.

Harrell & Nowak

650 Poydras St. #2107
New Orleans, LA 70130

Phone: (504) 522-7885
Fax: (504) 528-3131

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Shirin Harrell: sharrell@hnwewin.com
Eric Nowak: enowak@hnwewin.com

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