At the law firm of Fabian & Clendenin, serving personal injury victims in and around Provo, our medical malpractice attorneys can help you pursue compensation if you or a member of your family has been harmed due to the negligence of a pharmaceutical worker. As part of the chain of care, pharmacists and their support staffs are expected to provide their services according to a certain standard of competence. When they fall below that standard and an injury or death ensues, they can be held liable for losses and expenses suffered by the victims under the law.

Our personal injury attorneys near Provo handle pharmacy errors lawsuits with skill and confidence, making sure that victims of medical malpractice receive the full measure of compensation to which they are entitled.

Common Pharmacy Errors

While most pharmaceutical professionals perform their duties with exceptional diligence, it only takes one careless error to seriously and even permanently compromise a person’s health. Patients should be cautious whenever they visit a pharmacist’s office; by paying close attention to their doctors’ orders and making sure that they receive the properly prescribed medications, they can help to ensure their health and safety. However, patients should be able to expect competent service on the part of their pharmacists.

Common, and generally preventable, pharmacy errors include:

• Dosage errors – A simple misreading of a prescription can result in the incorrect dosage of a medication being administered to a patient.
• Confusing drugs with similar names - A pharmacist may hastily grab the incorrect drug from the shelf, confusing it for a drug with a similar name.
• Giving one patient medication intended for another patient
• Giving a patient the correct medication with the incorrect directions for usage
• Errors in the compounding of a medication

In some cases, pharmaceutical errors may be traced back to the prescribing physicians, who might be found to have acted negligently in prescribing an incorrect dose, prescribing a medication known to interact badly with another medication a patient is taking, or failing to provide a legible prescription. In cases of misdiagnosis, a physician may prescribe the proper medication for a certain condition, but the diagnosis of that condition in the patient was incorrect.

At Fabian & Clendenin, conveniently located near Provo, our catastrophic injury attorneys conduct thorough investigations to determine who is liable for our clients’ injuries and take swift, decisive action against them. If you have been injured by a pharmacy error, you may be entitled to compensation for medical expenses, lost wages, pain and suffering, and other losses and expenses resulting from your injury.

Contact Fabian & Clendenin Today

If you or a member of your family has been injured due to a pharmacy error, or if you have lost someone you love due to such an error, please contact Fabian & Clendenin today for an evaluation of your case.

At Fabian & Clendenin, serving personal injury victims in and near St. George, our medical malpractice attorneys routinely fight for the rights of these victims, ensuring that their families don’t have to face a potential lifetime of medical and care expenses on their own. If your child suffered a birth injury and you want to find out whether you have a viable birth injury lawsuit, we urge you to have your case evaluated by our St. George area birth injury attorneys as soon as possible.

Common Birth Injuries

Sadly, there are hundreds of possible injuries that can result from complications that arise during the birth of a baby. Not all of these complications can be anticipated, and not all birth injuries are attributable to medical malpractice. However, the medical professionals who aid in child birth are expected to respond with competence to those complications that can and should be anticipated. Common – and usually preventable – birth injuries include:

• Cerebral palsy
• Erb’s palsy
• Spinal cord injuries
• Facial paralysis
• Shoulder dystocia
• Klumpke’s palsy
• Brachial plexus injuries
• Bone fractures

In particularly tragic circumstances, a baby might die due to the negligence of the delivery room personnel. In such cases, it may be possible for the family to file a wrongful death claim against the negligent parties.

Do You Have a Birth Injury Lawsuit?

If your child suffered a birth injury, you should not try to determine on your own whether you have a viable medical malpractice claim. While it is true that not all birth injuries are the result of medical malpractice, only a qualified and experienced birth injury attorney can properly evaluate and investigate the circumstances surrounding such injuries to determine whether there was negligence at work. Simply defined, negligence refers to the failure of someone to fulfill his or her duty of care to another person as compared to how a reasonable person would act under the same circumstances. In the context of medical malpractice, our St. George area catastrophic injury attorneys must be able to demonstrate that one or more members of the delivery room team failed to provide care of a reasonable standard – in other words, they failed to act as their competent peers would be expected to act in the same circumstances – and an otherwise preventable injury ensued as a result.

Contact Fabian & Clendenin

If your child recently suffered a birth injury, please accept our condolences – and then contact Fabian & Clendenin today for the legal guidance you need during this difficult time.

If you or someone you love has suffered a spinal cord injury due to someone else’s careless or reckless actions, you may be entitled to compensation for current and future losses related to your injury. At Fabian & Clendenin in Salt Lake City, our spinal cord injury attorneys can help you pursue the monetary damages to which you are entitled while making sure that the negligent party is made to answer for his, her, or their actions. Life is hard enough in the aftermath of a spinal cord injury; victims shouldn’t have to worry about expenses that they had no part in creating.

Incomplete Spinal Cord Injuries

The most common type of spinal cord injury is the incomplete spinal cord injury. Victims of such injuries may eventually recover some movement or some feeling at and below the point of the injury; however, they will always suffer from some impairment of the region. Such injuries may occur as a result of a car, truck, or motorcycle accident, an accident while participating in a sport, or an on-the-job accident such as those that often occur on construction sites. If you suffered such an injury while in the care of a surgeon or other medical professional, our Salt Lake City medical malpractice attorneys can file a claim against that professional.

Complete Spinal Cord Injuries

Complete spinal cord injuries are more severe than incomplete spinal cord injuries, resulting in a complete loss of sensation and movement at and below the point of the injury. Paraplegia is the loss of sensation and movement in the lower body; paraplegics retain normal use of their arms and hands, but not of their legs, feet, bowel, bladder, and sexual organs. Tetraplegia involves loss of sensation and movement in the arms and hands, as well; some tetraplegics require the assistance of a ventilator even to breathe.

Damages in Spinal Cord Injury Cases

In order to recover the full amount of damages to which you are entitled, it is important that you secure the services of an experienced attorney who can identify and prove both current and future losses and expenses. Our Salt Lake City catastrophic injury attorneys will build the strongest case possible on your behalf, aggressively pursuing the maximum damages allowable under the law. Depending on the circumstances surrounding your case, you may be entitled to compensation for medical costs, rehabilitation costs, the cost of a self-propelled wheelchair, pain and suffering, lost wages, and losses and expenses that can be reasonably projected into the future. If the party responsible for your injury acted with egregious negligence, you may also be able to recover punitive damages, or damages beyond your demonstrable losses and expenses that are awarded primarily to punish the defendant for his or her wrongful actions.

Contact Fabian & Clendenin Today

If you or a member of your family suffered a spinal cord injury in an accident caused by someone else’s negligence, please contact Fabian & Clendenin today for an evaluation of your case.

Types of Surgical Mistakes

In hospitals throughout Utah, surgical mistakes are an all-too-common occurrence. While most surgeons, nurses, anesthesiologists, and other medical professionals involved in surgery provide consistently competent care, a small but significant number commit careless, preventable errors that result in serious injury or death. These errors often occur because a medical professional is distracted, exhausted, or even under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

Common surgical errors include:

• Performing surgery on the incorrect part of the body – For instance, a surgeon may operate on the incorrect organ or amputate the wrong limb.
• Performing the incorrect surgery - Once a patient is under the effects of anesthesia, he or she cannot answer questions or provide the surgeon with information. A particularly busy or confused surgeon may perform the incorrect surgery altogether; for instance, he or she may remove the appendix of a patient scheduled for heart surgery.
• Performing surgery on the incorrect patient - A surgeon may accidentally perform a surgery scheduled for one patient on the incorrect patient. This may occur because the surgeon has multiple surgeries scheduled on a given day and confuses one patient for another.
• Leaving a surgical instrument inside the body - Surgical instruments may accidentally be left in the patient due to a failure to remove an instrument prior to closing an incision with sutures. Towels and sponges are among the most commonly forgotten instruments, though metal and other foreign objects are sometimes left in patients, as well.
• Anesthesia errors – Failure to screen patients for conditions that might preclude a certain type of anesthesia from being administered, as well as the failure to closely monitor a patient’s vital signs while under anesthesia, can result in serious injury or death.
• Other avoidable errors - As stated before, surgeons are not held to a standard of perfection. They are human, and not all accidents can be avoided. However, when an error occurs that would have been caught or prevented by a competent medical professional and injury or death results, the victim of the error – assuming that he or she is harmed in a significant and demonstrable way – may be eligible to file a medical malpractice claim. Our Utah catastrophic injury attorneys can evaluate your case and advise you of your legal rights and options.

Contact Fabian & Clendenin Today

If you or a member of your family has been injured as a result of medical malpractice, please contact our Utah medical malpractice attorneys today for an evaluation of your case.

Serving clients in Utah, the Ogden medical malpractice attorneys of Fabian & Clendenin can help you file your claim within the statute of limitations, ensuring that you will not be precluded from obtaining the compensation to which you are entitled on a legal technicality. If you or a member of your family has been injured due to the negligence of a physician, surgeon, nurse, anesthesiologist, or other medical professional, don’t surrender your rights. Schedule a case evaluation today.

The Time Limit in Utah

In general, the statute of limitations for personal injury claims in Utah is four years. However, in medical malpractice cases, the claim must be filed within two years of the discovery of the injury or the point at which the injury should reasonably have been discovered. The discovery of the injury must occur within two years of the incident of medical malpractice that resulted in the injury. This adds up to a four-year maximum statute of limitations.

For example, if you discovered your injury one year after the incident of medical malpractice, you have two years from that date to file a claim. In that case, the overall statute of limitations is three years from the date of the medical malpractice incident. If you discover your injury three years after the incident of medical malpractice, however, you may not file a claim, even though you discovered the injury within the maximum four-year statute of limitations.

To protect your rights, it is best that you contact our Ogden-area catastrophic injury attorneys as soon as possible after you suspect an injury due to medical malpractice.

Statutes of Limitations in Other States

At Fabian & Clendenin near Ogden, our medical malpractice attorneys serve clients from states outside Utah, as well. The following are the statutes of limitations for medical malpractice cases in the other states we serve:

• Arizona: Within two years of the incident of medical malpractice in most cases
• Nevada: Within three years of the incident of medical malpractice or within one year of the discovery of the injury (or the point at which the injury should have been discovered) – whichever is earliest
• Idaho: Within two years of the incident of medical malpractice in most cases
• Wyoming: Within two years of the incident or medical malpractice, or within two years of the discovery of the injury (or the point at which the injury should have been discovered)

Contact Fabian & Clendenin

If you would like to schedule an evaluation of your medical malpractice case, we invite you to contact our Ogden-area catastrophic injury attorneys today.