Medical Malpractice Attorneys in Tucson, Arizona

Get compensation for medical negligence and surgical mishaps.

When you visit the doctor, hospital, or pharmacy, you put your trust in the training, experience, and ethical behavior of each medical professional who cares for you. Should a doctor, surgeon, or other such medical professional cause you serious illness or injury due to negligence, it can be a terrifying and damaging experience. And you may be entitled to significant compensation.

For decades, the medical malpractice attorneys at AZ Injury Law have come to the aid of victims of medical negligence and surgical mishaps. For over four decades our fearless attorneys have represented clients whose care involved almost every area of medicine, including emergency care, cardiology, surgery, obstetrics, gynecology, pediatrics, cancer, radiology, orthopedics, and more.

In most cases, we expect doctors, nurses, and healthcare professionals to perform their work safely, smartly, and skillfully. However, medical malpractice is much more common than most people know and seemingly “simple” claims can often be quite complicated.

If you believe that you have suffered severe harm or have lost a loved one because of medical malpractice, our experienced team of personal injury lawyers at Schmidt, Sethi & Akmajian may be able to help you.

What Is Medical Malpractice?

Medical malpractice commonly involves a theory of negligence.

Medical malpractice occurs when doctors and other health professionals provide care that does not meet the accepted standards within the medical community, placing the patient at risk of serious injury or death. When doctors, nurses, paramedics, and other healthcare or medical professionals fail to meet this acceptable standard of care and their failure results in injuries, they may be liable to pay damages in medical malpractice claims.

At the core of any medical malpractice claim is the concept of medical negligence, which consists of a breach of the standard of care or a failure to act that causes injury to a patient.

If you are injured because of medical treatment that you received, you deserve representation from the top medical malpractice attorney in Arizona to help prove that the doctor or medical professional was negligent, and that their negligence caused your injuries and losses.

While your case is certainly unique, some of the reasons that medical mistakes may occur could include the following:

Communication failures between hospital staff and doctors about patient care
Poor record-keeping by medical professionals that cause doctors to miss important information about a patient's allergies, issues, or medical history
Emergency room errors
Medical equipment or device failure or lack of maintenance standards
Understaffing that may lead to cutting corners
Fatigue that can compromise good decision-making
Alcohol or drug abuse by doctors and other medical professionals

Our experienced firm prepares each case for trial from the very beginning and we are known by insurance companies for our preparation. As a result, we are able to obtain fair settlements for as many as 98% of our cases and have also obtained many multi-million-dollar verdicts for medical malpractice claims.

Injuries from Medical Malpractice in Arizona

We approach each client's medical malpractice case with care, concern, and dedication.

People trust medical professionals with their health, their wellbeing, and their very lives and the lives of their loved ones. When medical errors cause harm, injuries or deaths, the victims and the families of people who are injured or killed are entitled to file medical malpractice lawsuits to hold the responsible parties accountable for their actions.

Whether your claim was because of an individual medical professional - doctor, nurse, paramedic - or happened in a hospital, urgent care, long-term care facility, hospice, or skilled nursing facility, you may be entitled to compensation due to medical malpractice.

Some common injuries due to medical malpractice or negligence include:

Birth injuries
Brain injuries
Infections
Incisions in wrong patient
Incisions in wrong body part
Amputations of the wrong limb
Allergic reactions
Paralysis
Medication overdose
Fatality / Death

At Schmidt, Sethi & Akmajian, our medical malpractice attorneys understand how to build strong cases of liability for our clients through preparation, exhaustive investigation, and our years of success facing and fighting medical insurance companies. Call our team to discuss your unique medical malpractice claim and let Tucson's top attorneys fight for your compensation.

Do I Have a Medical Malpractice Case?

Unfortunately, sometimes medical professionals make serious, life-altering errors that cause irreparable damage to the patients who've trusted them with their care.

To recover compensation in a medical malpractice claim, you must have suffered harm as a result of the medical professional's negligence. If the doctor's treatment met the standard of care, you might not be able to prove a malpractice claim. That's where having an expert legal team comes in - representation like the medical malpractice attorneys at AZ Injury Law.

Our attorneys fight hard for our clients to recover damages to compensate them for the harm they've suffered, including financial losses, physical injuries, or non-economic losses. In many cases, people suffer all three types of harm.

The financial losses associated with suffering severe injuries because of medical malpractice can quickly add up and can last a long time. You may face mounting medical bills, income losses, rehabilitation costs, and other expenses, and are likely unprepared to absorb these significant expenses. Non-economic losses are losses that are more difficult to value, including pain and suffering, disability, emotional trauma, and a reduction in your quality of life.

In a medical malpractice case, we will be required to prove there was harm and that a healthcare professional's negligence caused your injuries. If you believe your injury was caused by the negligence of a doctor, hospital, or other healthcare professionals, you may be eligible to pursue compensation.

The award-winning medical malpractice attorneys from AZ Injury Law will review what happened in your case and offer an honest assessment of the merits of your potential claim and the legal options you may have.

What Constitutes Medical Malpractice or Medical Negligence?

All medical professionals are expected to meet the standard of care for similarly situated medical professionals in the community. There are several ways that a doctor, nurse, paramedic/EMT, or healthcare worker can be negligent, including the following:

Delayed diagnosis or misdiagnosis

Delays in important diagnoses or misdiagnoses may cause patients' conditions to worsen, and they may receive treatment that they don't need or might harm them, making things worse. In severe cases such as cancer, a delayed diagnosis could even result in the patient's death.

Medication errors

When medication errors are made, serious injuries or fatalities can result. From prescription errors, administering the wrong medication, pharmacist mistakes, allergy issues, and certain drugs interacting with other medications in a dangerous way, medication errors can be severe.

Surgical Errors

Extreme examples of surgical mistakes include emergency room errors, leaving medical instruments inside of the body, wrong-site or wrong-patient surgeries, or mistakes occurring during the postoperative stage, such as failing to notice excessive bleeding or an infection.

Mishandling Medical Equipment

Some medical malpractice and negligence cases involve mishandled medical equipment or medical devices that may be defective and cause injury. Equipment that has been mishandled by medical professionals can cause further harm to patients.

Unsafe conditions during labor and delivery

The creation of unsafe conditions during labor and delivery can cause harm to the infant and mother. Negligence by a doctor, nurse, obstetrician, or other medical professional during childbirth may result in significant birth injuries and have lifelong effects and require representation.

Hospital-Acquired Infection

Hospitals have a responsibility to maintain a reasonably clean environment for their patients, - especially when performing invasive medical procedures - so it is your right to hold them accountable if they have negligently failed to keep their patients safe and the hospital sanitized causing an infection or worse.

Suffering serious injuries or the loss of a loved one because of medical mistakes and negligence can be devastating. If you believe that you may have a claim for medical malpractice, you should consult with an experienced medical malpractice attorney at Schmidt, Sethi & Akmajian as soon as possible.

Common Types of Medical Malpractice Claims We Handle?

If you are facing a strong opponent and need a personal injury attorney with the knowledge and experience to face the big medical insurance companies, we are the right fit to handle your medical malpractice claim.

Our proven firm prepares each case for trial from the very beginning and we are known by insurance companies for our thorough and exhaustive preparation. Many different types of medical malpractice can cause serious harm and result in significant injuries which you may be entitled to receive compensation for, including.

Lack of Informed Consent

While it's smart to follow your doctor's advice, it is also important to understand that you are entitled to full disclosure. In fact, all medical professionals are legally obligated to inform their patients of the risks involved in any of the medical procedures or treatments that they propose.

Simply agreeing to participate in a procedure does not amount to informed consent. Other than emergencies and routine, non-treatment procedures - testing reflexes, checking heart rate, conducting a physical examination, etc. - if a doctor fails to acquire your informed consent before performing a medical procedure, they would be liable for any injuries that subsequently arise.

As such, your doctor must explain, and give you the chance to review, the following information:

The purpose of the proposed procedure
The risks involved in the procedure
Information about alternative treatments
The chances of the procedure's success
The estimated cost of the procedure

Anesthesia Errors

Almost all types of surgery require anesthesia to be administered to a patient while they are undergoing a surgical procedure. Anesthesia errors can place patients at a high risk of severe injury or death and can be the basis to hold the anesthesiologist liable in malpractice claims.

Some types of anesthesia errors that may form the basis of liability include the following:

Administering the wrong drug
Administering drugs that negatively interact with each other
Administering the wrong dose
Administering a drug to which the patient is allergic
Failing to monitor the patient's vital signs
Failing to act when the patient's vital signs change
Failing to intubate
Administering anesthesia too late
Using faulty equipment
Failing to use medical equipment correctly
Turning off the alarm on the pulse oximeter
Failing to inform the patient about the procedure properly
Patient wakes up during the procedure and can feel or see what is happening, but cannot communicate

Emergency Room Errors

Emergency rooms are hectic and the related teams have a lot to think about, but medical professionals must still uphold the expected standard of care when they treat patients. When emergency room errors occur, the results can be disastrous and cause serious patient injuries.

Some examples of emergency room errors that might result in medical malpractice claims:

Ambulance crew negligence
Emergency medical technician (EMT) or paramedic errors
Misreading test results, X-rays, or charts
Failing to diagnose cardiovascular problems that could cause a heart attack
Misdiagnoses and delayed diagnoses of aneurysms, blood clots, pulmonary embolisms, strokes, or appendicitis
Delays in treatment
Medication errors
Failing to order proper diagnostic tests
Failing to consult with a specialist
Faulty equipment and product liability
Anesthesia malpractice
Surgery errors

Hospital Malpractice

Hospitals must evaluate the qualifications of their prospective employees and may sometimes be directly liable for medical malpractice and lack of proper protocols, procedures, and policies or vicariously liable for the malpractice of their employees, staff incompetence, or under-staffing.

Some examples of the types of employee negligence for which a hospital may be liable include the following:

Misdiagnosis
Failing to provide proper treatment
Failing to monitor a patient
Failing to refer a patient to a specialist
Failing to order proper diagnostic tests
Administering the wrong drug or the wrong dose
Anesthesia errors
Mishandling medical equipment
Performing unnecessary surgery
Failing to obtain informed consent
Failing to follow hospital protocol
Failing to identify postoperative infections
Failing to properly monitor patients after treatment
Failing to check if employee has the proper certification, training, and degrees
Negligence of independent contractors who perform work in the hospital.

Medical Device Errors

Medical devices are routinely used to treat and diagnose diseases. However, these devices are sometimes mishandled, may fail, or may contain manufacturing or design defects or inadequate warnings causing serious harm which could result in a significant medical malpractice lawsuit.

Some examples of medical device errors that might result in medical malpractice claims:

Negligence
Inadequate training
Lack of knowledge
Product or manufacturer defects

Misdiagnosis or Delayed Diagnosis

Failures to correctly diagnose medical conditions or diagnoses that result in improper treatment or delayed care can cause major problems for patients, including long term injuries or even death. To prevail in a misdiagnosis lawsuit, you will need to prove that the doctor was negligent.

Some common conditions that are often misdiagnosed include the following:

Cancer of the breasts, lungs, ovaries, prostate gland, and brain
Infections
Appendicitis
Vascular disease
Ectopic pregnancies

Several types of negligence can result in a medical misdiagnosis, including the following:

Not listening to the patient
Not recognizing the symptoms
Not reviewing the patient's medical history
Failing to order needed tests
Ordering the wrong test
Failing to read the tests correctly

Postoperative Negligence

After a patient receives surgery, medical professionals are supposed to monitor their patients for potential complications that can arise from the treatment including watching for infections, providing detailed instructions for follow-up care, and prescribing the right medications needed.

Patients can be seriously injured when postoperative negligence occurs, leading to the basis for medical malpractice claims for the following types of complications:

Internal bleeding
Viral infections
Sepsis
Surgical site infections
Necrotizing fasciitis
Tissue death
Unnoticed organ perforations
Staph infections
Methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)
Blood infections
Blood clots
Respiratory infections
Peritonitis

Medical Malpractice Cases We Have Handled?

Our board-certified medical malpractice lawyers in Tucson, Arizona are relentless in their pursuit of justice and know how to address large insurance company tactics.

Due to our unmatched preparation, fierce litigation, and personalized case approach, our medical malpractice attorneys have won numerous awards and dozens of cases, and know how to get you the compensation you deserve.

Call if you have a medical malpractice claim against for any of the following categories:

Surgery malpractice
Cosmetic surgery / plastic surgery malpractice
Chiropractic malpractice
Pharmacist malpractice
Anesthesiologist malpractice
Dental malpractice
Orthopedic malpractice
Psychiatric malpractice
Podiatry malpractice
Pediatric malpractice
Radiation malpractice
OB-GYN malpractice
Cancer / Oncology malpractice
Hospital negligence
Urgent Care negligence
Hospice negligence

The award-winning medical malpractice attorneys at Schmidt, Sethi & Akmajian are personal injury experts with the knowledge and experience to face the big medical insurance companies.

Our law firm works on a contingency fee basis so you don't have to worry about legal fees until we obtain compensation on your behalf for your medical malpractice claim in Tucson, Arizona.

Medical Malpractice Blogs, Articles, and Helpful Info

CLICK HERE to read additional blogs on a variety of personal injury subjects.

Examples of Our Firm's Medical Malpractice Victories

Beatty v. Oro Valley Hospital ($5 Million Judgment)
Post v. University Physicians, Inc. ($4 Million Award)
Nation's Largest Refractive Surgery Verdict!
Roland v. Bernstein, M.D. ($2.3 Million Verdict)

Our Tucson, Arizona injury lawyers offer assistance for a variety of personal injury, medical malpractice, and wrongful death cases for our valued clients.

CLICK HERE for your free consultation or call our award-winning attorneys at (520) 790-5600