Your Nebraska Lawyers
Medical Malpractice
Every day medical professionals throughout Nebraska provide patients with conscientious, capable care, and still there are unfortunate outcomes. In some instances, however, patients are seriously, permanently injured as a result of the failure of doctors, dentists, and hospitals to maintain that professional standard of care. Medical malpractice attorneys at our Lincoln, Nebraska, firm, Keating, O’Gara, Nedved & Peter, P.C., L.L.O., have the experience and the resources to distinguish between the two situations, and hold negligent medical professionals accountable.
There are a variety of explanations for professional negligence. Doctors, nurses, and staff at hospitals in smaller Nebraska communities such as Grand Island, Kearney, North Platte, and Beatrice may not have the training or experience to handle unusual situations or complex procedures. Nursing home care is administered by notoriously under trained and poorly supervised staff. An anesthesiologist may simply leave the operating room while a patient is having surgery and fail to notice the patient’s vital signs indicating a problem. Medical malpractice suits may result from a wide range of errors, including the following:
- Surgical errors, including operating on the wrong part, amputation of the wrong limb, unnecessary surgery, and leaving a surgical instrument in the patient
- Misdiagnosis or failure to diagnose cancer, heart disease, a fracture, an infection, or another condition which could have been treated effectively
- Pharmaceutical errors including overmedication, errors in administering medication, giving a patient a medication despite an allergy alert on the patient’s chart, and giving the patient the wrong prescription
- Emergency room errors, including failure to refer a patient to the appropriate specialist, failure to diagnose, and failure to treat a patient in a timely manner
- Birth injuries, including cerebral palsy and shoulder dystocia
- Hospital-acquired infections, including antibiotic resistant infections and blood-borne infections
- Poorly performed tests and procedures that result in bowel perforations, airway management problems, or choking
After significant litigation, successfully settled a tragic case involving the death of a three-year old boy who died after his breathing tube was negligently removed. The child was admitted to the hospital with a croupy type condition but had to be sedated and intubated to treat an infection. When the breathing tube became plugged with secretions, hospital staff made the fateful decision to pull the tube and then failed to contact a doctor for more than ten minutes causing irreversible brain damage.
Settled a complex medical malpractice case involving a trucker who had survived a one-vehicle accident. While on their way home from another call, a rural ambulance service happened upon the scene of the accident and found the trucker laying in a ditch near his overturned rig. The emergency workers stabilized the injured man and transported him to the hospital only to learn that he later died due to a botched intubation when he had to undergo exploratory surgery.
Successfully litigated the case of a 54 year old college professor who died after his family doctor failed to timely order a transesophogeal echocardiogram. The professor had been feeling ill and suffering recurrent fevers for many months during which time he saw his family doctor on multiple occasions. Each time the doctor treated the symptoms as a cold or the flu rather than ordering a TEE. When the proper test was finally ordered, it revealed “massive vegetation” on the patient’s artificial heart valve.
Successfully resolved a medical malpractice claim on behalf of a woman who sustained a catastrophic perforation of her uterine sidewall during a D&C. The client suffered multiple seizures at the clinic due to massive blood loss and later had to undergo a total hysterectomy in order to save her life. The OB/GYN who saved her life said it was the worst damage she had ever seen inflicted during this type of procedure.
Successfully represented the widow of a man who died after undergoing a routine bone marrow biopsy. The gentleman had shown signs of anemia and his doctors decided that a biopsy was in order. The decision was made to take tissue from the patient’s sternum. When the patient asked if there was any chance that the needle might poke his heart, the physician assured him he had never heard of such a thing. Tragically, the surgion punctured the sac around the patient’s heart causing the patient’s death a short time later.
Successfully represented 4 patients who were infected with Hepatitis C when a nurse at an oncology clinic used a common bag of saline on multiple patients while administering chemotherapy resulting in one of the largest outbreaks of Hepatitis C in our nation’s history.
After protracted litigation, successfully settled the case of a newborn who began exhibiting classic symptoms of herpes conjunctivitis but the treating medical provider failed to prescribe an inexpensive antibiotic that could have prevented the child from suffering cerebral palsy.
Successfully represented the family of a disabled young woman who died when the medical providers at the state facility in which she was living stopped giving her an anti-seizure medication and then failed to respond properly when the disabled patient began suffering seizures which resulted in her comletely preventable death at 18 years of age.
Other significant cases include:
An accident victim taken to the hospital dies due to a failed intubation.
A disabled man drowns when left unsupervised and unattended by health care workers.
A dentist suffers vision loss due to failed Lasik surgery.
A patient dies from a morphine overdose while being prepared for surgery.
A dental misdiagnosis results in the unnecessary extraction of thirteen teeth.
Keating, O’Gara, Nedved & Peter, P.C., L.L.O. serves clients in communities throughout Nebraska, including Lincoln, Grand Island, Kearney, Hastings, North Platte, and Beatrice, helping our clients recover fair compensation for serious personal injury and wrongful death claims. If a member of your family was seriously injured or died as a result of a medical accident, and you would like to discuss a medical malpractice claim with one of our lawyers, or have any other question, please contact our Lincoln office to arrange a free consultation and case evaluation.
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