Category: Medical Malpractice

Medical malpractice occurs when a medical provider fails to uphold the required duty of care to a patient and the patient suffers harm as a result of this lapse in care. When a patient is given negligent medical care, an injury or bad outcome often occurs. Either way, it is the patient that suffers physically, emotionally, and financially. In addition to unnecessary pain and suffering, the patient must deal with mounting medical and personal expenses from the injury. However, if you bring a successful medical malpractice claim, you can recover full and fair compensation for your losses and harm suffered. If whoever made the mistake will not take responsibility, you should talk with a qualified lawyer to get help. The key thing is to get the right help as soon as possible.

What Damages Can You Receive for a Medical Malpractice Claim in Hawaii?

There are two kinds of damages that you can receive in a medical malpractice claim. Those two types of damages are economic damages and non-economic damages. Economic damages are costs associated with an injury that can be easy to calculate, including medical expenses and loss of income. Non-economic damages are damages that are difficult to quantify, which includes pain and suffering.

Hawaii law limits the compensation available in certain personal injury cases. More specifically, Hawaii has enacted a law that limits the amount of pain and suffering damages a plaintiff can recover. The law imposes a $375,000 limit on recoverable pain and suffering damages.

Pain and suffering is a type of noneconomic damage. The Hawaii Supreme Court has further shed light on what pain and suffering damages are by saying that they, like other noneconomic damages, are the natural and necessary result from a legal wrong, but cannot be measured in precise monetary terms. Also, the Court has gone on to define economic damages, or “special damages,” as a natural, but not necessary result of a legal wrong.

While there may be a cap on pain and suffering damages, a plaintiff can recover these damages. Specifically, to determine the amount for pain and suffering, several different factors are considered, including:

• The severity of the injury
• The age of the injured party
• The likelihood of the injury having ongoing consequences
• Any pre-existing conditions the injured party may have had at the time of the injury
• Economic losses sustained

Contact Cummings Law, PL Today to Discuss Your Claim

Hawaii allows a plaintiff in a medical malpractice claim to recover monetary damages for his or her injuries. Finding the right lawyer makes a huge difference. Cummings Law will fight to enforce your right to cover this compensation. Contact us today. You will be glad you did.

Diagnostic errors are common reasons for medical malpractice claims. Delayed diagnosis, misdiagnosis, and failure to diagnose cancer can result in life-threatening consequences for the patient. A cancer misdiagnosis is a serious form of medical negligence and medical error. If you believe your physician mishandled your diagnosis, contact a Hawaii cancer misdiagnosis attorney to discuss your legal options.  An attorney can help hold the physician and other parties liable for your injuries, damages, and losses.

How Do Physicians Misdiagnose Cancer?

Early detection of cancer is often the crucial factor in whether cancer treatments are successful. The earlier the cancer is found, the better chance a patient has at surviving. 

You would expect that with the prevalence of cancer cases in the United States, physicians would pay close attention to any signs or symptoms of cancer in their patients. Unfortunately, doctors may not listen closely enough to a patient as they describe their symptoms and fails to order the diagnostic tests that would reveal cancer. A doctor may fail to refer a patient for a second opinion or refer the patient to a specialist. Therefore, some cases of cancer misdiagnosis result from negligence.

Errors with screening tools can result in misdiagnosis of cancer. Like, for instance, a machine can malfunction when taking or reading test samples. Untrained or unqualified medical staff who do not understand how to use screening technology could also be the reason for the misdiagnosis. A mistake in analyzing the results from diagnostic tests can lead to an incorrect diagnosis.

Failing to identify and diagnose cancer correctly can result in a variety of injuries and unnecessary treatments for the patient. As a result, patients incur additional medical expenses, loss of income, permanent impairments, physical pain, mental anguish, and emotional trauma. And in many cases, families lose their loved ones too soon because of a misdiagnosis. 

What Can You Do About a Misdiagnosis?

If you sustain injuries or damages because of medical negligence or medical errors, you may be entitled to compensation under Hawaii’s medical malpractice laws. To prove medical malpractice, your attorney must prove each of the elements of medical malpractice:

• You established a doctor-patient relationship with the health care provider so that the doctor owed you a standard of care;
• That the doctor breached the duty of care by misdiagnosing your cancer;
• The doctor’s conduct was a breach in the standard of care provided by similarly trained and educated doctors within the same field;
• You sustained injuries because of the misdiagnosis; and,
• Because of the injuries, you sustained losses and damages.

Proving the elements of medical malpractice requires medical experts to examine the evidence and offer opinions and testimony to support the allegations of malpractice. Working with medical experts, gathering evidence, and developing a strong case can be complicated. It is best to work with an experienced medical malpractice attorney in your area.

Contact a Hawaii Medical Malpractice Attorney Now

Do not wait to contact a Hawaii medical malpractice attorney if you suspect your doctor misdiagnosed your cancer. Hawaii’s statute of limitations restricts your time to file a medical malpractice claim. Failing to file a medical malpractice lawsuit before the deadline could result in the doctor getting away with medical negligence or medical errors. Contact the medical malpractice attorneys at Cummings Law today. You will be glad you did.

Medical malpractice claims give you the right to sue for a lapse in quality medical care that resulted in injury or illness. A lapse in quality medical care occurs when a medical provider fails to act in a way that other medical providers would have acted under similar circumstances. If a person suffers harm because of this, then they may file a medical malpractice claim. Service members, however, are currently unable to sue the military if they are the victims of medical malpractice. U.S. lawmakers are taking steps to help change this.

Legislators Introduce Bill to Allow Service Members to Sue Military for Medical Malpractice

Two U.S. senators, Louisiana Republican Senator John Kennedy and Hawaii Democratic Senator Mazie Hirono, introduced a bill that will allow active service members to sue the military for malpractice and negligence. This bill looks to overturn the 1950 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Feres v. United States, also known as the Feres Doctrine. In the Feres case, the Supreme Court decision effectively banned active duty service members from being able to sue the military for medical malpractice or negligence. The Feres Doctrine broadly applies to cases involving training incidents and workplace violence. This decision has also been applied to incidents of sexual assault.

In 2011, the Supreme Court refused to hear a California case that sought to remove the medical malpractice liability shield provided to military hospitals under the Feres Doctrine. However, the Court did not comment as to why they refused to hear the case. The new bill, named “SFC Richard Stayskal Military Medical Accountability Act of 2019”, looks to undermine the Feres Doctrine. 

The SFC Richard Stayskal Military Medical Accountability Act of 2019

Essentially, the bill would grant military personnel the ability to sue the government for negligence or wrongdoing that happens during medical care at military hospitals outside of a combat zone. If it passes, the bill would have a great economic impact. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that it would cost the government an average of $135 million every year in claims. Also, if the law is retroactively applied, it is estimated to cost $2.7 billion over the next 10 years.

The U.S. senators named the bill in honor of Sgt. Richard Stayskal, Army Green Beret. Doctors failed to properly diagnose Sgt. Stayskal, a Special Forces soldier and former Marine infantryman, with lung cancer during a routine health screening. By the time the cancer was found, it had metastasized and is now terminal. The Feres Doctrine prevents Sgt. Stayskal from suing the hospital that failed to properly diagnose him.

Contact Cummings Law, PL Today

We often take our right to bring medical malpractice claims for granted. However, bringing a successful medical malpractice claim can provide you with compensation to cover medical care, cost of future medical care, and lost wages. Cummings Law can enforce your legal rights to compensation. Contact us today. You will be glad you did.