Medical Malpractice
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 negligence
The Rhode Island medical malpractice attorneys at Decof & Decof have the knowledge, resources, and experience to help hold medical professionals accountable for their mistakes and negligence.
Our results in more than three decades of medical malpractice litigation are exemplary. We have obtained multimillion-dollar verdicts and settlements against hospitals, doctors, nurses, surgeons, anesthesiologists, radiologists, pharmacists, dentists, psychiatrists, hospital staff, and other medical professionals for injuries caused by their negligence involving the following:
Pregnancy and birth injuries
Errors can include inadequate pre-natal care and diagnosis; failure to monitor fetal condition; improperly administered epidurals, pain killers and anesthetic; C-section and emergency C-section procedures; improper delivery; and 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
Oxygen deprivation, surgical mishaps, anesthesia mistakes, blood clots, a pulmonary embolism, and substandard post-operative care can cause permanent brain damage. Victims often require a lifetime of care.
Spinal cord injuries
Spinal cord injuries can result from failure to diagnose a tumor or trauma in the spinal area, negligence during surgery, development of a hematoma following surgery, infections, improper use of anesthesia, or even 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 paramount to diagnose cancer quickly before it progresses. One key is for medical professionals to correctly read and interpret lab results, x-rays, and mammograms. Failure to diagnose cancer can lead to delayed treatment, which can result in complications or even death.
Stroke
Medical professionals should act immediately on stroke risk factors and early signs of an impending stroke. 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 specific 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 parts 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
A delay in being seen in an emergency room or failure to diagnose a serious condition such as a heart attack, stroke, embolism, bacterial infection, or failure to provide proper treatment for a condition can result in complications, serious injury and death.
Medication
According to the Institute of Medicine, prescribing the wrong drug, giving the wrong dose, prescribing conflicting medicines, providing incorrect instructions, and dispensing someone else’s medicine cause more than 7,000 deaths and even more serious injuries each year. Pharmacists, doctors, and medical staff can be held accountable when prescription errors cause injury or death.
Nursing home
Failure to ensure proper and adequate nutrition, prevent falls, or monitor skin for bedsores and infections; physical abuse, mental abuse; mis-prescribed medications; overdose; dehydration; and failure to meet basic personal needs all are violations of the medical standard of care and can result in debilitating injuries for nursing home patients.
Care of infants and children
Birth injuries, 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
- 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
- $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.
Let us help
Please contact our Providence, RI personal injury attorneys 24 hours a day for a free consultation. We offer clients a contingency fee arrangement, which means you pay no legal fees unless we obtain a verdict or settlement on your behalf.
