Phoenix Medical Malpractice Lawyer

The Cases Our Phoenix Medical Negligence Law Firm Handles

For Phoenix patients, Hastings Law Firm handles claims of missed or delayed diagnosis, surgical error, birth injury, medication error, anesthesia error, pediatric malpractice, and hospital negligence. Phoenix patients also bring us doctor malpractice cases and dangerous drug injury claims. Each type of error shows up in different records, so we begin with the ones that reveal whether the care fell short.

Phoenix families come to us most with these claims:

• Missed and delayed diagnosis. An abnormal scan or lab result can sit in the chart with no follow-up, while the symptoms behind it are treated as something minor. Every week the right diagnosis waits can leave the patient with fewer treatment options. For misdiagnosis and failure to diagnose claims, we put the visits and test results in order and mark the first point at which the correct diagnosis was within reach.
• Surgical errors. Damage to a nerve, vessel, or organ beside the operating site, or bleeding afterward that no one catches, can send a patient back into surgery for a repair. For surgical error claims, the operative report, the nursing notes, and any imaging from the days after show us where the care departed from accepted practice.
• Birth injuries. Trouble during labor, such as a falling heart rate or a stalled delivery, calls for a timely response, and harm can follow when it comes late. The injury can shape the rest of a child’s life and change how the whole household runs. When we take on birth injury cases, the fetal monitoring strips and delivery notes tell us when the baby needed help and how long that help took.
• Medication errors. A prescription can be written for the wrong drug or dose, filled incorrectly, or given without a check for a dangerous interaction. Depending on the drug, the mistake can prolong the illness it was meant to treat or cause an injury that never fully heals. In medication error cases, we trace each drug from the order to the dose given and learn who had the chance to catch the mistake.
• Anesthesia errors. Sedation calls for the right dose and close attention to the patient’s breathing until the drugs wear off. If oxygen to the brain drops and no one responds, the injury can be permanent. For anesthesia error claims, we check each dose and oxygen reading on the anesthesia record to measure how closely the patient was watched.
• Pediatric malpractice. A child cannot always describe what hurts, so a serious illness can hide behind symptoms that look routine and go untreated for too long. The harm can outlast the illness by many years. In pediatric malpractice claims, we follow the child’s care from the first appointment to the last and ask whether any provider looked past the routine explanation.
• Hospital negligence. Pressure injuries and infections that start during a hospital stay can trace back to a unit stretched too thin to check on each patient. Each one can mean more treatment and additional recovery time. For Phoenix hospital malpractice claims, nursing notes show how often the patient was turned and checked, and staffing records reveal how many nurses were on hand to do it.

These are the most common medical malpractice claims we see in Phoenix, but they do not represent every case type we accept. A medical error that is not on this list still deserves a close look, and our Phoenix team will give it one when you contact us.

How Our Phoenix Medical Malpractice Lawyers Handle Your Claim

In a Phoenix medical malpractice claim, Hastings Law Firm’s attorneys find out what went wrong in the patient’s care and explain each step to the family as it comes. We collect and review the medical records with our medical professionals, bring in a specialist when a question needs expert opinion, and take the claim toward settlement or trial.

That begins with the care itself, given anywhere from a family physician’s practice or an urgent care visit to an operating room. In Phoenix, families often receive care at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center, Valleywise Health Medical Center, or Banner Health’s university medical center. Phoenix Children’s treats many of the area’s children, while community hospitals and clinics serve patients across the Valley.

Wherever you were treated, a member of our intake team will ask what care you received, when, and from whom. We then request your medical records ourselves and advance the cost of getting them. Our attorneys and medical professionals review those records to learn what happened.

Questions the records cannot settle go to a medical expert from the same specialty as the treating provider. A specialist can say what the standard of care required in that field. Because Arizona may require an early sworn expert opinion once a lawsuit is filed, under A.R.S. 12-2603, we involve experts from the start.

When the review is done, you get a straight answer from us, with the reasons if Arizona law does not support a claim. You may still have other options, for example a complaint to the Arizona Medical Board, which investigates complaints about physicians.

If the law supports a claim, we file the lawsuit in the county where it belongs. For care in Phoenix, that is generally the Maricopa County Superior Court, whose Civil Department sits downtown in the East Court Building, 101 West Jefferson Street, Phoenix, Arizona 85003. Cases are filed with the Maricopa County Clerk of Superior Court, and attorneys generally file civil documents electronically.

Maricopa County also has a compulsory arbitration program for qualifying disputes valued under $50,000, and a party may appeal an arbitration award for a new trial. A qualifying appeal from a Superior Court civil judgment may go to the Arizona Court of Appeals, Division One, at 1501 West Washington Street, Suite 203, Phoenix, Arizona 85007.

Updates on your case come from board-certified patient advocates on our team once you hire us. They contact you when something noteworthy happens, and you can bring them any question in between.