Syracuse Personal Injury Law Blog

New York Tops List for Most Malpractice Lawsuits in Country

Published on: April 2, 2018 | By Jeff DeFrancisco

Sadly, medical malpractice can lead to serious and long-term harm for a patient. If you have been injured or harmed by a medical professional’s mistake, carelessness, or wrongdoing, you may be able to recover compensation through a medical malpractice claim. At DeFrancisco & Falgiatano Personal Injury Lawyers, our Syracuse medical malpractice attorneys can scrutinize the circumstances surrounding your injury and determine whether malpractice took place.

According to a recent report released by Diederich Health Care, entitled “2018 Medical Malpractice Payout Analysis,” New York topped the list for the most medical malpractice lawsuits in the country and in the Northeast with a total of approximately $617,973,000 in payouts. Second place in the Northeast is held by Pennsylvania with $342,093,300 in payouts, and New Jersey is at third place with $267,913,250 in payouts.

Examining the per capita cost in the case of New York, the numbers translate to approximately $32 per person for each resident of the state. The lowest per capita rate was Wisconsin, with about $2.33 for each resident of the state – a stark difference.

Malpractice Involving Surgical Staples in Syracuse and New York

Published on: March 27, 2018 | By Jeff DeFrancisco

Whether it is due to surgery or an accident, surgical staples are commonly used to close wounds. While staples can be vital to bringing the flesh and skin back together, they can result in serious injuries if they are not used properly. If you suspect that you have suffered harm due to a medical professional’s mistake in administering surgical staples, you may be entitled to compensation for your harm. At DeFrancisco & Falgiatano Personal Injury Lawyers, we can thoroughly examine the facts of your case and help you figure out your next steps.

Surgical staplers are medical devices that close skin wounds without the need for stitches. The staples are used instead of sutures to close skin wounds. In some cases, these staples can be used to hold together internal organs. Sadly, an estimated 8,000 to 9,000 incidents are reported to the Food and Drug Administration each year as a result of surgical stapler use. Approximately 9 percent of these reports indicated injuries, and less than 1 percent indicated deaths. At least 65 percent of injuries or deaths that occurred were results of surgical staples used in gastrointestinal surgeries, such as gastric bypass. In addition, 19 percent of surgical staple mistakes took place in lung surgeries, and other incidents happened in appendix, cardiac, and circulatory system surgeries.

Surgical staple injuries can take place in a number of ways, including:

Suicide Malpractice in Syracuse and Throughout New York

Published on: March 20, 2018 | By Jeff DeFrancisco

Losing a loved one to suicide is a tragedy no one should have to face. The sad reality is that, in many cases, medical professionals could have prevented the suicide. If your loved one took his or her own life, and you believe a medical professional’s error or incompetence played a role in the suicide, you need to reach out to a diligent Syracuse psychiatric malpractice attorney without delay. While nothing can bring your loved one back, we can help you seek the justice and compensation you deserve to move on with your life.

Unfortunately, suicide is one of the leading causes of death among individuals under the age of 35 in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC), suicide was the tenth-leading cause of death for all ages in 2013. CDC data reveals that males take their own lives at nearly four times the rate of females and represent 77 percent of all suicides. The sad reality is that, many times, suicide could be prevented. The National Institute of Mental Health reports that over 90 percent of Americans who die by suicide suffer from a treatable mental illness or substance disorder. Almost all suicides involve persons with a history of mental illness. In many cases, the person has attempted suicide before.

Suicide can take place in a variety of medical settings, ranging from an inpatient psychiatric facility to a hospital. Medical malpractice occurs in suicide cases when a medical professional, most likely a psychiatrist, fails to recognize that a patient presents an imminent risk of harm and fails to provide treatment accordingly. Put another way, malpractice occurs when a medical professional causes harm to a patient by failing to use the level of care and caution that a reasonably prudent medical professional in the same specialty would have used under the same circumstances. Establishing malpractice can be complex, but we understand what needs to be shown in order to win these cases.

Surgical Fire Malpractice in New York

Published on: March 16, 2018 | By Jeff DeFrancisco

Although surgical fires are rare, they are extremely serious events that can lead to longstanding injuries. If you or a loved one has been injured by a fire in the operating room, you may be entitled to compensation for your harm. At DeFrancisco & Falgiatano Personal Injury Lawyers, our diligent and hard-working Syracuse surgical malpractice attorneys can thoroughly examine the facts of your case and help you figure out what happened.

Surgical fires are defined as fires that occur in, on, or around a patient who is undergoing a medical or surgical procedure. According the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists, approximately 550-600 surgical fires take place each year. Shockingly, the patient’s body can catch fire, leading to serious injuries, disfigurement, and, in the most serious cases, even death.

While certain medical mistakes may be understandable, some are so shocking and extreme that they should never have happened. These events are commonly known as “never events,” referring to events that should never happen. Dr. Ken Kizer, former CEO of the National Quality Forum (NQF), first coined the term in 2001. Unsurprisingly, patient safety groups have deemed surgical fires as never events.

Ambulance Accidents in Syracuse and Throughout New York

Published on: March 13, 2018 | By Jeff DeFrancisco

Ambulances are critical to deal with medical emergencies in New York and throughout the United States. Ambulance accidents, however, can have devastating consequences for everyone involved. If you or someone close to you has been injured in a motor vehicle accident involving an ambulance, you need to reach out to a seasoned Syracuse ambulance accident attorney who can help you secure full and fair compensation for your injuries.

According to a 20-year National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study, there was an average of 4,500 crashes involving ambulances throughout the United States each year. In fact, the data highlight that 33 people across the nation die annually in these crashes. While one-fourth of those fatalities are inside the ambulance at the time of the crash, in the majority of fatal crashes involving ambulances, the driver or passenger of another vehicle is the one who is killed.

We can help victims of ambulance accidents in a variety of different scenarios, including but not limited to:

Pedestrians or bicyclists hit by ambulances;
Drivers and passengers of vehicles hit by an ambulance; and
Transported patients suffering exacerbated injuries in a crash.

The Attractive Nuisance Doctrine in New York

Published on: March 6, 2018 | By Jeff DeFrancisco

Children are curious by nature, and that can be a great asset when it comes to learning, but the same curiosity can put them in dangerous situations. If your child has been injured after wandering onto someone else’s property, you may be able to seek compensation for his or her injuries. At DeFrancisco & Falgiatano Personal Injury Lawyers, we understand the nuances of New York premises liability law and can apply our knowledge to use in your case. Our firm is passionate about advocating for the rights of the injured, and we will do our best to make sure your rights are protected at every step of the way.

Generally, those who enter another party’s property without permission are called trespassers under the law and given little legal protection if they are injured. There is, however, an exception to this rule when it comes to children, and property owners have some responsibility to a trespasser when that trespasser is a child. The attractive nuisance doctrine protects children injured on another person’s property. Put another way, the attractive nuisance doctrine holds a landowner accountable for injuries to children trespassing on the land if the injury is caused by an artificial dangerous object or condition on the land that is likely to attract children who are unable to appreciate the risks and hazards associated with that object or condition. The idea is that property owners should be able to foresee that children may enter the property if certain “attractions” are present, including but not limited to:

Swimming pools;

Radiology Errors in Syracuse

Published on: February 26, 2018 | By Jeff DeFrancisco

Radiologists use a variety of tests to make it possible to diagnose and treat many medical conditions. Unfortunately, radiology errors can result in serious medical setbacks and, in some cases, can even result in death. If you have suffered due to the negligence of a radiologist, the reputable and hardworking Syracuse radiology malpractice attorneys at DeFrancisco & Falgiatano Personal Injury Lawyers can assist you. We can examine the facts of your case and help you seek the compensation you need to deal with your harm.

Radiology is the branch of medicine that deals with the use of radioactive tools, such as x-rays, MRIs, and CT scans, to diagnose and treat diseases within the body. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the specialty of radiology has a relatively high rate of malpractice claims. Data from the NIH shows that failures to diagnose account for approximately 40 to 54 percent of radiology-related medical malpractice cases. Radiology errors can take many forms, including mistakes made by radiologists, malfunctions of diagnostic equipment, and misinterpretations of radiological results. Examples of radiology errors include:

Misread x-rays;

HIV Misdiagnosis in Syracuse

Published on: February 23, 2018 | By Jeff DeFrancisco

Medical professionals have an obligation to be diligent when diagnosing and treating patients. Unfortunately, this does not always happen and may result in a patient’s condition getting worse. If you or a loved one has been a victim of an HIV misdiagnosis, you may be able to pursue compensation through a medical malpractice claim. At DeFrancisco & Falgiatano Personal Injury Lawyers, our seasoned Syracuse misdiagnosis attorneys can review your case and help you navigate the legal process. You can rest assured we are here to answer your questions and address your concerns.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were an estimated 37,000 new HIV infections in 2014. Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is a virus that is spread through certain bodily fluids and attacks the body’s immune system. Over time, HIV can destroy so many of certain cells that the body’s ability to fight off disease or infection is severely compromised. HIV is a lifelong condition with no cure, but the condition can be managed with proper medical care. An individual infected with HIV may or may not exhibit symptoms, which can lead to a delay in diagnosis and treatment. An HIV misdiagnosis can happen in a variety of ways, including a physician failing to carefully review the patient’s chart, blood test results being read wrongly and inaccurately conveyed to the patient, and initial test results being mixed up or labeled incorrectly.

For people who are not correctly diagnosed with HIV, the results can be devastating. Not only could they fail to get the treatment they need, but also they could unknowingly infect others with the virus. If your doctor missed a diagnosis or misdiagnosed you with HIV, you can likely file a medical malpractice claim against that physician. Medical malpractice occurs when a doctor causes harm because he or she fails to use the level of care that another doctor, with a similar background and training, would have used in the same situation. In order to win a malpractice claim, you must establish the following:

Missed or Delayed Kidney Disease Diagnosis in Syracuse

Published on: February 16, 2018 | By Jeff DeFrancisco

A failure to diagnose kidney disease in its early stages can have devastating consequences for a patient. In fact, it can lead to kidney failure requiring dialysis. If you or someone close to you has been harmed by a missed or delayed kidney disease diagnosis, we can help. At DeFrancisco & Falgiatano Personal Injury Lawyers, our diligent and reliable Syracuse misdiagnosis attorneys can meticulously analyze the facts of your case and pursue the appropriate compensation on your behalf.

In many cases, advanced kidney failure is preventable or treatable if it is properly diagnosed. Kidney disease can be difficult to identify, since it can be largely asymptomatic in the early stages. However, medical professionals are trained to recognize signs and symptoms of potential kidney disease and should be vigilant when doing their job. For example, protein in a person’s urine would signal a potential kidney issue. If your doctor notices this, he or she should refer you to a kidney specialist, known as a nephrologist. A nephrologist can identify the specific kidney disease a patient has and come up with a precise treatment plan.

If a kidney problem is not caught in a timely manner, it can become chronic kidney disease (CKD). CKD is the loss of kidney function over time. When the body can no longer remove waste and excess fluids from the blood through urine, the body can retain poisons that can be extremely harmful. This is the stage at which people start to need kidney dialysis, which is the process of manually filtering waste and toxins from the body.

Fatal Motorcycle Accidents Affecting Syracuse Residents

Published on: February 9, 2018 | By Jeff DeFrancisco

Losing a loved one is never easy, but it is even more devastating when the death is a result of a tragic accident. If you have lost a loved one in a fatal motorcycle accident caused by someone else’s negligence, we can help. At DeFrancisco & Falgiatano Personal Injury Lawyers, we understand how to navigate complex motorcycle accidents. You can rest assured that we can thoroughly investigate your case and help you pursue the compensation you need to move on with your life. Wrongful death claims are often very complex, and having the right attorney on your side can make all the difference in your case.

According to the United States Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), motorcyclists are 35 times more likely to experience a deadly crash on the road than people in passenger cars. The New York State Department of Motorcycles found that there were 142 fatal crashes involving motorcycles in the state in 2014. There were 4,055 non-fatal personal injury crashes that same year. Fatal motorcycle accidents can have a number of causes, including but not limited to:

Distracted driving;