What Happened
Our Virginia medical malpractice client was 37 years old when she went to her doctor complaining of pelvic pain. The physician recommended a hysterectomy, and she scheduled the laparoscopic procedure.
Following the initial surgery, our client developed a life-threatening infection. Eventually, her medical team discovered that the cause of her postsurgery complications was a perforated bowel. The surgeon who performed the hysterectomy had temporarily lost control of the surgical implements and cut into the woman’s intestines.
Saving the woman’s life required doing several follow-up surgeries to repair her bowel and to conduct what are called “washouts.” Once the infection was cleared, she underwent two more surgeries to ensure that the wounds along her intestines would not reopen and trigger new health crises.
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Key Legal Strategy
We assigned three medical malpractice attorneys to this case, one of whom had helped other women hold negligent surgeons and hospitals accountable for nearly killing them by botching gynecological surgeries. Our legal team built a strong case showing that the error could and should have been avoided.
Succeeding with a medical malpractice claim in Virginia requires collecting and presenting evidence of all the following:
- An error occurred that harmed or killed the patient,
- The health care provider or health care facility named as a defendant treated the patient,
- The health care provider or facility made the error, and
- A similarly situated health care provider or facility would not have made the error under similar circumstances.
Our legal team made their case so convincingly that the insurance companies for the defendants in this perforated bowel case agreed to settle all the injured woman’s claims for a total of $750,000.
Doctors, nurses, pharmacists and hospital owe high legal duties to patients. Mistakes made by health care providers ruin and take lives, and most such errors can be avoided. As Virginia personal injury and wrongful death attorneys, we work hard to hold people and institutions accountable for instances of medical malpractice.
Staff: Three staff attorneys