Medical Malpractice Lawyer Fort Lauderdale, FL

Medical Malpractice Lawyer Fort Lauderdale

As a medical malpractice lawyer in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, we know the struggles that victims go through after being negligently or carelessly treated for a medical condition. Regardless of what happened to you, if you believe you were harmed by the very person who was responsible for treating you, please call a medical malpractice lawyer as soon as possible.

We Will Help You to Understand Your Rights

Healthcare professionals including doctors, nurses, physicians assistants, technicians, and other staff are legally required to follow a strict standard of care. They must also provide treatment in a manner that a another person, in the same medical profession, would similarly follow. If a healthcare professional fails to do what another licensed healthcare professional would have done in the same situation, it could constitute medical malpractice. This could happen in a broad range of situations, such as:

•         Failing to diagnose a medical condition
•         Making a surgical or anesthesia related mistake
•         Failing to gain the informed consent of the patient
•         Failing to explain the procedure, complications, or side effects
•         Failing to provide adequate treatment
•         Misuse of prescription drugs
•         Wrongful amputation of a limb
•         Failure to monitor a patient
•         Malfunction of a medical device, leading to an injury or harm
•         Failing to perform a c-section in a timely manner
•         + More

Keep in mind that no medical professional can guarantee a successful treatment or outcome of a procedure. Just because you had a less than satisfactory result does not automatically grant you the right to file a medical malpractice claim with a Fort Lauderdale medical malpractice lawyer.

We Deliver Results to Our Medical Malpractice Clients

If you were injured, improperly treated, or misdiagnosed, a medical malpractice lawyer in Fort Lauderdale can evaluate your claim and advise you on the most practical strategy for moving forward. At Law Offices of Needle & Ellenberg, P.A. we know that medical malpractice claims are some of the most difficult cases to prove and require a great deal of resources. Rest assured, we know what it takes to gets results, and have proven this through a multitude of significant medical malpractice settlements.

• WHAT TO DO IN CASE OF A SUSPECTED MEDICAL MALPRACTICE
• SIX COMMON ERRORS THAT LEAD TO MEDICAL MALPRACTICE CLAIMS
• DO I HAVE A VALID MEDICAL MALPRACTICE CLAIM
• WHY CHOOSE NEEDLE & ELLENBERG, P.A.?
• 3 REASONS TO CONSIDER FILING A MEDICAL MALPRACTICE SUIT
• MEDICAL MALPRACTICE OR JUST AN ACCIDENT
• PURSUING A MEDICAL MALPRACTICE CLAIM OR LAWSUIT
• MEDICAL MALPRACTICE LAW STATISTICS

What to do in Case of Suspected Medical Malpractice

Focus on Your Health

The most important thing is to focus on getting better. If your healthcare provider misdiagnosed you, find another one who can properly diagnose the issue. If you received treatment which injured you or worsened your condition, find a healthcare provider who can mitigate the damage. Stay focused on healing as you also begin seeking remediation. Needle & Ellenburg, P.A. can handle the legal aspects of your situation while you heal.

Maintain a Diary

Document your condition in a written record, including dates, names of healthcare providers, and descriptions. Take photos with date stamps on them. Free date stamp apps are available, so make use of them. Your medical malpractice lawyer in Fort Lauderdale, FL may use your photos as evidence in your case. If you think a detail could possibly be useful, be sure to document it – it’s better to have more rather than less evidence.

Refrain From Contacting the Defendant

Refrain from contacting the healthcare providers who injured you. Do not discuss the case on social media or in online forums, including medical advice forums. Do not allow others to speak on your behalf, and never threaten the defendant through a third party. Allow only your medical malpractice lawyer in Fort Lauderdale, FL to control the flow of information that passes to the defendant. While you’re at it, limit the flow of information from the defendant to your own ears in order to reduce unnecessary stress; avoid looking up news articles or social media pages pertaining to the incident or the defendant. 

Request Medical Records

As soon as you think you have experienced medical malpractice, begin gathering your medical records. Pay attention not only to x-rays and records of surgeries, but also documentation from regular checkups to form a baseline before the incident. You may not need all the documents you gather, but it’s better to have more rather than less. Make sure you begin gathering the documents as soon as you can, preferably before the defendant has been made aware of your case; although it is illegal to alter medical records, an unscrupulous healthcare professional might do so to avoid implication. 

 

Contact an Attorney Immediately

As soon as you think you have experienced injury resulting from medical malpractice, contact a lawyer for advice and representation. It is difficult to navigate the legal system when feeling well, much less so when ill or injured. Needle & Ellenburg, P.A. can handle your case so you can focus on getting well.

Six Common Errors That Lead to Medical Malpractice Claims

Failure To Diagnose a Serious Medical Condition

Failure to diagnose a serious medical condition is one of the biggest mistakes a doctor can make. It can be a life-or-death mistake. If you believe your doctor didn’t diagnose you with a serious medical condition until it became much worse, you may want to talk to a medical malpractice lawyer in Fort Lauderdale FL, from Needle & Ellenburg, P.A.

Surgical Errors

Surgical errors are among the most common malpractice mistakes. Sometimes a foreign object is accidentally left inside the body. Other times, surgery is performed on a healthy body part instead of its diseased counterpart. Occasionally, doctors will perform the wrong surgery on the wrong patient. If any of these surgical errors happen to you, reach out to a medical malpractice lawyer in Fort Lauderdale FL.

Cancer Misdiagnosis

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the U.S., according to the CDC. If cancer is caught quickly enough, it can be manageable, even curable. Once cancer reaches a certain critical mass, though, there’s often nothing to be done but keep the patient comfortable. If this has happened to you or a loved one, reach out to a medical malpractice lawyer in Fort Lauderdale FL.

Failure To Prevent or Treat Infections

The simple procedure of washing your hands for twenty seconds can help prevent infections from spreading. If you can’t figure out how long 20 seconds is, sing the happy birthday song all the way through, twice. 

Treating infections should be easy, with all the antibiotic, antiviral and antifungal medications on the market. However, infections are often missed, especially in a hospital setting. If your infection was left untreated for too long, reach out to Needle & Ellenburg, P.A. to find out your options.

Anesthesia Errors

If an anesthesiologist makes a mistake, it can lead to coma or death. The most common errors they make are not going over the patient’s medical history and not monitoring the patient appropriately during surgery.

Incorrect Treatment of a Medical Condition

This includes doctors who don’t provide any treatment for the condition. Depending on the medical condition, there could be a dozen different ways to treat it. Medication, physical therapy, chiropractic and diet changes are just a few of the ways different conditions might be treated. But if the patient doesn’t know they exist, she can’t ask for them. It’s the doctor’s duty to provide those treatment options.

Call the Law Offices of Needle & Ellenberg, P.A.Now

When a healthcare professional makes a mistake, the victims could find their lives to be changed forever. They might be in chronic pain, unable to walk, may find it difficult to work, talk, or even think clearly. In extreme cases, medical malpractice could result in a death, in which you may be able to file a wrongful death claim.

The Law Offices of Needle & Ellenberg, P.A. has a well earned reputation in Fort Lauderdale for being experienced, dedicated, and honest medical malpractice lawyers who deliver results. We know the emotional and financial impact of these cases, and are prepared to guide you through the legal process so that you get the compensation you need and deserve.

Rather than assume that an insurance company will take care of you and your settlement, you should learn about your rights, and how they could be infringed upon without retaining a lawyer. Fight back by having Law Offices of Needle & Ellenberg, P.A. on your side. Call a medical malpractice lawyer Fort Lauderdale clients recommend now to get started.

DO I HAVE A VALID MEDICAL MALPRACTICE CLAIM?

Hiring a medical malpractice lawyer Fort Lauderdale, FL residents trust is highly important. Due to the statute of limitations, the sooner you contact a lawyer, the better the outcome of your case may be. Medical malpractice is considered to be a highly complex legal matter that requires an in-depth knowledge of many different laws. If you are looking for a Fort Lauderdale medical malpractice lawyer like this, you should consider Needle & Ellenberg, P.A.

Meet Needle & Ellenberg, P.A.

Medical malpractice claims differ from other personal injury claims because they involve both medicine and law. Both subjects greatly vary but they are interwoven in legal claims. A medical malpractice lawyer in Fort Lauderdale, FL should be well-versed in both of these areas in order to represent clients effectively.

Why Choose Needle & Ellenberg, P.A.?

Medical doctors and other healthcare professionals typically have extensive insurance coverage, and these companies often have a team of lawyers working for them. It will be their job to either prove that medical malpractice did not take place, or to settle a valid case as quickly as possible. A medical malpractice lawyer Fort Lauderdale, FL provides can anticipate all of the tactics used by insurance companies and should be ready to rebut their claims in the most professional manner possible.

The lawyers at Needle & Ellenberg, P.A. have been dealing with medical malpractice for decades. Our strength lies not only in our creative strategies in the courtroom, but also through negotiation during mediation and arbitration. We have a network of malpractice paralegals, consultative nurses, medical clinicians, and industry professionals to help us establish a link between the defendant’s wrongdoing and the victim’s injuries.

Using this strategy, we have been able to successfully recover millions of dollars for clients. If you or a family member has been injured because of a medical professional’s carelessness, a medical malpractice lawyer Fort Lauderdale, FL has to offer may be able to help. If you elect to pursue legal action, lawyers at are firm might begin to prepare your claim by:

• Reviewing all the information you provide us

• Getting in touch with a medical malpractice lawyer in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, means you’re opening a line of communication with a qualified and experienced legal professional. At Needle & Ellenberg, P.A., we’ll closely analyze all the information you provide us to make the most impact on your case.

• Collecting and analyze further evidence, including medical records

• Your medical records are a necessity if you want to determine the extent of your injuries as a result of medical malpractice. Going through additional evidence can also uncover a history of negligence on the part of your healthcare provider.

• Determining a fair numerical value for your claim

• The financial value of your medical malpractice claim depends on a number of factors, including how many parties are at fault for your injuries, and the extent of your injuries. You may be incapacitated or recovering for a long time, which can mean a greater value for your claim.

• Making a deducted decision on who may be at fault

• There are sometimes many parties at fault when it comes to a medical malpractice claim. A healthcare provider may have been in the wrong, but was the equipment faulty as well? A medical malpractice lawyer in Fort Lauderdale, FL, can help you determine who else could be held responsible for your injuries.

• Helping you to understand your rights and legal options

• You have rights as a patient, and you deserve to be heard if you’ve been wronged. Getting your voice heard is the first step to securing the compensation you deserve.

If you have experienced any of the following, please call a medical malpractice lawyer Fort Lauderdale, FL families depend on as soon as possible:

• Misdiagnosis

• A misdiagnosis can result in potentially incorrect treatment. You should be able to rely on your healthcare provider to diagnose you properly, and a misdiagnosis indicates an inexcusable lack of care and attention on the part of your doctor.

• Late diagnosis

• A late diagnosis can be just as bad as a misdiagnosis. For certain medical issues, speed is essential. If your doctor (or other medical specialist) failed to diagnose a health problem in a timely fashion, you could be thrust into a potentially life-threatening situation. Don’t settle for an inadequate diagnosis. Contact Needle & Ellenberg, P.A. today.

• Surgical error

• A surgical error sounds like a nightmare – and it is. An injury that you experienced during a surgery can be difficult to prove, so getting professional input from a medical malpractice lawyer (and possibly another medical professional) is important if you’re trying to win compensation.

• Medical equipment failure

• If your medical device was defective, or the medical equipment used in your medical procedure was faulty, you could have grounds for a medical malpractice suit against your healthcare provider. Additionally, manufacturers should be held responsible for defective or faulty products, especially if their devices are meant to save lives.

• Pregnancy or childbirth error

• A childbirth error has the potential to impact the rest of your child’s life. Childbirth is a complicated process, and the medical team helping you deliver your baby should be trained, competent, and prepared. If they aren’t, they could seriously risk the future health of your child – and no parent should have to deal with that.

• Receiving the wrong medication

• Receiving the wrong medication can potentially exasperate your existing health problems, or even give you new medical issues to deal with. You should expect more from doctors and other medical professionals, and with the help of a medical malpractice lawyer in Fort Lauderdale, FL, you can hold them to a higher level of accountability.

This list is not exhaustive. If you believe you have been the victim of medical malpractice, you should call a lawyer for more information.

3 Reasons To Consider Filing a Medical Malpractice Suit

1. You Did Not Provide Informed Consent

In order to begin a medical treatment, a doctor or other medical provider is required by law to provide you with all of the information that is available about that treatment so that you can make an informed decision about whether you would like to proceed with the recommendation. In many cases, you will be asked to sign a document that indicates that you received all of the risk and benefit information and that you understood it in order to make an informed decision. While there are some scenarios in which explicit consent is not sought, such as in life-saving emergency situations in which you are likely to die without intervention, all other medical treatments require you to consent to treatment. Failure to obtain consent can be grounds for a lawsuit. A medical malpractice lawyer in Fort Lauderdale, FL can talk with you about your particular situation.

2. Your Doctor Did Not Treat Safely

Doctors and other medical providers have very difficult jobs. They provide high-quality, life-saving treatments to many people every day. Because medical providers are human and can make mistakes, there are a number of safety procedures in place to help them in their practice. For example, in an operating room, a surgeon is never alone. There should be a whole team of people who help to sterilize the environment, prepare the necessary tools, and help care for the patient and monitor their vital signs. One important safety procedure is that there are multiple points in which the whole team stops what they are doing to check, double check, and triple check that they are treating the right patient for the right condition. If any of those safety procedures are ignored, Needle & Ellenburg, P.A., a medical malpractice lawyer in Fort Lauderdale, FL, may be able to help you determine if you have grounds for a medical malpractice suit.

3. You Have an Injury as a Result of Treatment

Just because a treatment is approved for a particular condition does not mean that every person’s body will respond to that treatment favorably. You may have had an unfavorable outcome after a surgery but that does not mean that you have grounds for a lawsuit. If you have an injury after a surgery that seems unusual, a medical malpractice lawyer in Fort Lauderdale, FL can help you to determine if you have been a victim of negligent care. Needle & Ellenburg, P.A. may be able to help you obtain the necessary medical documentation to determine whether your poor outcome is just an unfortunate situation or if it is the result of medical negligence during treatment.

Do I Have a Valid Medical Malpractice Claim?

Ultimately, you will be best served by meeting with a medical malpractice lawyer Fort Lauderdale, FL clients trust to discover the answer to that question. This is because every case is unique and any number of variables can determine if a claim is valid or not.

At Needle & Ellenberg, P.A., we understand that making the decision to file a claim or pursue a lawsuit can be difficult. For this reason we do not charge for the first consultation with one of our medical malpractice attorneys. Take advantage of this opportunity to speak with a skilled Fort Lauderdale medical malpractice lawyer to get answers to your questions.

Medical Malpractice or Just an Accident?

Every surgery has its risks and there is no absolute guarantee about the outcome, but sometimes a tragic result was avoidable. The same is also true for non-surgical treatments. As a medical malpractice lawyer Fort Lauderdale, FL families recommend can explain, when a patient is injured and it is determined that the occurrence was simply an accident, it’s not likely that a court will allow a civil lawsuit to commence. It’s also unlikely that the medical provider’s insurance company will approve an injury claim on the part of the patient.

Here are some examples of avoidable versus unavoidable accidents.

Example One:

• Unavoidable: A patient develops cancer. Their doctor treats them, possibly including surgery as well as chemotherapy and radiation treatments. Despite the doctor’s efforts, the patient’s cancer is not stopped and they pass away.
•  Avoidable: A patient develops an unusual growth that appears to possibly be cancer-related. Their doctor determines that the growth is benign without performing any tests. The patient does indeed have cancer and it progresses enough that it seriously damages their health and/or is eventually fatal.

Example Two:

• Unavoidable: A patient sustains a serious leg injury while playing a sport. The injury includes a broken leg. Though their doctor sets the broken bone and prescribes follow-up treatment with the help of a physical therapist, the bone never recovers completely. The patient has a slight permanent limp as a result.
•  Avoidable: A patient sustains a serious leg injury while playing a sport. The injury includes a broken leg. The doctor does not set the bone correctly. The patient has a slight permanent limp as a result.

Example Three:

In example three, we’re looking at the case of Duke University Hospital and an organ transplant that went wrong. Jesica Santilian, who was 17 at the time, was at the hospital for a heart and lung transplant in 2003. The transplant was performed without ensuring that the organs matched Jesica’s blood type. This procedure, which was skipped, is a standard and important procedure. Jesica experienced brain damage, and her body began to shut down. This is when the healthcare providers in charge of Jesica’s care realized that the organs did not match her blood type, and that she was rejecting them because of an avoidable mistake.

The hospital then covered the mistake up for eleven days, then they went public to seek another donor for Jesica. It was too late by then, though, because the brain damage was fatal. The doctor took responsibility for the error and the hospital implemented a brand new system that would double check transplants to prevent errors from occurring.

This mistake occurred and cost a young girl her life; however, because it was on the national news, it gained coverage that caused the hospital’s implementation of a double-check system for organ donors and transplants to become commonplace in most every hospital in the country.

Nobody else wanted to make the same mistake, especially one so avoidable.

A Few More Examples

Diving into some more examples of incidents that gained national coverage, because not every case goes national, but the ones that do usually cause changes across the board for every hospital in the country.

Surgery on the wrong side of the head or the wrong leg, arm or other limb is usually a “never event”. It never happens and isn’t supposed to be able to happen. However, in Rhode Island Hospital, there were three catastrophic instances of neurosurgeons performing surgery on the wrong side of a patient’s head in 2007. Two mistakes were caught early, and they were able to close the surgery site and operate on the correct side, but the other surgery left an 86-year-old patient dead.

Once, an air force veteran went for treatment of possible cancer in one testicle. Benjamin Houghton went into surgery in West Los Vegas’ Veteran’s Association Medical Center to have the unhealthy testicle removed, the surgeon removed the healthy instead. This mistake was traced to the medical records, where the surgeon did not mark the correct side before he began the operation. This malpractice case brought the Houghton family $200,000 in compensation.

There have been instances of limbs being removed that should not, and even the wrong sperm being used at fertility clinics. Yes, you can file malpractice if the wrong sperm donor’s sperm is used in your fertility treatments; in 2004 a couple was seeking to have in vitro insemination done, so that they could ensure they’d have a healthy baby, and their child was born a different race than either parent. In these sorts of cases, the egg or the sperm can be wrong, depending on what you’re having done. 

Sometimes medical malpractice cases are extremely disturbing. The case of Dana Carvey, a man who needed to have a double bypass operation on his part to preserve his life. Mr. Carvey was informed that the surgeon had bypassed one of the wrong arteries, and the surgeon claimed that it was an honest mistake that occurred due to Mr. Carvey’s arteries being weirdly positioned in his heart. Mr. Carvey felt differently and he filed a $7.5 million lawsuit against the surgeon and the hospital. In this instance the surgeon should never have bypassed the wrong artery, as searches are trained, especially cardiothoracic surgeons, to mark the arteries they are working with and check the scans and other hospital equipment to ensure they are working on the right artery. By bypassing the wrong artery Dana Carvey could’ve lost his life.

Another disturbing case is that doctors have performed heart surgery on the wrong patient. In this instance a 67-year-old woman was admitted to a teaching hospital to have a cerebral angiography performed. The procedure was completed and she was returned to her hospital room on a different floor than her original one. She was not discharged the next morning, she was instead to have an open heart procedure that she did not need. She was on the operating table for over an hour, and a doctor from a different department said they were doing the wrong operation on the wrong patient. The mistake was realized the procedure was canceled and the patient was returned to her room in stable condition. But the potential consequences of this extra surgery included increased risk of heart attack stroke and internal bleeding.

So everyone knows that neurosurgeons are really well trained in drilling holes in people’s skud bleeding lls. It is how they relieve a lot of pressure when you have pressure build up in your head. However in 2007 the Rhode Island Hospital performed the surgery on the wrong side of the patient’s head and this was the third time in one calendar year. An 82-year-old patient required the operation to stem the flow of brick bleeding from her brain to her skull, and the surgeon immediately started the procedure on the wrong side of her head. This was despite the fact they had a CAT scan that was performed only moments before and had indicatewas on the left side of the brain. The mistake was caught and corrected and the patient did survive but two more incidents happened and someone did die.

There is even in cases of women seeking abortions only to give birth to premature infants. In this particular instance a teenager in Florida sought to have an abortion and it was performed at a diagnostic center. However rather than having the prescribed abortion and unlicensed doctor was permitted to give Miss Williams the medication the cost to deliver a baby girl is extremely preterm. According to Ms. Williams her child was born alive and died shortly thereafter. It took detectives a long time to find remains as the man which I performed the medical procedure had tampered with evidence and practiced medicine without a license and had obstructed justice by hiding remains.

Pursuing a Medical Malpractice Claim or Lawsuit

Medical malpractice claims and lawsuits often involve substantial amounts of money because of all the damages the victim sustained due to their injury. This could include one or multiple surgical procedures, outpatient treatment such as physical therapy, medications, loss of wages, and more. To win this type of lawsuit or collect a settlement, your medical malpractice lawyer Fort Lauderdale, FL locals call will have to prove several criteria:

• You had a medical provider-patient relationship with the caregiver who harmed you.
• They did not provide you with a reasonable level of care and as a result, you sustained a serious injury.
• The injury cost you money and possibly other losses, such as pain and suffering.

Medical Malpractice Law Statistics

According to the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, there were approximately 2,600 medical malpractice claims in 2021 with the bulk happening in hospital settings.

Call a Medical Malpractice Lawyer Fort Lauderdale, FL Victims Depend On

The medical malpractice lawyer in Fort Lauderdale, FL that you hire can explain that proving these things is not necessarily easy and might require expert testimony from other medical providers. You will likely have only one chance to present a solid case to a jury or the insurance company. A substantial sum of money may be involved in terms of your damages.

For all these reasons, don’t leave the outcome to chance. Contact us at Needle & Ellenberg, P.A. immediately to speak with a knowledgeable medical malpractice lawyer Fort Lauderdale, FL provides at no charge to find out if you have a valid claim or lawsuit.

Needle & Ellenberg, P.A. Fort Lauderdale Medical Malpractice Lawyer

Call Needle & Ellenberg, P.A.Today

When you call our firm you can feel confident in knowing we will listen to what you have to say and let you know what your options may be. To schedule a consultation with a medical malpractice lawyer Fort Lauderdale, FL residents rely on, please call our office today.

Client Review

“Needle & Ellenberg, P.A., is the premier medical malpractice firm in Miami. Andrew Needle and Andrew Ellenberg are highly skilled, super intelligent, compassionate and caring attorneys who always have their clients’ best interests at heart. I give the firm my highest recommendation.”
Pedro Polanco