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Understanding Ohio’s Medical Malpractice Laws

When you seek medical care, you place your trust in healthcare professionals. Unfortunately, mistakes can happen, and sometimes those mistakes constitute medical malpractice. Ohio has specific laws designed to protect the rights of patients who have been injured by medical negligence. Here’s a brief overview of the key points:

• Caps on Damages: Ohio places limits on certain types of damages in medical malpractice cases.
  
  
  • Economic Damages: These cover tangible losses like medical bills and lost income. Ohio does not cap economic damages.
    
    
  • Non-Economic Damages: These cover losses like pain, suffering, and emotional distress. They are typically capped at $250,000 or three times the amount of economic damages—whichever is greater, up to $350,000 for a single plaintiff.
    
    
  • Punitive Damages: In rare cases where the healthcare provider’s actions were particularly reckless or malicious, punitive damages may be awarded. Ohio limits these damages to twice the value of other compensatory damages, up to $350,000.
    
    
• Statute of Limitations: This is the deadline for filing a lawsuit. In Ohio, you generally have one year from the date you discovered the injury, or the date a reasonable person should have discovered it, to file a medical malpractice claim. There are some exceptions to this rule, so it’s important to consult an attorney as soon as possible.
  
  
• Standard of Care: Medical malpractice hinges on whether the healthcare provider violated the “standard of care.” This means they didn’t provide treatment in line with what a similarly qualified medical professional would have done in the same situation. Proving a breach of the standard of care often requires expert testimony, which a medical malpractice lawyer can help you navigate.

Types of Damages Recoverable in Medical Malpractice Cases

If you’ve been the victim of medical negligence, you can seek compensation for a wide range of losses. Below, we further break down the two main categories of damages and what they cover:

Economic Damages
These cover the direct financial costs you face because of the malpractice. Examples include:

• Medical Bills (Past, Present, and Future): These include hospitalizations, surgeries, doctor visits, medication, medical equipment, and ongoing care related to the injury.
• Rehabilitation Costs: These are expenses for physical therapy, occupational therapy, or other rehabilitative services.
• Modifications to Your Home or Vehicle: The injury may necessitate costly accommodations like wheelchair ramps or specialized transportation.
• Lost Wages: This is compensation for the income you lost while unable to work due to the injury.
• Lost Earning Capacity: If the injury leaves you with a permanent disability that reduces your ability to earn a living, you may be able to recover damages for this diminished capacity.

Non-Economic Damages
These compensate for the less tangible, but deeply impactful ways a medical error affects your life. Examples include:

• Pain and Suffering: This is compensation for the physical pain and emotional distress resulting from the injury, including consequences like anxiety, depression, or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
• Loss of Enjoyment of Life: If the injuries prevent you from participating in activities you once enjoyed or fundamentally alter your daily life, this is another non-economic loss.
• Scarring or Disfigurement: You may receive additional compensation for permanent changes to your appearance that cause embarrassment or emotional hardship.

Calculating damages in a medical malpractice case can be complex, but a skilled attorney will guide you through the process and fight for the maximum compensation you’re entitled to.

Common Medical Malpractice Errors in Ohio

When you’re hurt or sick, your first instinct is to turn to a doctor or a hospital for help. There, you expect to receive proper treatment and medical care.

When a healthcare professional fails to provide an acceptable level of care, it’s considered negligence. In healthcare, negligence can result from poor training of staff to overworked and sleep-deprived doctors. These oversights can contribute to major injuries or even death.

Misdiagnosing an Illness or Injury

Correctly diagnosing an illness or injury is critical for a patient to make a successful recovery. Proper diagnosis requires a full evaluation of a person’s health and symptoms. If a doctor rushes through routine exams, he may incorrectly diagnose patients, leading to ineffective treatments, worsening of preexisting conditions, and more.

Negligent doctors who don’t fully evaluate a patient’s health and physical condition may:

• Diagnose symptoms rather than the actual underlying condition
• Prescribe treatment for medication side effects instead of altering medication
• Misdiagnose a rare condition due to a lack of medical knowledge and experience

Prescription Medication Errors

Doctors have a responsibility to prescribe medication to help patients get better. But before medication is prescribed, doctors must review a patient’s records to ensure there are no:

• Potential Allergies
  If a patient is allergic to a prescribed medication, he or she can sustain serious or fatal injuries.
• Incorrect Dosages
  Doctors must also make sure they prescribe the correct dosage of medication, as too small of a dose can be ineffective, and too large of a dose can potentially worsen a patient’s side effects.
• Drug Interactions
  Combining medications can also be dangerous, as some medications cancel each other out or produce a more powerful effect than when taken separately. Any over-the-counter drugs or herbal remedies that a patient is taking should also be taken into account by a doctor, as they may interact with prescription medications.

Surgical Mistakes

Surgery requires the use of many different tools and devices. If a surgeon is careless and leaves one or more of those tools inside a patient’s body, the consequences can be life-threatening.

Examples of tools that have been left behind in patients include:

• Scissors
• Needles
• Scalpels
• Sponges
• Surgical clamps

These errors aren’t always obvious after surgery, and complications can take months to develop. That’s why it’s important to contact an Ohio medical malpractice attorney from Nurenberg, Paris, Heller & McCarthy immediately if you suspect that you’re the victim of a surgical mistake. We can help you get the compensation you need for your injuries.

Examples of Surgical Malpractice

Other common examples of surgical malpractice include:

• Wrong-Site Surgery
  When a surgeon operates on the wrong part of the body, it’s considered wrong-site surgery. Poor patient record-keeping can cause surgeons and hospital staff to make mistakes during surgery, including the amputation of healthy limbs.
• Anesthesia Error
  Most major surgeries require the use of anesthesia. If a patient receives too little anesthesia, he or she may wake up during surgery and suffer from extreme pain. On the other hand, too much anesthesia can cause illness or even death.

Dealing with the aftermath of surgical malpractice can be difficult, but you don’t have to do it alone. Get a Cleveland medical malpractice lawyer from Nurenberg, Paris, Heller & McCarthy on your side today.

We have the resources to take on your claim and get you the compensation you need for your injuries. Let our experienced medical malpractice lawyers go to work for you.

Call us at (216) 621-2300 or fill out a free initial consultation form and get the help you need today.

Hospital Malpractice

Hospitals are responsible for treating hundreds and even thousands of patients each day. Many of these patients are treated by several different doctors and nurses during their stay.

When hospital staff fail to follow the correct procedures, it can lead to serious errors in care, including:

• Administering the wrong medication, or the wrong dosage of medication
• Delayed treatment for long periods of time
• Improper handling of patient records, leading to incorrect treatment procedures
• Inadequately trained staff treating patients
• Poor cleaning or sterilization of medical equipment, causing infection or illness

If you’ve been the victim of medical malpractice in a hospital, you may be facing even more treatments and medical bills. The Ohio medical malpractice attorneys from Nurenberg, Paris, Heller & McCarthy can help you get compensation to cover the costs of your injuries.

Errors in Emergency Rooms

Emergency rooms are hectic. Often, patients are waiting to receive urgent care and there’s not enough staff to help them all right away. The doctors and nurses may be sleep-deprived and exhausted from working long shifts.

When this combination of stress and long hours causes hospital staff to make mistakes, the hospital may be considered negligent.

If you believe you’ve been neglected or received poor treatment while in the care of a hospital, the Cleveland medical malpractice lawyers at Nurenberg, Paris, Heller & McCarthy can help you. Call us at (216) 621-2300 or fill out a free initial consultation form today.

Why Choose Us for Your Medical Malpractice Case

At Nurenberg Paris, we have a proven track record of success in helping clients recover compensation for medical malpractice.

• $4 Million Settlement: We secured a $4 million settlement for a client who suffered fatal complications after childbirth due to the medical provider’s failure to diagnose and treat a strep infection in a timely manner.
• $3 Million Jury Award: We obtained a $3 million jury award against a hospital and a physician for their negligence in not ordering an x-ray, resulting in delayed diagnosis and an eventual amputation.

These are just a couple examples of how our team helps victims of medical malpractice. We understand the physical, emotional, and financial toll cases like the ones above can take, and we’re committed to fighting for victims.

Proving Medical Malpractice

Healthcare providers occasionally make mistakes. Proving that those mistakes were due to negligence—or failure to act with reasonable care—can be difficult.

Hospitals and doctors have many resources to defend themselves from medical malpractice claims, but you’re not in this fight alone if it happened to you or a loved one. The Cleveland medical malpractice lawyers at Nurenberg, Paris, Heller & McCarthy can help you determine who was at fault for your injury. We have years of experience as trial lawyers, and we’ll stand up to the hospital and doctors who injured you.

Frequently Asked Questions About Medical Malpractice

Contact a Cleveland Medical Malpractice Attorney Today

We help clients in Cleveland and throughout Ohio get the compensation they’re entitled to when they’ve suffered a serious injury or illness through medical negligence. Contact our Cleveland medical malpractice attorneys today for a free consultation.