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Legal Help for the Injured
Medical malpractice is any form of improper medical care, often caused by the negligence or recklessness of a doctor, nurse, or another medical provider. Whether you are facing more treatment, high medical costs, time out of work, or strained relationships, the consequences of malpractice can be life-changing.
Medical malpractice is also more common than many people realize. According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, as many as 225,000 people die from some form of medical malpractice every year, and many more sustain life-altering injuries. At Kisling, Nestico & Redick, our Ohio medical malpractice lawyers understand how serious these situations can be, and with centuries of combined legal experience, our Cleveland team will work tirelessly to help.
Call (216) 658-1330 for a free consultation about a potential medical malpractice claim for your injuries.
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Because the definition is broad, medical malpractice can vary considerably based on the circumstances. That also means the consequences of inadequate care can range from minor injuries, such as scarring or bruising, to permanent disability or death.
Medical negligence takes many forms, and our Cleveland medical malpractice lawyers handle the full range of claims. Some of the most common case types include the following.
Any time you are admitted to a hospital, you are trusting the facility and its staff with serious care. Understaffing, miscommunication between departments, unsanitary conditions, and charting mistakes can all cause preventable harm, and the hospital itself may share responsibility for the injury.
When a person is cut open and operated on with a number of surgical tools, many things can go wrong. From severed blood vessels and nerve damage to retained instruments and wrong-site surgery, a botched operation can leave a patient facing additional procedures and lasting losses. Our attorneys handle the full range of surgical error claims.
Sometimes doctors get the diagnosis wrong, miss it entirely, or arrive at it too late. A missed or delayed diagnosis can lead to unnecessary treatment, harmful side effects, and a condition that worsens without care. Delayed cancer diagnosis is especially serious, because the months lost can change a patient’s prognosis and treatment options, and in the worst cases it leads to a wrongful death.
Pharmacists fill thousands of prescriptions, and they must provide the right medication and the correct dosage to the right patient every time. They also have to catch dangerous drug interactions. A single dispensing mistake can cause a serious or fatal reaction.
A patient may be prescribed the wrong drug, the wrong dose, or a medication that interacts badly with something they already take. These mistakes can make the underlying condition worse and cause new injuries on top of it, especially for older patients and those managing several prescriptions at once.
Providers who administer anesthesia must give the proper type and dosage and monitor the patient closely throughout a procedure. Too much, too little, or a failure to watch the patient’s vital signs can cause brain injury, organ damage, or death in a matter of minutes.
During pregnancy and delivery, both mother and child are in an extremely delicate state. Improper prenatal advice, a poorly executed fetal surgery, missed signs of fetal distress, or the misuse of delivery tools can cause lasting harm. Our Cleveland birth injury lawyers handle these difficult cases with care.
Medical professionals and facilities owe their patients a higher-than-normal duty of care. To win a medical malpractice claim in Ohio, you generally have to prove four things. First, that the provider owed you a duty to meet the accepted standard of care, meaning the way a reasonably careful provider would have managed your care under similar circumstances. Second, that the provider breached that standard. Third, that the breach directly caused your injury rather than the underlying illness alone. And fourth, that you suffered real damages as a result, such as added medical bills, lost income, or permanent harm.
Standard of care and causation are usually the hardest elements to establish, which is why these cases turn on independent medical experts. A qualified expert in the same field reviews the records, explains what a careful provider should have done, and connects the breach to your injury. Our team works with trusted experts to build that proof from the start.
When a doctor, nurse, hospital, or other provider fails to meet the accepted standard of care, malpractice can occur and the party in question can be held liable. Common professionals and facilities that may be liable for medical malpractice include:
For example, it is a widely accepted standard for medical professionals to confirm medications before administering them. If a doctor or nurse fails to perform that check, they may be guilty of malpractice. If a hospital administrator or a systemic failure in medication safety contributed to your injuries, the Cleveland hospital where you were treated may share liability. When the harm happens in a long-term care setting, our Cleveland nursing home abuse attorneys can help you hold the facility accountable.
Most Cleveland medical malpractice claims involve one of the region’s major health systems, including the Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals, and MetroHealth, along with their affiliated physician groups and outpatient locations. A claim can be brought against the hospital, the treating physician or physician group, or both, depending on who was responsible for the care that caused your injury. Identifying every potentially liable party early matters, because each may carry separate insurance and play a different role in your recovery.
In Ohio, anyone who is the victim of medical malpractice has the right to file a medical malpractice lawsuit. The goal is to obtain compensation for the losses that arose because of the injury.
When taking your case to court, the first step is proving that medical malpractice took place. Once that has been established, you are required to prove that the injury was a direct result of the malpractice.
Ohio sets specific time limits for medical malpractice cases, and they are different from the deadline for most other injury claims. In general, a medical claim must be filed within one year of the date the injury was discovered or reasonably should have been discovered, known as the discovery rule, under ORC 2305.113(A).
There is also an outer limit called the statute of repose. With limited exceptions, no medical claim may be brought more than four years after the act or omission that caused the injury, even if the harm had not yet been discovered, under ORC 2305.113(C). This four-year cap can bar a claim before the one-year discovery clock would otherwise run out.
You can extend the one-year deadline by sending a 180-day letter. This is a written notice to the potential defendant that gives you an additional 180 days to investigate the claim and obtain an expert review before filing, under ORC 2305.113(B).
To file a medical claim in Ohio, you must also include an affidavit of merit under Ohio Civ.R. 10(D)(2). This is a sworn statement from a qualified medical expert confirming that the provider breached the standard of care and that the breach caused your injury. Because lining up that expert review takes time, it is important to contact a Cleveland malpractice attorney well before your deadline.
Keep in mind that this one-year medical malpractice deadline is not the same as Ohio’s general two-year personal injury statute of limitations under ORC 2305.10, which applies to most other injury claims. Medical claims run on the shorter, more complicated timeline described above, so do not assume you have two years.
Fight for Everything You’re Owed
Initiating this type of legal action on your own can be difficult. With the help of our dedicated legal team at KNR, however, all you will have to worry about is your recovery. We will handle all the legal aspects of your case.
The value of a medical malpractice case depends on the harm you suffered and how it has changed your life. Ohio law allows you to recover economic damages, which cover measurable financial losses such as medical bills and lost income, and noneconomic damages, which compensate for harm like pain, suffering, and loss of enjoyment of life. Ohio places limits on certain noneconomic damages in medical claims, though those limits are higher in cases involving catastrophic injury such as permanent disability. We will review your records, work with experts to project your future needs, and pursue the full value of your claim. Possible losses in a medical malpractice case include, but are not limited to:
Call 1-800-HURT-NOW to talk through what your case may be worth in a free consultation.
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Since our inception in 2005, Kisling, Nestico & Redick has been dedicated to helping personal injury victims fight for the compensation they deserve after an accident affects their way of life. We have helped more than 10,000 people, and we’re ready to keep fighting for Ohioans and anyone who deserves compensation for their personal injury claims.
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Our experienced Cleveland medical malpractice attorneys will help you file legal documents, interview witnesses and responsible parties, and conduct a thorough investigation within the time constraints set out by Ohio law for medical malpractice cases. We will help you develop a strategy that gives you the best chance of success with your case.
If you’ve been the victim of medical malpractice, you can also file an incident report with the State Medical Board of Ohio. This report can detail exactly what happened and may result in disciplinary action for the responsible medical professional. We will discuss the benefits of filing this report and then work to prove that you were injured by those who should have helped you.
In general, you have one year from the date you discovered or reasonably should have discovered the injury to file a medical malpractice claim in Ohio, under ORC 2305.113(A). A 180-day letter can extend that deadline by up to 180 days. Ohio also has a four-year statute of repose, which bars most medical claims brought more than four years after the act or omission. Because these deadlines are short and easy to miss, it is best to speak with a Cleveland medical malpractice lawyer as soon as possible.
Yes. Ohio Civ.R. 10(D)(2) requires every medical claim to be filed with an affidavit of merit. It is a sworn statement from a qualified medical expert confirming that your provider breached the standard of care and that the breach caused your injury. Without it, your case can be dismissed. We work with trusted medical experts to obtain this affidavit before filing.
Medical malpractice can include surgical errors, misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis, birth injuries, medication and pharmacist errors, anesthesia mistakes, and hospital or systemic negligence. The common thread is that a provider failed to meet the accepted standard of care and a patient was harmed as a result.
You generally must prove four things: that the provider owed you a duty to meet the standard of care, that the provider breached that standard, that the breach directly caused your injury, and that you suffered real damages. These cases rely heavily on independent medical experts who review your records and explain how the care fell short.
We handle medical malpractice cases on a contingency fee, which means there is no upfront cost and no fee unless we win your case. Your first consultation is always free, so you can learn where you stand without any financial risk.
