Injured Due to Medical Error? You Are Not Alone

An Experienced Medical Malpractice Attorney in the Washington, D.C. Metro Area

Hundreds of thousands of severe injuries and deaths of patients occur each year in this country due to medical errors.

In 2000, a landmark Harvard Study on the "Epidemiology of Medical Error" published in the British Medical Journal showed that medical error results in 44,000 to 98,000 unnecessary deaths and 1,000,000 excess injuries annually in the United States.

As startling as these findings may be, the authors of the study concluded that these numbers probably reflect just the tip of the iceberg: "Universal underreporting undermines the ability to measure medical error accurately. For these reasons the precise prevalence and magnitude is unknown but is probably enormous."

If you or your loved one are one of the thousands injured each year due to medical malpractice or negligence, you are not alone. To find out how an experienced attorney can help you, contact attorney Lesley Zork at 202-251-8558 for a free initial consultation.

How Medical-Related Injuries Occur

Patients who are sicker, subjected to multiple interventions and who have extended hospital stays are more likely to suffer serious injury as a result of medical mistakes. While all patients are at risk no matter what their age, sex, or health status, the most vulnerable patients bear the biggest burden of medical error.

According to the study, errors most often include:

• Clinicians are inexperienced and new procedures are introduced
• Extremes of age (either young or elderly)
• Complex care
• Urgent/emergency care
• Prolonged hospital stays

The study's review of "adverse events" (injuries caused by medical management that either prolonged hospital stays or left injuries at the time of discharge) showed that 69% of injuries are caused by errors. And half of these injuries were due to errors involving surgery.

Other adverse events were due to complications from drug treatment, therapeutic mishaps and diagnostic errors. Errors such as making an incorrect diagnosis or choosing the wrong medication were more likely to have been preventable and more likely to result in permanent disability.

Do You Have a Claim?

Legal claims stemming from medical malpractice can include many types of claims. The most frequent claims of medical malpractice include:

• Failure to diagnose cancer, including breast cancer and colon cancer
• Failure to properly diagnose and treat other medical conditions, such as aneurysm and heart attack
• Cerebral palsy and other birth-related injuries
• Severe brain and spinal cord injury
• Failure to provide proper emergency room treatment
• Failure to provide the proper treatment/medication
• Failure to refer the patient to the appropriate specialists/consultants
• Surgical errors or mishaps
• Limb loss/amputation
• Improper care in a military hospital

• Wrongful death and other catastrophic injury

Get Legal Help from An Attorney and Registered Nurse

During the past two decades Attorney Zork has investigated hundreds of suspected medical malpractice cases and obtained many significant settlements and verdicts. As a trained nurse and lawyer, Ms. Zork has the expertise and medical and legal skills, plus the financial resources to help put you on equal footing with the powerful insurance companies who defend malpractice suits.

She also has professional relationships with medical consultants and experts throughout the country, all of whom are board certified and affiliated with leading medical schools and hospital in the country.

If you, or a loved one, believe that you have been injured due to the medical negligence of a healthcare professional, contact attorney Lesley Zork by calling 202-251-8558. She will be happy to listen and provide you with a free consultation.

No-cost consultation ◊ No recovery, no fee

Lesley Zork
Attorney at Law
Registered Nurse
1050 17th Street NW, Suite 1250
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: 202-251-8558
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