Pittsburgh Nursing Malpractice Lawyer
Trusted Medical Malpractice Lawyers Fight for Victims of Nursing Malpractice in Pittsburgh, PA
When most people think of a medical malpractice case, they imagine that responsibility is solely placed on doctors and hospitals. However, nurses also have important responsibilities. In fact, in hospitals and medical facilities across Pennsylvania, nurses are taking on an increasingly large share of the patient care burden. This is especially true in hospitals that are chronically understaffed. A skilled Pittsburgh nursing malpractice lawyer can help if you suffered an injury due to medical malpractice.
Nurses are trying their best to handle the additional patient care burden. Unfortunately, statistics reveal that nursing professionals are simply not equipped to do so. At Berger Lagnese & Paul, LLC, our medical malpractice years have nearly 100 years’ combined experience fighting to protect patient rights. Over those years, we have recovered millions for our injured clients—including some of the largest medical malpractice verdicts in Pittsburgh history.
Injured Due To Nursing Malpractice And Have Questions? We Can Help, Tell Us What Happened.
Studies show that as nurses are forced to handle additional patient care responsibilities, mortality rates and injury rates increase. Although it is unfortunate that many nurses are overworked, patients who suffer injuries as a result of nursing errors should not be left to shoulder the financial burden.
If you have been harmed and suspect that a nursing error was the cause, contact the medical malpractice firm Berger Lagnese & Paul, LLC to get connected with a qualified Pennsylvania medical malpractice attorney today. We review your case for free, so you have nothing to lose by learning about your rights.
Common Causes of Nursing Errors
Nurses have a variety of responsibilities and must exercise reasonable care in performing those responsibilities. Nurses handle everything from the administration of medication to patient monitoring, testing, medical procedures, and more.
Nursing errors may occur if the nurse fails to exercise reasonable care in performing their duties. This “reasonable care” standard is one developed by the medical community as a minimum level of competence that a qualified nurse must use in providing care.
Common examples of nursing errors include:
- Failure to notify a doctor when their expertise is needed or in the event of an emergency
- Failure to properly monitor a patient and report vital signs
- Failure to recognize signs of distress in a patient
- Failure to follow a doctor’s orders
- Mixing up patients or their charts and records
- Failure to safely operate medical equipment. (For example, a nurse may improperly install a catheter, which can result in severe infection)
- Failure to properly administer medication
- Failure to provide the correct medication or the correct dosage
- Providing improper instructions to a patient
- Improper documentation or making errors in updating a patient’s chart
A nurse who improperly instructs a patient (for example, regarding medication dosage, timeliness, diet, etc.) may be liable for the harm caused by the erroneous instruction. Similarly, nurses that provide the wrong medication, the wrong dosage or use the wrong method to administer medication can be held responsible for their mistakes.
Though nurses now shoulder more responsibility than ever before, they are not shielded from liability for medical malpractice. Nurses must always exercise reasonable care in performing their duties to prevent errors. Having a strong legal advocate on your side significantly increases the odds that you will recover fair compensation. Contact Berger Lagnese & Paul, LLC, if you have been injured as a result of nursing errors.
Understanding Your Right to Fair Compensation for Nursing Malpractice
Most nurses are employed by some type of medical facility—whether a hospital, medical clinic or even a nursing home. These entities, as employers, are generally responsible for the actions of all employees who are negligent on the job, including nurses. Serious nursing errors can give injured patients the right to compensation for:
- Current and future medical costs
- Current and future lost wages
- Pain and suffering
- Diminished quality of life
- Emotional distress
- And more
Like doctors, nurses save lives. When nurses make mistakes, those mistakes are equally likely to jeopardize a patient’s life. You should not have to suffer the financial consequences in addition to the unfortunate damage that nursing negligence can cause to your health.
At Berger Lagnese & Paul, LLC, our lawyers fully investigate your case to determine what happened to cause your harm. We have successfully helped hundreds of injured clients get fair compensation for hospital negligence and are ready to go to work for you.
Contact Our Experienced Pittsburgh Medical Malpractice Lawyers for a Free Case Review Today
If you have been injured due to a nursing error, you should consult with a Pittsburgh nursing malpractice lawyer as soon as possible. Acting quickly is the best way to make sure your claims can be pursued to the fullest extent of the law. At Berger Lagnese & Paul, LLC, our Pennsylvania medical malpractice attorneys have extensive experience litigating nursing error cases and helping our clients recover from their injuries.
Call our office or submit a claim via our online contact form to set up a free consultation with one of our attorneys.
Get Advice From An Experienced Medical Malpractice Lawyer. All You Have To Do Is Call 412-471-4300 To Receive Your Free Case Evaluation.
Frequently Asked Questions About Pittsburgh Nursing Malpractice Claims
The elements that must be proven to win compensation for nursing negligence are the same as in any other medical malpractice cases. They include:
– Standard of care. Nurses are held to a different standard of care than doctors, who generally have more extensive training. However, nurses still must provide a level of care that comports with what a reasonable, trained nurse would do under the circumstances.
– Breach. We must show that the nurse made some type of mistake so that the care you received was of a lower quality than you should have received.
– Causation. We must also show that the nurse’s mistake directly caused the harm you suffered. In other words, we must show that your health would not have deteriorated in the same way even if the nurse had provided competent care.
– Damages. Damages in a nursing malpractice case can be shown if your health worsened or if the underlying condition from which you suffered was not properly treated.
Like doctors, nurses can receive varying degrees of training and might specialize in a particular field. For example, a nurse anesthetist and a nurse practitioner may have vastly different job responsibilities. Likewise, the standard of care will vary depending upon the nurse’s level of expertise. We work with experts in the same field who can testify about how the nurse should have behaved in your specific case. That expert testimony helps us establish the standard of care that will apply for you.