Strong Memorial Hospital

Strong Memorial Hospital is a teaching hospital located in Rochester, New York. It provides traditional medical care as well as tertiary and quaternary services to patients in Monroe County and the Finger Lakes area, and it can provide newer and more advanced treatments that are not widely accessible in this area of New York. Among other things, it provides trauma and burn care, organ transplants, a neonatal intensive care unit, comprehensive neuromedicine, complex cardiology, and a cancer service. If a health care provider does not follow the accepted standards and practices of the medical community, this failure is considered medical malpractice. If you think that you may have been a victim of medical malpractice at Strong Memorial Hospital, you should consult the Rochester medical malpractice lawyers at DeFrancisco & Falgiatano.

To establish your right to recovery in a medical malpractice lawsuit, you will need to show that it is more likely than not that: (1) you were owed a professional duty of care, (2) the defendant breached the professional duty of care, (3) causation led to your injuries, and (4) you sustained actual damages from the malpractice.

There are many different errors that can contribute to causing harm to a patient. In some cases, the error is obvious. Never events are mistakes that are horrifying and clear, even to a layperson. A surgeon who fails to read a chart properly and amputates the wrong limb may be liable for this never event. Similarly, health care providers who do not take appropriate measures and use contaminated blood in a transfusion commit a never event. In other cases, a breach of a professional duty of care and its consequences are harder for a layperson to see.

For example, if a lab makes an error while testing for cancer, and a patient is not diagnosed early enough to stop the cancer from progressing to stage 4, this may be a breach of the professional duty of care. You may not be told that the lab made an error, and it would be up to an expert to look at the records to determine that this error was made, that the lab's conduct fell below the standard of care, and that this was the cause of your harm. For another example, if an anesthesiologist provides too much anesthetic, resulting in spinal cord injuries and nerve damage, this is an error that would likely require the attention of an expert, who could determine that too much anesthetic was provided and that the error was the cause of your injuries.

There are important pre-suit procedures that need to be followed in order to sue for medical malpractice at Strong Memorial Hospital or another facility. These procedures were put in place to make it more challenging for medical malpractice lawsuits to be brought, and they do make it harder. It is important to retain an attorney who understands these rules and how to select a credible expert. Under Rule 3012-a, a plaintiff's lawyer needs to file a certificate declaring that they reviewed the case and consulted with a health care expert licensed to practice in New York, and the attorney reasonably believes that the expert is knowledgeable about the medical issues relevant to the plaintiff's claims, allowing them to conclude that there is a reasonable basis to sue.

Damages that we may be able to recover on your behalf in a medical malpractice lawsuit include economic losses and noneconomic losses. Economic losses can include past and future hospital bills, medical care, medical equipment, prescription medication, lost wages, therapy, rehabilitation, household services, and out-of-pocket expenses. Noneconomic losses may include loss of enjoyment, pain and suffering, scars, and mental anguish.

If you have been harmed due to a misdiagnosis, a surgical error, a lab error, an obstetric error, or another form of medical malpractice by a health care provider at Strong Memorial Hospital, our law firm may be able to help you recover damages from the responsible parties. DeFrancisco & Falgiatano represents patients in Rochester, Syracuse, Binghamton, Auburn, Elmira, Norwich, Cortland, Delhi, Herkimer, Watertown, Lowville, Oneida, Wampsville, Utica, Canandaigua, Oswego, Cooperstown, Ithaca, and Lyons, among other areas. Call us at 833-200-2000 or contact us via our online form.