Medical Practice Areas
Medical law covers a wide range of causes and types of injuries. Listed below are some common causes of medical injuries that could be grounds for a medical negligence claim. If you have suffered one of these types of injuries or you are not sure whether your injury may be grounds for such a claim, our team of lawyers can examine the circumstances in your case to answer your questions in a free consultation and claim review. If you have suffered because of a preventable medical error or act or negligence, our team of medical attorneys at Riddle & Brantley is here to help you get the justice and compensation you deserve. With over 160 years of combined legal experience, we have dedicated our careers to helping people who have been hurt by others’ negligence. Let us help you, too. Wherever you are in North Carolina, we are ready to serve you from our offices in Raleigh, Goldsboro, Jacksonville, and Kinston. We are happy to meet you where you are.
Dangerous Prescribed Drugs That Result in More Injuries
Like medical devices, prescription drugs can also harm the very patients they are prescribed to help. Sometimes, drugs can cause serious side effects that put a patient at risk of a worsened condition or injury. In other cases, a drug might be ineffective in treating the illness or condition it was designed to treat, putting patients' health at risk by causing a delay in effective treatment. Another way a prescription drug can be dangerous is if it is contaminated during the manufacturing, packaging, or distribution process. In any of these scenarios, a patient who suffers because of a dangerous drug could, with the help of a qualified lawyer, recover monetary compensation for his or her losses through a
dangerous drug claim. Some examples of prescription drugs that have been found to be harmful to patients include:
- Granuflo & Naturalyte. These dialysis drugs have been associated with heart attacks, sudden cardiac arrest, cardiopulmonary arrest, and death in patients taking them.
- This anti-nausea drug is sometimes prescribed to pregnant women, despite its correlation with birth defects.
- Invokana, a drug prescribed to patients with Type 2 diabetes, has been linked to health problems like kidney failure and diabetic ketoacidosis.
- Lipitor is often prescribed to reduce cholesterol levels in patients. However, it has been found to put women at a higher risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.
Prescription Drugs
With a dangerous drug claim, multiple parties can be held liable for a patient's damages depending on the circumstances involved in a case. A drug's manufacturer can be held responsible for the negligent development or negligent failure to recall a dangerous drug. In some cases, a doctor can also be held liable for prescribing a drug without warning a patient about the side effects associated with it.
Defective Medical Devices
When a
medical device has a design flaw or is manufactured incorrectly, it can injure patients instead of improving their medical conditions. In some cases, devices that were designed and manufactured correctly can be contaminated during the production, packaging, or shipping processes, putting patients at risk of infection. Patients who suffer because of defective medical devices are often entitled to recover monetary compensation from the devices' makers. A few examples of defective medical devices that have been recognized in recent years include:
- Transvaginal mesh products
- Mirena intrauterine device (IUD)
- Metal-on-metal (MoM) hip implants
- Depuy ASR implants
Other medical devices, such as stents, can injure patients as well. When a patient suffers because of a defective medical device, he or she can potentially face high medical bills and other expenses related to the injury. Contact a defective medical device lawyer for help with your claim.
Mesothelioma Lawyers
Mesothelioma is a type of cancer that is caused by asbestos exposure. Asbestos is most dangerous in its powder form because it can be inhaled. This is why most forms of mesothelioma – a cancer of the lining around the body's internal organs – are found in the lining of the lungs.
Many individuals who are diagnosed with mesothelioma were exposed to asbestos during their careers. Individuals who worked in construction, in manufacturing, and even in the U.S. Navy are especially at risk of developing mesothelioma because of their exposure to the mineral in their work environments.
Mesothelioma has a latency period of 20 or more years. This means that someone who was exposed to asbestos at work might not experience mesothelioma symptoms until long after the exposure, sometimes until after he or she retires. But this does not mean that a mesothelioma patient cannot seek monetary compensation for his or her medical bills and other losses from the disease.
Even if a patient was exposed to asbestos decades ago, he or she might still be able to recover damages through a mesothelioma claim.
The best chance of recovering the maximum amount of compensation is with the help of a skilled mesothelioma lawyer like those at Riddle & Brantley.
Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect
We want to think of nursing homes as safe places for our loved ones. After all, they are the facilities tasked with caring for adults who can no longer care for themselves. However, a study from the National Center on Elder Abuse found that, of 2,000 nursing home residents surveyed, 44 percent had been abused by caretakers and 95 percent had been neglected or witnessed another resident being neglected at some point during their time in the facility.
Some examples of
nursing home abuse and neglect include:
- Financial exploitation of a resident
- Sexual abuse of a resident, such as unwanted sexual touching or revealing oneself to a resident
- Physical abuse, such as the denial of needed medication or the rough physical restraint of a resident
- Failure to adequately clean, feed, and monitor a nursing home resident
- Psychologically or emotionally manipulating a resident for personal gain
Abuse
If you suspect your loved one is being neglected or abused in a nursing home, you may have the right to take legal action against the facility with the assistance of a nursing home abuse and neglect lawyer. In many cases, nursing home neglect and abuse can be easy to miss. Communicate with your loved one frequently to monitor the care he or she receives.
Medical Malpractice
When a patient suffers because of a physician's negligence or the negligence of another medical professional or institution, this may be considered
medical malpractice. Some examples of negligence that a patient might suffer at the hands of a healthcare provider include:
- Misdiagnosis
- Failure to diagnose
- Birth injuries due to an error or mishandling before or during a child's birth
- Leaving surgical equipment inside a patient after surgery
- Prescribing or administering the wrong medication or the wrong dose
- Rough handling of a patient during treatment, causing injury
- Giving a patient an incorrect dosage of anesthesia
Medical malpractice can result in a worsened condition or, in some cases, a completely new injury or condition. Patients can die from instances of medical malpractice. When an individual is injured or suffers a worsened condition because of a physician or other healthcare professional's negligence, he or she could be entitled to monetary compensation for the losses resulting from the injury. Our medical malpractice lawyers can help.
Pharmaceutical Litigation
When you have been injured by a defective medical device or a dangerous drug, you may be entitled to have your medical expenses and other costs associated with your injury compensated by the party responsible for these losses. In this type of case, the responsible party is often the pharmaceutical company that produced the drug or device that led to the injury. If you are planning to take legal action against a pharmaceutical company, it is important that you work with an experienced pharmaceutical litigation lawyer to ensure that you fully understand the legal process of pursuing a claim, your rights as an injury victim, and the laws applicable to your case.
Pharmaceutical litigation is a broad area of law. In some cases, medical malpractice and birth injury claims can fall under the umbrella of pharmaceutical litigation.
Medical Attorneys in North Carolina
If you have suffered from any of the types of injury listed above, you could have grounds for a medical claim. Find out more by
contacting one of the experienced medical attorneys at Riddle & Brantley today for a free claim review and discussion of your legal rights.
With four offices in North Carolina – Goldsboro, Raleigh, Kinston, and Jacksonville – our firm is prepared to help medical negligence victims across the state. Our legal team will even visit injured victims who are unable to leave their home or the hospital, so you do not even need to leave your location.