Medical Malpractice

Nebraska Medical Malpractice Attorneys

Justice for Victims of Medical Negligence Nationwide

A single misstep, a momentary distraction - it takes only a second for a medical professional's negligence to turn into a serious injury or illness. The catastrophic nature of medical malpractice incidents has not been lost on the attorneys at Domina Law Group. In fact, it is a problem that we have helped to alleviate since the establishment of our firm in 1975. For several decades, our unique legal skills have been utilized by victims of medical error and negligence who wish to take their mistreatment to court.

We are not doctors – yet, we thoroughly read and digest medical records. We are not nurses – yet, we study and understand relevant protocol.

In trial, our Nebraska medical malpractice attorneys exhibit legal strategies strong enough to rival even the toughest jury panels and courtroom judges. Throughout the United States, we have represented the disadvantaged and their families in court as attempts are made to hold negligent medical professionals responsible for the damages they caused. Recognized by our peers as one of the most aggressive trial practices in the nation, our verdicts and cases include a number of million dollar and multi-million dollar verdicts.

At Domina Law Group, our team of Nebraska medical malpractice attorneys know that there are times when the medical professionals we to trust make mistakes. Unfortunately, medical malpractice is a serious issue and can result in serious harm. These types of cases are often difficult and require extensive work, but with skilled and dedicated attorneys on your side, you may be able to seek the compensation you need.

Contact Domina Law Group at (888) 387-4134 to speak to our experienced Nebraska medical malpractice lawyers during a free consultation.

Medical Malpractice: One of the Leading Causes of Death

Few people anticipate being harmed by the physicians who are sought to heal them. Unfortunately, as one of the leading causes of death in the country, medical malpractice makes this prospect a glaring reality. Rivaling cancer, stroke, and respiratory disease, medical malpractice accounts for nearly 200,000 deaths per year in the U.S. alone. Every year, thousands of medical malpractice lawsuits are brought against negligent health care professionals, and only some are settled with success. With the help of Domina Law Group, yours could be one of them.

With case results that surpass some of the most experienced law firms in the nation, Domina Law Group can proudly say that we have successfully handled complex medical malpractice claims on a countless number of occasions. From birth injuries to brain injuries, and everything in between, our skills can be utilized in court to yield effective results and substantial compensation on your behalf. It is our goal to find a unique angle that can be used to address the court, and we will not tire in our efforts to provide you with sound legal representation that has been specially designed to fit the personal needs of you and your family.

Our Areas of Practice

With more than three decades of practice in the legal field, and more than 50 years of collective experience among our attorneys, Domina Law Group has successfully settled a number of medical malpractice cases. Today, we are proud to represent victims of substandard treatment in many different areas of medical malpractice law, including:

Birth Injuries: Experiencing trauma at birth or during a woman's pregnancy can be debilitating to both mother and child. If medical conditions or birth injury were developed as a result of an obstetrician's negligence or medical malpractice, you are legally entitled to recompense. Affording your medical bills is much easier when you have been compensated for the wrongs that were enacted against you. Taking your case to trial may be the best way to enforce this.
Medical Errors: From medication errors, to nursing errors, to surgical errors, any number of professional mistakes can be made by doctors, surgeons, nurses, anesthesiologists and other professionals in the health care field. When these errors result in illness or injury to the patient, the medical professional who is responsible for the error can be held responsible in court. Symptomatic of negligence, medical errors often call for medical malpractice lawsuits.
Failure to Diagnose: A doctor's failure to diagnose can lead to significantly damaging health effects, because diseases and injuries are given the opportunity to build rather than be treated with medication. Medical professionals are trained to be able to identify warning signs and symptoms of serious illnesses, and when they fail to properly diagnose these, the patients who suffer as a result can rightfully seek compensation under the law.
Medical Negligence: Health care professionals who do not live up to the standards expected of them are guilty of negligent behavior. Negligence is at the core of most injury cases, and it accounts for a number of professional mistakes, inaccuracies, and failures that eventually lead to injury and illness among patients.
Brain Injuries: Traumatic brain injury is often sustained through blunt trauma to the head / brain. Doctors, surgeons, and nurses who fail to recognize the signs of a brain injury (i.e. headaches, dizziness, confusion, nausea) and consequently fail to properly treat the injury, could be responsible for the serious effects that may develop in the future (seizure, coma, or even wrongful death).
Prescription Errors: Many patients rely on prescription medication to treat the injury or illness from which they are suffering. When doctors prescribe the incorrect medication, or pharmacists administer the wrong drugs, the beneficial effects of a prescription medication quickly disappear. Victims of prescription errors deserve to be compensated for such wrongdoings, and taking cases of this nature to court is often the best way to gain the compensation that is needed to afford a full recovery.

What Is Medical Malpractice?

Medical malpractice does not mean professional care yields a bad result. Good care can produce bad results, and things do not always turn out as planned. Professional persons must make difficult judgments about differential diagnoses, care options, and the benefits of a course of care to one aspect of health as contrasted with the risks or damage to another aspect.

Instead, malpractice is committed when a physician fails to conform to the standard of practice set by the average doctor in their specialty area and community, and the patient develops complications or new injuries as a result. A physician cannot be responsible for the original medical problem unless the malpractice act is a failure to diagnose what should have been diagnosed.

How to Identify If Malpractice Occurred

A Nebraska medical malpractice attorney responsible for handling a client's malpractice case must determine as quickly and efficiently as possible whether a good, actionable case exists. This is so because medical malpractice cases are often complex, expensive to pursue, and have a high risk of no recovery. They often have emotional components for the patient and the family as well.

Professional negligence is malpractice, it can occur in medical malpractice cases by:

Delay or failure to diagnose a condition.
A surgical or anesthesia-related mishap during an operative procedure.
Failure to teach the patient the risks and benefits of a treatment plan and failure to get the informed consent from the patient for care.
Failure to properly treat the disease process.
Misuse of Prescription Drugs or a Medical Device or Implant.

5 Steps of a Medical Malpractice Case

1. Investigation

In order to have a chance at success in a medical malpractice case, it needs to be shown that the doctor, nurse, or other medical professional acted in negligence. To prove this, our firm compiles various evidence from the investigation. We take the time to get to know the damages you sustained and work to determine the exact cause. If we can show that your doctor acted in negligence and made an error, it can go a long way towards helping your case.

2. Filing the Lawsuit

After we have determined if medical negligence was the cause for your injuries, we can file a lawsuit against the negligent party or parties. This is the time that we determine who is liable and if the hospital or medical facility itself holds any responsibility. In some situations, hospitals may fail to look into a doctor’s history to determine if he or she is fully qualified to provide care. This could make them responsible for damages caused.

3. Building a Case

We go through the motions of building the case for you. This means we get all evidence necessary such as written documents, witnesses, and expert witnesses. Expert witnesses can be used to help show that the doctor made a mistake or another medical professional made an error in their care of you.

4. Negotiations

Before we even move forward, we look to negotiate with the responsible party and come up with a suitable settlement. We try to help our clients avoid the hassle of court dates and the stress of trial. If a just settlement is offered, we can accept it on your behalf. If a settlement is denied, we move on to the next step of the process.

5. Trial

Finally, if we are unable to successfully negotiate a settlement, we go to trial with the negligent party. This is when we can present the evidence we have to a judge and jury, who will then make the final decision regarding the case. Our firm is experienced in trial matters and we know how to represent our clients’ best interests.

How Long Do I Have to File a Medical Malpractice Lawsuit in Nebraska?

In Nebraska, you have two years starting from the date in which the act is said to have occurred to file your claim. People who don't discover their injuries until after the two-year mark have one year to file their claim after discovering the injury. However, if a person was a minor at the time of their injury, they have until twenty-one years old to file their claim. Schedule a consultation with a medical malpractice attorney in Nebraska today.

What Damages Can I Recover?

Depending on the specifics of the case, the answers may be quite different. This varies from case to case, but here are some of the more common damages you can recover.

Physical, emotional or mental suffering
Loss of wages and loss of earning potential
Medical expenses in the past, present and future

Medical Errors in Nebraska

Many individuals who are victimized by medical malpractice suffer from the errors made by professionals in the field. Rushed, inexperienced, and inattentive doctors and nurses are prone to making mistakes, just as any other human might be in a similar situation. The difference, however, is that they are trained to accommodate for these mistakes and diffuse medical issues as they arise. Errors that are left unattended, as well as errors that are not reported, can result in severe health issues for the victims of medical negligence.

Types of Medical Errors

Any number of errors could account for the injury or illness from which you are now suffering. Understanding how different medical errors are categorized can give you a better idea of how to move forward with your case in the coming weeks and months.

Medication errors: Every year, billions of dollars are spent trying to correct the medication errors that cause injury to unsuspecting patients of the health care system. Doctors who prescribe the wrong medication to a patient account for some of these errors, while nurses who incorrectly give doctor-ordered medication account for another portion of these errors. Pharmacies that miss-fill prescriptions, as well as pharmacists and doctors who prescribe unsafe combinations of drugs are also responsible for some of the country's million+ medication errors per year. It is critical that doctors, nurses, and pharmacists pay strict attention to the medical history of patients before prescribing and filling any medication. This is the best way to prevent unnecessary errors that could cause injury or illness.

Surgical errors: Mistakes in the operating room are some of the most critical, because individuals are highly susceptible to injury and death while in surgery. Common surgical errors include operating on the incorrect body part, cutting / severing / pinching a nerve and consequently causing permanent nerve damage, failure to identify the source of internal bleeding in a manner that is timely enough to efficiently stop it, making an improper donor transplant, causing disfigurement or scarring, leaving foreign objects inside a patient's body, and causing preventable infections from the surgery.

Post-operative care errors: Monitoring a patient after surgery is equally as important as prepping the patient before surgery and monitoring the patient during surgery. In fact, post-op is a common time for medical conditions to develop or reveal themselves. Vital signs must be monitored, lab results must be studied, and a patient's complaints / feedback must be taken seriously. When any one of these aspects of post-operative care is not met, medical conditions such as blood clots can quickly appear.

Nurse errors: The responsibilities of a nurse include monitoring vital signs, inserting IV lines, rotating bedridden patients, and much more. Nurses are also responsible for attending to a patient's general needs, and are expected to alert the doctor immediately when any sign of risk or abnormality arises. Delaying these notifications, or misreading a patient's vital signs can significantly impact their health.

Anesthesia errors: Anesthesiologists are responsible for ensuring that patients are medically stable and prepared for non-emergency surgeries. Regulating heart function and respiratory function are two of an anesthesiologist's most important responsibilities. Part of their role involves controlling a patient's breathing patterns while they are under anesthesia, and they are also responsible for the proper placement of the oxygen tube. Victims of anesthesia errors typically suffer hypoxic brain damage, aspiration pneumonia, coma, or even death.

Many other medical errors exist that could warrant legal action, including radiologist errors, blood transfusion errors, orthopedist errors, and kidney dialysis errors. Suffering from any of these may entitle you to compensation.

Medical Negligence in Nebraska

Allegations of medical negligence are some of the most controversial legal issues taken to court. Medical professionals who fall short of the professional standards expected of them can cause serious injury or illness to the patients for whom they are caring. Unfortunately, it can be incredibly difficult to viably allege this claim in court without specific evidence to back it up - a problematic task for many victims and the attorneys who represent them. At Domina Law Group, however, this will not be the case. Our unique approach to the legal system creates personalized strategies that can be utilized even in the toughest situations.

Making an Allegation of Negligent Medical Malpractice

By way of their title and the official responsibilities of their job, physicians and other medical professionals naturally owe a duty of care to the patients who seek their treatment. Proving that this duty has been breached or overlooked in any way requires that victims be able to show evidence of the injury or illness that was suffered as a result of the negligence.

Specifically, individuals who allege negligent medical malpractice must be able to prove the following four elements:

The physician owed a duty of care
The physician violated this standard of care
The patient suffered injury or illness
The patient's suffering was caused by the physician's conduct

Medical malpractice lawsuits that accuse professionals of negligent behaviors put the burden of proving these elements on the plaintiff. This burden, however, does not have to be undertaken on your own. With the help of our medical malpractice team of attorneys, you can work with professionals to develop a set of strategies that can be used to compellingly relate your incident in court. As trial attorneys who have been practicing for more than 50 years collectively, we have handled our fair share of medical malpractice lawsuits, many of which directly involved claims of negligence in some capacity.

Our Success is Your Success

At Domina Law Group, we're not intimidated by complex cases; in fact, we thrive on them. Trial attorneys at our core, we rise to the challenge of a complicated case. Where other law firms might back down, we aggressively move forward; where other law firms might give up, we work to defy the odds.

Working tirelessly to develop a compelling story that can be used in court, we are not willing to back down in the face of adversity. We are not willing to deny a case because of its complicated nature, and we are not willing to forego someone's right to legal recompense if we believe we can help. The large verdicts and settlements that we have achieved are as much our own success as they are the success of our clients.

Our medical malpractice work includes cases tried to verdict and won, and settlements involving:

Failure to diagnose melanoma, cervical cancer, breast cancer, brain cancer, anal cancer.
Anesthesia malpractice, including failure of intraoperative attention.
Surgical error, including devices left behind in the body, failure to identify anatomical structures, and ineptness.
Dental malpractice, including failure to protect the patient against objects fallen from the dentist's hands, denervation mistakes, and errors with anesthesia.
Pharmacy errors, including patient identification mix-ups, negligent dispensation of the wrong medication, failure to verify prescriptions, and failure to coordinate medications, failure to consult and inform pharmacy patients.
Improperly performed extubations
Inappropriate open surgical procedures
Inappropriate laparoscopic procedures
Pharmacy malpractice