Boston Cardiac Surgery Lawyers
Handling Medical Malpractice Claims Throughout New England
If a patient is not carefully and constantly monitored during cardiac surgery, and if the surgical technique is not correct, serious injury or death may result. Even a slight error can result in unexpected stroke, brain damage, disability, or even death. Complications and side effects from cardiac surgery can be extremely costly not only physically and emotionally, but also financially. From additional surgeries to months of missed work, you need financial compensation to avoid financial distress and ruin.
Our Boston cardiac surgery lawyers represent families throughout New England, including New Hampshire and Rhode Island. If you or someone you know has suffered an injury or death during cardiac surgery, you may be entitled to seek compensation for your losses. Crowe & Harris, LLP ’s lawyers are trained to identify abnormalities and errors that can result in harm during cardiac surgery and can locate and review documentation of surgical and cardiac care that may not even be part of the patient’s record. Our team includes nurses and nurse-attorneys with years of experience treating cardiac patients.
Contact us online or call (617) 404-3417 for a free consultation today. Our team is selective in taking cases, which gives us the ability to provide each client with personalized attention and detail.
What Is Cardiac Surgery?
Cardiac surgery covers a wide range of procedures and operations that are intended to repair damage to the heart, prevent any further damage from happening, and increase the patient’s quality of life for years to come.
Cardiac surgery includes a number of operations, such as:
- Angioplasty
- Replacing faulty cardiac valves
- Heart bypass
- Complete heart transplants
Because these operations are on one of the most important and essential organs to sustain life, risks and complications—although always possible with any surgery—can be incredibly serious and life-threatening. From bleeding to infection, when a doctor, surgeon, nurse, or other medical professional acts negligently and makes a mistake, the results can be dire.
Common Cardiac Surgery Risks
While medical negligence can occur during any procedure, there are a few issues that are specific to cardiac surgeries. The heart is one of the most essential organs in the human body, and when it’s damaged due to medical negligence, the results can be catastrophic to your quality of life.
From minor operations to open-heart surgery or transplants, you may be at risk of developing serious health defects or dying as a result of any of the following:
- Improperly administering anesthesia
- Damage to heart tissue or other organs from improper incisions
- Disrupting proper blood flow, resulting in stroke and other complications
- Releasing plaque into arteries or over-inflating a surgical balloon in angioplasty
- Improper ablation, resulting in burnt tissue and internal damage
- Mistakes inserting or removing peacemakers or stents
- Leaving foreign objects in the body cavity
- Performing an operation on the wrong part of the heart
- Post-surgery negligence
Proving medical malpractice in a cardiac surgery can be extremely complicated and difficult. That’s because it requires proof that the actions or inactions of a surgeon or other medical professional “deviated from the accepted standards established by the surgical community by a substantial amount.” This threshold of proof requires an attorney with experience in medical malpractice lawsuits and connections to experts and resources to make your case as strong as possible.
Errors Made in Cardiac Surgery
Although going into cardiac surgery is frightening enough, coming out and finding that a surgeon or other medical professional made a preventable error that caused you harm.
Unfortunately, this is the case for far too many patients and their families, due to:
- Failing to properly monitor a patient
- Failing to update surgical procedures
- Performing the surgery under the influence
- Performing the surgery despite extreme fatigue or distraction
- Engaging in generally negligent behaviors
All of these actions might lead to an error occurring in a cardiac surgery, which can be extremely damaging for the patient involved. In fact, such an error can easily cause life-threatening heart failure, heart palpitations, stroke, heart attack, or even death.
Why You Need a Lawyer
The ramifications of a cardiac surgery complication can ripple across all areas of your life, affecting your health, happiness, and finances. While you recover from your surgery and complications, you shouldn’t also have to worry about how you are going to pay for the stack of medical bills, and you definitely should not have to deal with the stresses of handling a medical malpractice case on your own.
It can also be challenging to fight against hospitals and doctors who have teams of lawyers representing them in the event of an accident. The law is complicated and difficult to understand, especially when you have other things to worry about following a malpractice incident. That’s why you need a lawyer with the experience, courage, and the resources to take on hospitals and doctors and recover every dollar you deserve. A qualified personal injury lawyer will likely win you a settlement much larger than what you could win on your own.
Unlike other law firms that may pass your case on to an individual lawyer with less experience, every single professional on our team at Crowe & Harris, LLP handles our cases from beginning to end. Along with partners, lawyers, and paralegals, this also includes our team of nurses who have experience in the healthcare industry and these types of medical malpractice cases.
At our firm, you are more than just another case, and we treat every individual with the care and compassion they deserve as members of the community and as people.
Take advantage of our decades of experience and call our Boston cardiac surgery lawyers today at (617) 404-3417 for a free consultation.