Medical Malpractice in Providence, RI and the surrounding area
Sometimes, healthcare professionals fail to adhere to the required standard of care, or they make mistakes. Unfortunately, catastrophic injuries, permanent disability, and death can result.
Aggressive advocates for victims of medical and professional negligence
The Providence, RI medical malpractice attorneys at Decof & Decof have the knowledge, resources, and experience to hold medical practitioners and professionals accountable for their mistakes and negligence.
Our results from over three decades of medical malpractice litigation are exemplary. We have obtained multimillion-dollar verdicts and settlements against doctors, nurses, surgeons, anesthesiologists, radiologists, psychiatrists, dentists, and pharmacists—and with hospitals, hospital staff, and other medical professionals, as well—for the types of injuries caused by their negligence. These can involve the following medical issues and contexts:
Pregnancy and birth injuries
Errors leading to injury can include: inadequate pre-natal care and diagnosis, the failure to monitor fetal condition, or the improper administration of epidurals, pain killers and anesthetics. They can also involve C-section and emergency C-section procedures, improper delivery, or the negligent use of delivery-assistance devices. See our Pregnancy and Birth Injuries page for additional details about our experience in this area of practice.
Brain injuries
Medical complications that can cause brain damage—such as blood clots and pulmonary embolisms—can arise from a range of issues, including oxygen deprivation, surgical mishaps, anesthesia mistakes, and substandard post-operative care. Victims often require a lifetime of care.
Spinal cord injuries
Spinal cord injuries can result from the failure to diagnose a tumor or trauma in the spinal area, negligence during surgery, or the improper use of anesthesia. They may also result from such problems as infection, the development of a hematoma following surgery, or a fall, while under a physician’s or hospital’s care.
Cardiac/heart
Delayed diagnosis and treatment of heart disease and other disorders, or ignorance of risk factors, can result in a heart attack or other cardiac damage.
Cancer
It is imperative to diagnose cancer quickly, before it progresses. One important key is for medical professionals to correctly read and interpret lab results, x-rays, and mammograms. The failure to diagnose cancer can lead to delayed treatment, which can result in complications or even death.
Stroke
Medical professionals should be vigilant about stroke risk factors, and should act immediately on early signs of an impending stroke. The failure to do so can result in a debilitating or even fatal stroke. Once a stroke has occurred, it should be diagnosed immediately so that the right drugs can be administered quickly to reduce the stroke’s impact on the brain.
Surgery
Surgical mishaps can involve doctors, nurses, and anesthesiologists, and can result in brain damage, paralysis, infection, removal of the wrong organ, disability, or death.
Anesthesia
Nearly every surgery requires anesthesia, and it is one of the most dangerous aspects of an operation. Anesthesia can be administered incorrectly, or for too long, or a patient may react adversely to it, causing injury, brain damage, or death.
Emergency room
In the emergency room, a delay in seeing a patient, the failure to diagnose a serious condition—such as a heart attack, stroke, embolism, or bacterial infection—or the failure to provide proper treatment can result in complications, serious injury and death.
Medication
According to the Institute of Medicine, actions such as prescribing the wrong drug or conflicting medicines, giving the wrong dose, providing incorrect instructions, or dispensing the wrong person’s medicine, cause more than 7,000 deaths—and innumerable serious injuries—each year. Pharmacists, doctors, and medical staff can be held accountable when prescription errors cause injury or death.
Nursing home
Violations of the medical standard of care can result in debilitating injuries for nursing home patients. These include the failure to meet basic personal needs, provide proper and adequate nutrition, or monitor skin for bedsores and infections. They also include the failure to prevent falls, dehydration, physical and mental abuse, and problems such as mis-prescribed medications or overdose.
Care of infants and children
Birth injuries, the failure to diagnose or treat a birth injury in a timely manner, medication errors, surgical mistakes, and improper care in a long-term care facility can cause tragic results for children.
Decof & Decof’s significant medical malpractice cases
Decof and Decof’s medical malpractice lawsuits in Providence, Rhode Island include the following:
- A confidential multimillion-dollar settlement, after three weeks of trial, on behalf of a man who suffered metastatic gastrointestinal cancer, as a result of a negligently performed pathology examination following the removal of his appendix
- A $28 million jury verdict and judgment—Rhode Island’s largest medical malpractice and wrongful death jury verdict—on behalf of the family of a 32-year-old woman who died as a result of the negligence of an emergency room physician at Newport Hospital who failed to properly recognize, diagnose and treat bacterial pneumonia
Please see Our Record of Success for additional medical malpractice verdicts and settlements. For more information on malpractice lawsuits in Providence, RI and the surrounding area, please click on:
- Medical malpractice overview
- What constitutes medical malpractice
- Common types of medical malpractice
- Professional malpractice
- Types of malpractice injuries we can help you with
- Procedures prone to error and medical malpractice
- Finding the right attorney
- Steps in the litigation process
- Securing help before you settle a case
- What information your attorney will need
- Common mistakes that may jeopardize your case
