What is the normal process for medical malpractice?

[christos]

If a hospital left in a diseased organ that A) Ruptures causing irreversible damage/death OR B) Turns cancerous, am I allowed to sue for malpractice?

I have had a blocked Bile duct due to gallstones for almost a year now. I have lost 70lbs and gone through acute kidney failure twice. The hospital knows I am uninsured and has stabilized me with a few shots and a IV drip each time then sent me home.
I was admitted originally for the kidney failure and NEVER told about the gallbladder needing to be removed until my second visit. They then told me it could kill me if left in but they consider it optional surgery therefore the ER will not preform it unless I am comatose and jaundiced on brink of death.

I now have a systemic viral infection and complete fat intolerance which has lead to my HDL dropping under 50. No other hospital will touch me because of this ?mistake?

How much worse does this have to get before I should consider a lawyer?

[rickie]

If a hospital left in a diseased organ that A) Ruptures causing irreversible damage/death OR B) Turns cancerous, am I allowed to sue for malpractice?

I have had a blocked Bile duct due to gallstones for almost a year now. I have lost 70lbs and gone through acute kidney failure twice. The hospital knows I am uninsured and has stabilized me with a few shots and a IV drip each time then sent me home.
I was admitted originally for the kidney failure and NEVER told about the gallbladder needing to be removed until my second visit. They then told me it could kill me if left in but they consider it optional surgery therefore the ER will not preform it unless I am comatose and jaundiced on brink of death.

I now have a systemic viral infection and complete fat intolerance which has lead to my HDL dropping under 50. No other hospital will touch me because of this ?mistake?

How much worse does this have to get before I should consider a lawyer?

First, you need to talk to a lawyer who specializes in medical malpractice.

Filing a medical malpractice claim is not as easy as most people assume. First, you have to be able to show that your doctors fell below the standard of care, and secondly, that that failure to follow the standard of care caused lasting, permanent harm.

Standard of Care means that which a reasonable and prudent doctor would do in same or similar circumstances; i.e., if you break your leg, 99.9% of doctors will get an x-ray before they cast. That point one percent of doctors who don't may have deviated from the standard of care, but even that does not mean that they caused you permanent harm.

I can think of a lot of reasons why doctors won't do major surgery, like removing an internal organ. For starters, if you're not stable enough to go through surgery, putting you under the knife can kill you, so they would need to wait.

Further, removing an internal organ from the get go, without giving more conservative treatments a chance, could also be construed as malpractice. Imagine if they go in and take out your gall bladder and something bad happens to you, the first thing they're going to be asked is, Did you try other, more conservative methods first? No. Guilty. (Theoretically.)

I am not saying that you have not suffered, and I am not saying to "let it go." Sometimes docs screw up, and sometimes things just happen, and there are reasons that they have to wait, as frustrating as it it. I understand -- and more importantly, I KNOW how frustrating it is when you're looking for answers and there seem to be none, and you don't understand why doctors are making the decisiosn they're making -- or not making, as the case may be. My child and I suffered the most horrendous medical malpractice. I recovered over the years; she did not. She was left permanently brain damaged.

You must seek legal counsel, if for no other reason than to put some questions to rest. You will have no rest until you find out for sure, so find out for sure. We had many, many questions, some of which were answered by counsel, more of which were answered at trial.

Call an attorney. Make sure they specialize in med/mal and are not just personal injury attorneys. They can tell you whether you can or should pursue a legal claim.

Good luck.