Legal Question in Medical Malpractice in California
released from hospital now on life support
A friend of mine's mother went to the county E.R. complaining of shortness of breath. She was given a breathing treatment and sent home. Later that evening she couldn't breathe, 911 was called. They immediately did CPR on her and intabated her. She is now on life support with no brain activity whatsoever.(different hopital) After the rest of the family gets here they will be ''letting her go''. My question is, why did they release her from the first hopital and should they be held responsible for her death? Had they kept her maybe they could have saved her or this might not have happened! Any help is greatly appreciated.
3 Answers from Attorneys
Re: released from hospital now on life support
You are right to be concerned. Based on the information we have, we cannot see if there was malpractice or not; questions are what did the hospital due and not due, what were the signs and symptoms. The best thing to do would be to have an attorney obtain the medical records and have them reviewed by experts.
Joel Selik
www.camalpractice.com
800-894-2889
Re: released from hospital now on life support
Of course, your questions are good ones. The answers are not self-evident. In order to answer these questions one must have an experience medical malpractice lawyer obtain the records and review them with qualified medical consultants.
Med Mal is highly specialized and regulated. In CA the law caps damages for non-economic injury at $250,000. Proving medical malpractice requires finding and paying expensive qualified medical experts, costing thousands of dollars. Juries often bend over backward to grant physicians the benefit of the doubt.
The statute of limitations in medical malpractice is one year from the date of the injury and discovery of its negligent cause. Therefore, it is important to begin the process of the legal and medical analysis as early as the family is able to deal with the issues.
Please feel free to suggest to your friend and his or her family that they may want to contact us to evaluate the matter without obligation.
Re: released from hospital now on life support
There is a possibility that malpractice was committed here. However, without the medical records it will be impossible to make such a conclusion. Thus, tell your friends to go to the hospital and get the records from them right away, without telling them anything about the graveness of her condition. If your friend goes there they will process the request faster. Or better yet, if they have a family doctor have the doctor get the records. This way the likelyhood of meddling with the records will be minimal.
Furthermore, as the potential defendant here is a governmental entity, your friend's family must file a claim with the appropriate agency/office within 6 months from the date of the malpractice.
If your friend or their family doctor gets the records, I will offer a free review. Also, her past medical records are very important and are needed as well. Let me know if your friend would like me to review the records. My number is (323)782-0099.