Medical Malpractice Attorneys in Myrtle Beach
When a doctor or another trained healthcare practitioner fails to provide an acceptable standard of care, patients may suffer serious injuries, advancing disease, or other significant repercussions. We could work to hold the doctor, hospital, clinic, or another facility legally responsible if this happened to you. In addition, recovering compensation with help from a Myrtle Beach medical malpractice attorney could help you pay for your care, income losses, and more.
At Morris Law Accident Injury Lawyers, our medical malpractice attorney lawyers know how to manage medical malpractice cases and secure the payouts our clients deserve based on the circumstances of their injuries. We provide free case consultations so you can learn more about your rights, our services, and how we could help you get the money you need after a medical negligence injury. Contact us today.
How Can a Myrtle Beach Medical Malpractice Attorney From Morris Law Accident Injury Lawyers Help?
At Morris Law Accident Injury Lawyers believe that a win for our clients is a win for us. We commit our knowledge, experience, and resources to every case and fight for the compensation our clients deserve. We provide compassionate and aggressive representation, advocacy, and legal counsel to victims of medical malpractice and their families. Since 2016, our team has helped many people get justice for their preventable injuries.
We provide free case consultations for individuals and families who believe they experienced medical negligence in Myrtle Beach and other nearby areas. We can discuss your case and options confidentially, giving you our honest assessment.
We also represent our clients based on contingency. In this way, your success is our success. We do not charge any attorney's fees or costs until your case resolves and we recover compensation for you. If you do not get paid, neither do we.
Our Medical Malpractice Lawyers Know How to Prove These Cases
Medical malpractice generally occurs when a healthcare provider violates the recognized standard of care. This standard comes from the protocols and procedures that other practitioners with the same training and experience would follow and the care they would provide. Failing to provide the appropriate level of care causes the patient to suffer injuries or advancing illness, which is medical malpractice.
Documenting this requires us to show:
- The recognized standard of care
- What the practitioner did to violate it
- How this caused the injuries
- The damages our client suffered
Many states, including South Carolina, rely on an expert opinion to verify that malpractice occurred. Under South Carolina law, we must file an expert affidavit with any medical malpractice case. As a result, we have a network of doctors and other experts we can call on to review our cases and determine if they believe medical malpractice played a role.
The next steps our attorneys may take in a Myrtle Beach medical malpractice case include:
Investigation
Every successful medical malpractice claim is supported by exhaustive investigation and evidence. Enlisting the help of an expert is just one step required to build a medical malpractice claim and pursue a case against the accused doctor. At Morris Law Accident Injury Lawyers, our lawyers know how to handle this process from beginning to end.
We can take steps that include:
- Obtaining all necessary medical records and hospital files
- Interviewing witnesses
- Working with other experts to understand the case and our client's injuries
- Reviewing similar cases
- Documenting the client's injuries, care needs, and prognosis
- Gathering documentation of expenses and losses
Notice of Intent
Once we have a solid case to hold the at-fault doctor or facility legally responsible, South Carolina law requires our team to file a Notice of Intent. This Notice of Intent is the formal announcement to the hospital, practitioner, and their malpractice insurers that we intend to move forward with a medical malpractice claim or lawsuit.
Receiving the Notice of Intent usually pushes the accused parties to conduct their investigation into the incident if they have not already. This could result in a settlement offer or negotiations for a settlement.
Mediation Conference
The state requires a mediation conference with the doctor, their insurance companies, legal teams, and any other parties in the case before we can move forward with a lawsuit against them. We may negotiate a settlement agreement that compensates you fairly during this step.
This conference generally must occur within 90 to 120 days of the Notice of Intent. We cannot sue until after this conference.
Lawsuit
Sometimes, we need to sue the doctor or other medical professional, hospital system, or another liable party in a medical malpractice case. This generally occurs when the liable parties refuse to accept responsibility or other circumstances would require us to take the case to trial.
If we need to sue in your case, we can help you understand what to expect and walk through the process with you. We handle all aspects of your legal case, leaving you free to focus on your injuries, recovery, and what matters most in your life.
Damages Recoverable in a Myrtle Beach, SC Medical Malpractice Case
The damages we could recover for our client in a Myrtle Beach medical malpractice case include:
- Additional medical care and needs related to the malpractice
- Estimated ongoing and future treatment costs
- Income losses
- Reduced earning capacity for lasting injuries
- Miscellaneous expenses related to your injuries or care
- Pain and suffering damages
- Other intangible losses, known as non-economic damages
- Wrongful death damages, if the victim passed away from their injuries
After reviewing the facts of your case, our team can explain the recoverable damages available to you and answer any questions you may have. We can also discuss the South Carolina law limiting non-economic damages recoverable in medical malpractice claims. This limit depends on the Consumer Price Index (CPI). The law does not limit economic damages, such as medical bills and lost income.
What Is Medical Malpractice in Myrtle Beach?
Doctors are only human, and they can make mistakes. Not all mistakes constitute malpractice. For instance, if your doctor doesn't diagnose you with the flu, but your cold symptoms arise soon after an office visit, this is likely not malpractice-especially if you had no resulting damages. However, all medical professionals are bound to extremely high standards for their patients' safety, and for good reason. We must put a lot of trust in doctors and other medical professionals for decisions that affect our health and well-being.
When a healthcare provider ignores safety protocols, fails to act in a way a competent doctor with their training and experience would, behaves carelessly or recklessly, and you go on to face damages, you could take legal action.
Medical malpractice occurs in several common ways. Some of the most common medical malpractice claims include:
Misdiagnosis
Some injuries, illnesses, and complications can prove more challenging to diagnose than others. Many conditions have similar symptoms to others. However, inattention to detail or carelessness can cause a doctor to make the wrong diagnosis.
The patient can then receive treatment for a condition they do not have-and does not get the medication or other necessary treatment for their illness or injury.
Missed or Delayed Diagnosis
Sometimes, a patient does not receive a diagnosis at all. When a patient presents with symptoms, the doctor should not send them home without a diagnosis or treatment plan.
We might prove negligence when a doctor fails to run the correct tests, take a patient's history, or handle other steps to evaluate the patient's symptoms. This is especially problematic when the patient has an aggressive and potentially fatal disease or ailment like cancer.
Failure to Treat or Incorrect Treatment
Once a doctor diagnoses a patient, they should generally recommend a treatment plan to address the condition. This plan could include simple steps, such as prescribing an antibiotic, or it could prove as complex as meeting with an oncology team to discuss cancer protocols. However, patients trust their doctors to treat their diagnosis correctly.
Failing to treat a serious ailment, disease, or injury-or prescribing the incorrect treatment-can cause additional injuries or advancing illness. Treating a condition with the wrong medication could cause new complications and injuries.
Medication or Pharmacy Errors
Prescriptions and medications must go through several hands between the prescribing doctor, ordering nurse, pharmacy, and those who administer them. Anywhere in this process, a mistake could prove dangerous or deadly. Numerous checks and double-checks exist on the medication, the ordered dose, and the dosage frequency. When someone skips these safety checks, it may constitute medical malpractice.
Surgical Errors
Surgical errors constitute one of the most common examples of medical malpractice. They occur when a surgeon carelessly performs the wrong surgery, surgery on the wrong body part, or makes another serious mistake in the operating room. Medical malpractice also occurs when a surgeon fails to account for all their instruments, sponges, and other items and leaves something inside the patient during surgery. This can lead to serious, systemic infections.
Childbirth Injuries
Birth injuries often prove one of the most devastating types of medical malpractice. Negligence before, during, or immediately after labor and delivery can cause the child to suffer permanent injuries and live with impairments throughout their lifetime. Examples include Erb's palsy or other brachial plexus, anoxic and hypoxic brain injuries, and other serious concerns.
If you or your child suffered injuries and believe the doctor or another healthcare provider could bear responsibility, you could pursue a case and seek justice. One of our Myrtle Beach malpractice attorneys could handle your case and hold the doctor or facility legally responsible.
Where Can Malpractice Occur in Myrtle Beach, SC?
Medical malpractice can occur in any healthcare setting. This includes hospitals, urgent care clinics, doctor's offices, dental clinics, and other medical care providers in and around Myrtle Beach.
Some of the major health systems in the region include:
- Grand Strand Regional Medical Center
- Georgetown Hospital System
- McLeod Health
- Tidelands Health System
Other healthcare facilities in the surrounding area include:
- Tidelands Waccamaw Community Hospital
- Tidelands Georgetown Memorial Hospital
- McLeod Health Loris
- McLeod Health Seacoast
- Conway Medical Center
If you believe you were the victim of a healthcare provider's negligence, it may have occurred in a facility owned or operated by one of these systems or centers. Our attorneys are not afraid to file a medical malpractice claim or lawsuit against any physician or facility if our client's case supports it.
Deadlines for Pursuing Compensation in a Medical Malpractice Lawsuit
At Morris Law Accident Injury Lawyers, our injury lawyers protect our clients' rights by meeting all applicable deadlines. This includes the statute of limitations for suing in a medical malpractice case.
Under South Carolina law, we generally need to file the initial paperwork to begin a lawsuit before:
- The third anniversary of the malpractice occurs, or
- Three years pass following the date you discovered the malpractice injury
If you miss the deadline in your case, the court may bar you from suing to recover damages. This could prevent you from receiving any compensation in the case. Therefore, these deadlines are essential to your financial recovery.
We can review any potential malpractice case and explain how these deadlines apply to you. Some exceptions could allow you to act even after three years. We want to ensure you understand your rights and how to hold the at-fault healthcare providers accountable. They should not get away with hurting patients who trust them to make them better, not cause additional injuries or concerns.
Contact a Myrtle Beach Medical Malpractice Lawyer Today
At Morris Law Accident Injury Lawyers, we provide free initial consultations for individuals and families who believe they have medical malpractice injuries. Our firm works based on contingency fees, which means we never ask our clients for upfront payments. Instead, we use our firm's resources to build your case and recover the money you deserve. You don't owe us attorney's fees unless we recover your compensation. Reach out to a personal injury lawyer at our Myrtle Beach office today.
Contact us online or over the phone at (843) 232-0944 to learn more about your case today. We represent clients in Myrtle Beach as well as other areas of South Carolina. Let us tell you more about how we can serve you.
