Morgantown Medical Malpractice Lawyer

If you or a loved one has been a victim of medical malpractice, you may be able to collect compensation under West Virginia law to pay for your medical bills, lost wages, and other expenses. The experienced Morgantown medical malpractice lawyers at Manchin Injury Law Group can help you seek justice.

You rely on your doctor and other medical professionals to keep you safe when you need medical treatment. When you experience a delay in treatment, a misdiagnosis, or become the victim of a medical mistake, you might feel confused or even betrayed. When a patient suffers harm as a result of a medical professional’s actions (or failure to act), it’s medical malpractice.

Why Choose Us?

• Our medical malpractice and personal injury lawyers in Morgantown have achieved millions of dollars on behalf of our clients in successful settlements and judgment awards.
• Our law firm is prepared to take on even the most complicated and challenging medical malpractice cases. We do not back down from a fight, even if a case goes to trial.
• We operate on a contingency fee basis, meaning you will not pay your Morgantown medical malpractice lawyer unless we win your case.

Do I Have Grounds for a Malpractice Claim?

There is a difference between being unhappy with your medical care and true malpractice. Gaining compensation for medical malpractice requires showing sufficient evidence for the following:

• That a doctor-patient relationship existed. When you inquire about medical services from a physician during an office visit, you are also establishing a duty of care. Doctors owe a duty of care to patients they see in their offices – but not to casual or personal acquaintances.
• The doctor committed negligence. This occurs when a physician or other health care provider deviates from medically-established standards of care. Proving negligence often requires expert testimony from a medical professional with similar experience and training.
• The physician’s negligence led to injury. Examples of injury could include a delay in treatment or a worse health outcome. This, too, requires medical expert testimony.
• You incurred damages as a result of provider negligence. Examples of damages include physical pain, medical bills, lost wages, and mental anguish.

These are the four key elements of a medical malpractice claim. You or your Morgantown medical malpractice attorney must prove these elements as more likely to be true or not true, otherwise known as a preponderance of the evidence, for a successful case.

Types of Medical Malpractice

Medical malpractice is a broad practice area within personal injury law. There are many instances in which a provider might commit negligence. Some of the most common types of malpractice include:

• Failure to diagnose – a misdiagnosis, delayed diagnosis or the failure to diagnose a patient with a condition at all, often resulting in a failure to properly or promptly treat.

• Prescription errors – mistakes made while prescribing a medication, such as the incorrect type of drug or dosage, or administering a drug to the wrong patient.

• Failing to warn of the known risks of a procedure – incomplete information given to a patient on the potential benefits, drawbacks and alternatives to a procedure. This is also known as a lack of informed consent.

• Issuing a treatment plan that does not align with the standard of care – falling short of what a reasonable and prudent doctor would do in the same circumstances, resulting in a poor health outcome for the patient.

• Surgical errors – dangerous mistakes made by a surgeon or surgical team, such as nicked arteries, nerve damage, operating on the wrong patient or body part, or leaving a foreign object behind in the body cavity.

• Anesthesia errors – an anesthesiologist preparing the wrong mixture or dosage for a patient, resulting in anesthesia awareness, brain damage or other complications.

• Birthing errors – injuries caused to a mother or infant due to medical errors during labor and delivery, such as the incorrect use of birth-assistive tools or failure to monitor fetal vital signs.

Our attorneys are capable of handling any type of medical malpractice claim in Morgantown, West Virginia. We can go up against any defendant or health care center, big or small, on your behalf to pursue compensation for a medical provider’s negligence.

How Long Do I Have to File a Medical Malpractice Case?

You must act quickly if you wish to file a medical malpractice claim in Morgantown. West Virginia’s statute of limitations on this type of case is just two years from the date of the act of malpractice, in most cases, according to West Virginia Code Section 55-7B-4. This law states that any cause of action for medical injury to a person who is alleging malpractice must be commenced within two years of the date of injury or death.

If you do not discover your injuries immediately, you may have more time to file. In this case, the deadline is two years from the date that you discovered or should have discovered your injuries with reasonable diligence. In no event, however, may a medical malpractice claim be brought more than 10 years after the date of injury (statute of repose). If a minor under the age of 10 was injured by malpractice, a claim must be filed within two years of the date of injury or before the victim’s 12th birthday, whichever is later. Contact an attorney as soon as possible to avoid missing your deadline to file.

Why You Need an Attorney

Medical malpractice cases can be difficult for patients to navigate, particularly at a time when they are already feeling unwell. Building these cases requires garnering testimony, negotiating with insurance companies, and communicating with a hospital system’s defense lawyers. The attorneys at the Manchin Injury Law Group have been serving the communities of Morgantown and Fairmont for 37 years.

We treat every client like family, while giving each medical malpractice case the attention to detail it deserves. While many of our cases settle out of court, we prepare each case as if it’s going to trial. This better equips us to negotiate aggressively on your behalf and secure the compensation you deserve for your medical bills, lost income, pain, and suffering.

Contact a Morgantown Medical Malpractice Attorney Today

If you believe you have been a victim of medical malpractice, your next step is to contact our firm to schedule a free initial consultation. Let one of our attorneys provide a risk free review of your legal options and help you decide on your next best steps.