Jackson, Mississippi Emergency Room Errors Lawyer

More than 150 million Americans seek care at emergency rooms across the country every year. Emergency room practitioners have to be well-versed in a wide range of medical issues, ranging from acute illnesses to chronic disease and trauma. Identifying a patient’s possible conditions and knowing the proper treatment (or how to find it) is critical for saving lives. Unfortunately, not everyone who visits the emergency room gets the quality of care they deserve. Mistakes are made, and patients suffer serious consequences as a result.

If you or someone you love has suffered injuries because of an emergency room error in Jackson, Mississippi, call Singleton Schreiber for a free case evaluation. You have rights as the victim of an avoidable medical mistake, and our award-winning Jackson, MS emergency room error lawyers can help you fight for the full value of your medical bills, lost wages, rehabilitation, and other damages.

Singleton Schreiber offers top-tier legal representation to injury victims and families in Mississippi and throughout the United States. As fearless advocates for justice, our personal injury lawyers in Jackson have helped clients win over $3 billion in damages nationwide.

Now, our local Jackson, Mississippi medical malpractice attorneys are ready to invest our law firm’s considerable resources into helping you fight for maximum damages, too. Call our law office in Mississippi today to get started.

How Common Are Mistakes Made in Emergency Rooms?

Research suggests that 1 in 18 patients visiting an emergency room will be misdiagnosed. This translates to an emergency room error rate of about 5.7 percent.

Misdiagnosis doesn’t always mean that a patient will be severely harmed.

1 out of every 50 emergency room errors causes a serious adverse event. 1 out of 350 patients who are misdiagnosed in an emergency room will suffer a permanent disability or die.

What Are the Most Common Types of Errors in Emergency Rooms?

Misdiagnosis is the most common mistake that’s made in emergency rooms in Mississippi. 

Misdiagnosis can refer to the failure to diagnose a patient’s medical condition, a delayed diagnosis, or an improper medical diagnosis. 

Conditions that are often misdiagnosed in Mississippi emergency departments include:

• Stroke
• Heart attack
• Aortic aneurysm
• Spinal cord injury
• Venous thromboembolism
• Pulmonary embolism

Together, these conditions account for nearly 40 percent of all misdiagnosed conditions.

Many times, these emergency room diagnostic errors can be attributed to:

• Failing to consider a patient’s medical history
• Ignoring signs and symptoms of serious illness, acute distress, or chronic disease
• Misattributing signs of illness or injury to psychological problems
• Failing to order diagnostic tests to rule out or confirm specific health issues
• Misinterpreting diagnostic test results

Patients aren’t just misdiagnosed in Mississippi emergency rooms.

Other emergency room errors include:

• Prescription medication errors
• Anesthesia errors
• Hospital-acquired infections related to poor sanitization practices and protocols
• Triage errors
• Lab errors
• Delayed treatment
• Failure to treat
• Negligent performance of a procedure
• Failure to follow up with a patient after discharge

Refusal to treat a patient for insurance reasons can also be considered an emergency room error.

What Are My Rights If I’ve Been the Victim of Negligence in a Jackson, MS Emergency Room?

You trusted the nurses and doctors in the emergency room to use their considerable training and experience to help you navigate a serious health issue. They made mistakes, and now things are worse. You’ve got more medical bills, might be unable to work, and face a lot of financial uncertainty as a result. The consequences of the emergency room error might have changed the course of your life as you know it. If you can prove that the error could have been avoided, you can potentially recover compensation for your damages with a medical malpractice lawsuit.

Medical malpractice lawsuits in Mississippi are typically based on negligence. As the plaintiff, you carry the burden of proof. You need to prove that the ER staff failed to provide an appropriate level of care, made a mistake, and caused you to suffer avoidable harm.

Specifically, you need to prove:

• A Duty of Care Existed: The Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) establishes a baseline duty to which emergency room practitioners are held, requiring them to provide visiting patients with a medical assessment and, if a condition is discovered through reasonable care, stabilizing treatment and/or transfer to another facility

• Breach of Duty: You need to show that the emergency room staff failed to meet the standard of care you were owed – often by failing to treat, ignoring signs of a serious medical event, delaying treatment, or misdiagnosing your medical condition.

• Causation: The emergency room error must have been a direct and proximate cause of an injury (e.g., permanent brain damage because of a misdiagnosed stroke)
• Damages: You have to show that you’ve suffered damages because of the avoidable injury, such as medical expenses, lost wages, or emotional distress

It’s not enough to show that a mistake was made in the emergency room when you sought an assessment. You need to show that it caused an injury or a loved one’s wrongful death, and that you’ve suffered financially or in some other way because of it.

How Long Do I Have to File a Medical Malpractice Lawsuit After an Emergency Room Error Is Made in Mississippi?

Mississippi law gives you up to two years against a private provider and one year against a public provider from the date of the emergency room error to sue the emergency center, hospital, and/or healthcare provider(s) who are responsible for the mistake.

If there’s some delay in discovering that the error caused an injury, or in discovering that injury entirely, the statute of limitations can be tolled. However, barring a few limited exceptions, you have to file your medical malpractice lawsuit within seven years of the date the emergency room error is made.

Call Singleton Schreiber’s Experienced Mississippi Emergency Room Error Lawyers For a Free Consultation

Don’t stress about how to prove the ER staff was careless. Don’t worry about navigating complex Mississippi medical malpractice laws and amassing the resources required to challenge a powerful hospital for damages. Focus on your recovery and count on Singleton Schreiber’s Jackson, MS emergency room error lawyers to handle the rest.

We’re award-winning Mississippi trial attorneys with decades of experience under our collective belts. As fierce advocates for justice, we’ve taken on powerful healthcare organizations and recovered millions for deserving patients and families.

In the wake of your emergency room injuries, our top-rated personal injury law firm can help you fight for financial accountability, too. Contact our law office in Mississippi to get started with a free case review.