Doctors, Nurses and other Medical Providers including Hospitals and  Nursing Homes by and through their, Employees, Agents, or Apparent Agents provide services for their patients, however, there are occasions when errors are made.  If you or a member of your family has been injured or has died, or if you were dependent upon someone who has died as a result of a clinical mistake, you may be entitled to financial compensation.  Almost 100,000 wrongful deaths and countless other mistakes causing serious debilitating injuries occur every year in the United States as a result of clinical medical malpractice errors.  Less than 10% of all medical malpractice errors will be investigated by a medical malpractice attorney. To recover damages in a medical malpractice cause of action, a medical malpractice claimant must show that more likely than not that the patient or decedent suffered an injury or wrongful death which would not have occurred, but for the negligent treatment of a health provider or providers resulting in damages.  Examples of medical negligence occur in the fields of gynecology and obstetrics, including complications of abortions, complications of delivery, failure to interpret tests appropriately and delay in diagnosis amongst others.

Another area of recovery is the area where one fails to timely diagnose cancer. Cancer may be breast cancer, colon cancer, ovarian cancer or numerous other types of cancer. Cancer is normally staged and graded and one is able to usually tell what the primary site of cancer was. Malpractice in cancer can occur in the failure to diagnose, failure to treat, improper treatment, delays in diagnosis, failing to perform appropriate follow-up tests or prescription errors in numerous other areas. Physicians must look at risk factors which are attribute to cancer when considering the overall condition of the patient as well as the patients background in deciding whether or not they were exposed to certain chemicals which could lead to or be possible precursors for cancer. In addition, certain individuals should be screened on a regular basis.

Specific laws applicable to medical malpractice in various states are discussed in the State Medical Malpractice Laws section.