South Hill Medical Malpractice Lawyer

When you or someone you love suffers an injury because of substandard medical care, the physical, emotional and financial impacts can be devastating. You trust doctors, nurses, clinics and hospitals to provide competent, attentive treatment. So when serious, preventable lapses occur, it constitutes a major betrayal. If medical negligence contributed to significant injury for you or your family in the South Hill area, understanding your legal options is critical.

An experienced medical malpractice lawyer can thoroughly investigate what went wrong and help determine if you have a valid claim under Washington law. At Moseley Collins Law, our team has over 40 combined years handling malpractice litigation. We dig deep to get the facts, battle uncooperative medical facilities aiming to avoid liability, and craft strong arguments so injury victims can receive the justice and compensation they properly deserve.

This page covers the basics of proving medical negligence claims in South Hill, Washington, typical errors that lead to lawsuits, statute of limitations, working with lawyers, and more details specific to South Hill and Pierce County. Our goal is giving residents a better understanding of their options if the medical care they received contributed to added health problems or impairment.

What Qualifies as Medical Malpractice in Washington?

Under RCW 7.70, medical malpractice occurs when a healthcare provider fails to use reasonable skill, care and judgment adhering to accepted standards - thereby causing new injury or worsening existing conditions for a patient. Some examples of medical negligence include:

  • Misdiagnosing, failing to diagnose, or delaying diagnosis of a serious illness like cancer, stroke, aneurysm etc.
  • Surgical mistakes - operating on the wrong site or wrong patient
  • Mistakes during labor/delivery leading to birth injuries with permanent damage
  • Improper administration of anesthesia
  • Prescribing incorrect medications or doses
  • Releasing a patient from care prematurely
  • Failure to properly monitor patients
  • Not reporting serious symptoms or test results

In essence, if a healthcare provider makes an error that other competent doctors in the same situation would not make - and it directly results in harm - it constitutes medical malpractice. Certain risks are unavoidable in medicine, but you should not suffer lifelong injuries or impairments because of clear, avoidable mistakes.

Proving malpractice requires showing a health provider-patient relationship existed, the provider acted negligently breaching care standards, this breach caused your distinct injury/damages, and you suffered financial and personal losses as a result. For a free case review exploring your options, contact the accomplished medical malpractice lawyers at Moseley Collins Law today.

Statute of Limitations for Medical Malpractice Claims

Common Medical Negligence Cases

Medical errors cause nearly a quarter million deaths annually just in the U.S. Certain types of healthcare mistakes arise more frequently than others that can completely upend injury victims' lives. Some of the more common medical negligence cases we see in South Hill and throughout Washington include:

Misdiagnosis & Failure to Diagnose

Failing to promptly recognize serious conditions like cancer, infections, stroke, or heart disease occurs commonly - often with grave consequences. Even the best doctors sometimes struggle keeping pace with overloaded schedules. Symptoms get overlooked or written off when they require urgent attention. Delays in accurately diagnosing devastating illnesses drastically lower survival odds and treatment efficacy.

Childbirth & Pediatric Mistakes

High-risk deliveries demand flawless coordination between nurses, doctors and monitoring technology to avoid depriving newborns of oxygen. When breakdowns happen, babies often sustain lifelong disabilities. Pediatric misdiagnoses, hospital-acquired infections, and other errors also inflict catastrophic damage. These innocent victims and families deserve accountability.

Surgical Errors

While inherently risky, surgeries should not permanently damage patients because of preventable errors like operating on the wrong body part/person, leaving foreign objects inside patients after closing up, piercing organs or major blood vessels unnecessarily, etc. Botched orthopedic, bariatric, plastic surgeries and other invasive treatments often necessitate extensive correction procedures with lengthy rehabilitation periods.

Emergency Room Negligence

When every minute counts during medical crises in crowded ERs, failures to promptly respond to stroke, heart attack, sepsis and trauma symptoms can have fatal consequences or cause severe impairment. Inadequate triage, misinterpreted test results, and releasing unstable patients also leads to irreparable harm.

Medication Errors

Prescribing and dosing mistakes may seem innocuous at first but all too often have dangerous, sometimes fatal outcomes. Radiology tech radiation overdoses have also caused patients severe burns or future cancer risks. These life-altering errors demand accountability.

Nursing Home Abuse & Neglect

Helpless elderly residents rely upon nursing home staff for basic mobility, hygiene and medication needs. Yet all too often these facilities operate dangerously understaffed and overwhelmed - ignoring residents' cries for help that lead to injury or death - often intentionally obscured. Families deserve answers and justice.

No matter what type of medical negligence caused your devastating injuries in South Hill or surrounding cities, the Moseley Collins Law firm has the resources and expertise to demand maximum compensation for clients. We have helped numerous Washington families secure financial damages and make negligent hospitals and medical providers answer for their harmful errors. Our team can do the same for you.

Key Cities & Towns We Serve in South Hill

The accomplished Moseley Collins medical malpractice legal team helps injured victims and families throughout South Hill and the following Pierce County cities/towns:

  • Bonney Lake
  • Buckley
  • Dupont
  • Eatonville
  • Graham
  • Orting
  • Puyallup
  • Roy
  • Spanaway
  • Sumner
  • Wilkeson

Regardless of which community you reside in, our lawyers make it a priority getting to know you and understand how medical negligence has impacted your life. No two cases or situations are ever quite the same. What matters most is resolving your case favorably so you can move ahead with your life feeling empowered.

Local Medical Facilities

Some of the major healthcare facilities in South Hill include:

MultiCare Good Samaritan Hospital

Part of the non-profit MultiCare health system, Good Samaritan is a full-service 166-bed hospital providing emergency care, cancer treatment, stroke care, childbirth services, surgeries, imaging, lab services and community health clinics throughout the South Hill region.

MultiCare Allenmore Hospital

Allenmore Hospital is another MultiCare network facility serving South Hill and the greater Tacoma area. It offers ER services, orthopedics, stroke care, general medical treatment and birth center/NICU services.

St. Anthony Hospital

Located northwest of South Hill in Gig Harbor, St. Anthony is a 58-bed medical center with 24-hour emergency services as well as orthopedic care, general surgery, cancer treatment and women’s health programs.

Franciscan St. Joseph Medical Center

This Tacoma hospital just north of South Hill provides emergency care, cancer treatment, maternity services, cardiac rehabilitation along with primary and specialty clinics.

Proving Medical Negligence in Washington Courts

Proving Medical Negligence in Washington Courts

Under Revised Code of Washington 7.70.040, the legal team for an injured plaintiff must demonstrate the following core elements to prove medical malpractice against a negligent healthcare provider in court:

  • A provider-patient relationship existed that established a duty of care
  • The defendant provider breached this duty of care by deviating from accepted medical standard practices
  • This breach directly caused the distinct patient injuries and damages claimed
  • Losses and harm suffered were directly attributable to the provider’s negligence

Effectively proving all these interconnected elements requires extensive legal resources - accessing medical records and documentation, consulting nurse and physician experts to establish proper protocols versus negligent actions, actuaries to calculate total current and future damages, professional researchers, dedicated support staff and more.

Moseley Collins Law boasts an accomplished in-house team with decades of combined medical malpractice litigation experience. We utilize the latest technology to build strong negligence cases, leaning on proven legal strategies refined over hundreds of previous successful claims on behalf of Washington victims and families. If medical errors caused you or someone you love lasting harm in South Hill, WA we have the expertise and resources to demand the maximum compensation you rightfully deserve.

Why Choose Moseley Collins Law for Your Medical Malpractice Case?

If you or someone you care about suffered injury related to medical negligence in South Hill or anywhere in Washington, having an experienced lawyer fighting for your best interests is critical. At Moseley Collins Law, we offer injured victims and grieving families the following benefits:

  • Decades of malpractice litigation expertise - Our record of success speaks for itself. We know how to skillfully prove complex cases.
  • We strictly handle medical negligence cases - Other firms take on various general injury lawsuits diluting their focus. Our purpose is helping malpractice victims.
  • Proven record of delivering results - Our past outcomes include verdicts and settlements reaching millions in some cases. We never stop fighting until injured clients feel satisfied with the result.
  • We carefully screen cases - Far too many law firms waste valuable time and money pursuing clearly unwinnable cases. We conduct rigorous initial case evaluations before moving forward.
  • Your case receives senior-level attention - Our firm president remains actively involved in client representation. We understand these are not merely cases but people’s lives at stake.
  • No out-of-pocket costs - We work exclusively on a contingency fee basis, meaning legal fees only come from financial recoveries we obtain for you.

The Moseley Collins Law Firm maintains hundreds of outstanding client reviews. But more importantly, we have helped provide Washington injury victims and families renewed hope after tragic, debilitating medical errors by making accountable providers pay. Our lawyers are always available for free, private consultations by phone day or evening. So do not wait to contact us online or call 800-426-5546 regarding your potential malpractice case. We are here to help get you the answers, justice and compensation you properly deserve.

What qualifies as medical malpractice in South Hill, WA?

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)What qualifies as medical malpractice in South Hill, WA?

Medical malpractice occurs when a healthcare professional fails to meet the accepted standard of care when treating a patient, resulting in injury or harm. This includes things like surgical mistakes, improper medication, misdiagnoses, childbirth injuries, etc. The key is proving the substandard care caused preventable patient harm.

What types of injuries can lead to a medical malpractice case?

All kinds of injuries can potentially qualify for malpractice claims as long as improper medical care directly caused or worsened the damage. This includes bone fractures, wound infections, medication complications, loss of limbs, brain damage, paralysis, cancer misdiagnoses, and hundreds of other forms of harm.

How much does hiring a South Hill medical malpractice lawyer cost?

Most lawyers handle malpractice cases on a contingency fee basis, meaning legal fees come out of any final settlement or court award. Typical contingency fees range from 30-40% of the total recovery amount. Initial consultations are also usually free, so there is often little risk in exploring your legal options.

Who pays if I win my malpractice case?

Payment generally comes from a few potential sources - the liable healthcare provider themselves, their employer if they work for a hospital/clinic, and their malpractice insurance carrier. Your lawyer determines the responsible parties during their investigation. The goal is securing coverage from whoever has the deepest pockets.

Client Reviews
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