Medical Malpractice Cases in Georgia

One of the hardest things to deal with after a loved one dies or is seriously hurt while in the care of a doctor, is the mystery surrounding why it happens. Hospitals and doctors are notoriously bad at explaining why our client's loved ones passed away. All too often the family is left standing in the waiting room wondering what went wrong.

If you have come to this page looking for information on a medical malpractice claim, we will do our best to outline general concepts, but the best thing you can do is pick up the phone and discuss it with our attorneys.

While our firm respects the dedication and skill that doctors and nurses devote to our friends, our families and our community a sad reality is that significant medical negligence exists. 

Doctors and nurses make mistakes like anyone else.  When they do, the results can be catastrophic.  There are some key things to know with medical malpractice:

• In order for there to be liability, a medical provider must have fallen below the standard of medical care; in other words what the doctor did or did not do was significantly different than what a good, careful doctor would do.  Bad results from surgery, misdiagnosis, or even from a routine hospital stay are not always the result of poor care. 
  
• It takes an experienced attorney to know when bad results are caused by bad doctoring.
• Just because something went wrong does not mean there is a valid case
• Medical Malpractice cases cost the law firm a lot of money to prepare so we only take on cases that have good merit.
  
• If the harm done to the patient was not serious, then it does not make financial sense to bring a claim or a lawsuit.
• Some cases such as a doctor or pharmacy giving the wrong medicine or in the wrong dose can be very straightforward, but most are very complex.
  

These are very general guidelines and each case is different. If you or someone you know has had an unusually bad result after being treated by a medical professional, we would be glad to discuss the facts with you to get you answers.

COMMON MEDICAL MISTAKES IN GEORGIA

Giving the Patient the Wrong Medicine – Pharmacies can make mistakes when filling prescriptions with catastrophic consequences.  This may be the result of the pharmacy’s own negligence, but might also be the fault of the prescribing doctor. 

Mistakes During Surgery – There are at least as many possible surgical mistakes as there are types of surgeries.  Common mistakes include infections resulting from an unsterile environment, clamps and sponges left inside the patient after surgery, anesthesia mistakes leading to brain damage or death, and punctured organs. 

Injuries to Babies During Birth – Babies suffering brain damage or even death as a result of mistakes during child birth, and severe injuries to the mother are rare but do occur.  

Nursing Home Negligence – Sadly, elderly nursing home residence face a number of potential hazards including bed sores (if left unattended), malnourishment, and even intentional physical abuse.  

OUR EXPERIENCE COUNTS

Christopher Simon’s law partner, Charles E. (“Trip”) Johnson, III, is the son of a practicing Atlanta physician and a former medical malpractice defense attorney for a major insurance company.  His background provides an ideal basis for evaluating medical claims to determine whether bad medical results are caused by bad medical practice.  If they are, we work hard to recover maximum money damages for these often tragic cases.