Urologist Malpractice

When doctors make mistakes, the results can be devastating for a patient. Urologists are doctors who diagnose and treat the urinary tract and associated body parts. Their surgical or other errors can result in infertility and incapacitation. If you were the victim of negligence by a urologist, the experienced Ocala medical malpractice attorneys of the Dean Law Firm can help you explore your legal options.

A urologist studies problems associated with the female and male urinary tracts. Urologists may diagnose and treat problems such as urinary tract infections, bladder problems, prostate illnesses, erectile dysfunction, and more. Urologists are paid significantly and train for many years in order to be able to diagnose and treat serious diseases that affect the urinary tracts and related areas. Symptoms of urinary tract diseases include trouble urinating or going through a constant feeling of needing to urinate. For example, these symptoms can arise in connection with prostate cancer, which is one of the most lethal types of cancer. Urologists can also be called upon to help with fertility or to perform surgeries. When a mistake is made during surgery, the result can be permanent infertility.

Not every mistake made by a urologist counts as medical malpractice, but urologists may be negligent in many different ways. The key to showing a doctor should be held accountable for a missed diagnosis or a procedure gone awry requires proof of professional negligence. This requires you to show it’s more likely than not: (1) you were owed a professional duty of care, (2) the professional duty of care was breached, (3) causation, and (4) actual damages.

Breach of the professional duty of care can occur in many different ways. An obvious way would be if an artery or nerve were cut during a surgical procedure and not fixed. Another obvious way would be by leaving a surgical instrument or surgical sponge in an open body cavity. However, urologists can also make other types of errors, such as errors in interpreting imaging or in diagnosing a urinary tract problem. Post-surgery, a urologist may be negligent in his monitoring of a patient to ensure a proper recovery. For example, if a patient develops a high fever after surgery, and the urologist isn’t properly monitoring the patient or trying to figure out what’s wrong, leading to injury to the patient, this may be medical malpractice. Sometimes, urologist malpractice is connected with malpractice of other kinds, such as lab errors or nursing or hospital staff errors, meaning that there may be more than one person at fault. An experienced malpractice lawyer can help you identify all of the appropriate defendants.

In order to initiate a urologist malpractice lawsuit, you will need to retain an expert to provide expert opinions on what the professional standard of care was, whether and by what actions it was breached, and whether it was a breach that caused injuries or harm to the patient. There are pre-suit requirements in Florida medical malpractice lawsuits, which means you will need to consult with an expert, or possibly more than one expert before filing suit. Expert testimony can’t be given about the prevailing professional standard of care in a urologist malpractice case (or other medical malpractice case) unless the testifying expert is a health care provider who holds a valid and active license, and conducts a complete review of relevant medical records and meets certain other criteria.

Damages you may be able to recover if you can establish liability for urologist malpractice include amounts for medical bills, lost wages, replacement services, out-of-pocket costs, pain and suffering, mental anguish, and loss of enjoyment.

At the Dean Law Firm, our skillful trial lawyers understand how painful it can be to suffer injury due to urologist malpractice. If you were injured or a loved one died because of urologist malpractice in Ocala, you may be able to recover compensation for your losses by making a medical malpractice claim. We represent patients and the families of patients throughout Florida, including in Crystal River and The Villages, as well as Lake, Marion, Sumter, Levy and Citrus Counties. Call us at 352-387-8700 or contact us through our online form.