California Malpractice Defense Attorneys Handling Claims of Emergency Room Negligence

Aggressively representing hospitals, ER doctors, nurses and staff in Los Angeles and Southern California

Emergency rooms are typically loud, chaotic and anxiety-ridden places. The patients who show up in the ER are often very sick, severely injured or have no health insurance to pay for preventative and routine medical care. The doctors, nurses and staff work under constant pressure to make the right decisions in the blink of an eye. After the fact, some patients second-guess the choices that were made or feel that somebody must be to blame for the undesirable results.

ER professionals are true heroes. Under the most stressful of circumstances, they save lives and preserve the health of patients. At Davis, Grass, Goldstein & Finlay , we protect the rights of these hardworking, dedicated medical providers when disgruntled patients accuse them of negligence. Our lawyers strategize an aggressive malpractice defense to counter patient allegations of doctor and hospital negligence.

Triage

Triage is the system emergency rooms use to decide the order of patient treatment by assigning degrees of urgency to injuries and illnesses. By following a triage process, doctors can put a patient whose life is at stake before one who is in discomfort.

For example, the patient who presents with flu symptoms might be made to wait so doctors can first care for the patient who sustained a gunshot wound or who is in cardiac arrest. Doctors and hospital staff are trained to make split-second assessments to make these determinations quickly and accurately. However, what appeared to be influenza during the initial intake could actually be sepsis caused by an aggressive strain of staphylococcus. Conversely, the bullet may only have penetrated a shallow portion of flesh, causing little physical damage.

Although triage generally helps ER healthcare providers prioritize patients, it is an imperfect method that can delay treatment of severely sick patients, especially when there are multiple serious injuries and illnesses that arrive at the same time.

Common ER negligence claims

Often, patients allege doctor malpractice in emergency room-related lawsuits. Common claims include the following:

  • Delay in timely treatment for heart attack and stroke
  • Failure to provide post-ER instructions — such as neglecting to inform a diabetic patient that the dye from the CAT scan interferes with insulin injections
  • Injecting a patient with an incorrect antibiotic or narcotic
  • Administering medications that interact with drugs already in the patient’s system

Only those incidents in which an ER care provider made a negligent mistake or omission that would be inconsistent with the standards of that position could be considered potential instances of malpractice.

Get the help you need in your emergency room negligence defense

To get the help you need with your ER malpractice defense, call Davis, Grass, Goldstein & Finlay at 909-476-2662 or contact us online. Our trial lawyers handle defense cases in Riverside and San Bernardino counties and throughout Southern California. Our office is located near the intersection of I-10 and I-15, close to the Ontario International Airport.

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    I have had the good fortune to work with Mr MacRrill, and against him, in litigated cases and found him to be aggressive, but civil, and always reasonable in our interactions. He is deep experience in healthcare related litigation. In sum, ...
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