Emergency Room Negligence Lawyers in Louisiana & Mississippi
Emergency rooms exist to treat potentially life-altering injuries and medical conditions quickly. When an ER physician, nurse practitioner, or hospital staff member fails to properly screen, diagnose, or treat a patient, the result can be serious injury—and an emergency room negligence claim.
The Bowling Law Firm can help you understand what pursuing an emergency room malpractice claim could involve if you or a loved one were harmed during emergency room care.
The firm has handled thousands of emergency department negligence and malpractice cases throughout Louisiana and Mississippi and is one of only a few firms in Louisiana ranked Tier One for medical malpractice by Best Lawyers in America.
Emergency medicine cases are complex and expensive to litigate. The Bowling Law Firm has the experience and resources to pursue compensation on behalf of clients harmed by emergency department negligence.
Compensation in these cases may include non-economic losses, such as pain and suffering, disfigurement, loss of enjoyment of life, and emotional distress, along with economic losses like lost wages and medical expenses.
Contact The Bowling Law Firm today for a free attorney consultation to discuss a possible emergency room negligence claim.
Common Types of Emergency Department Negligence Cases
Emergency medicine physicians, along with nurses and other hospital staff, are supposed to screen incoming patients for conditions that could be life-altering or life-threatening.
When providers fail to properly assess emergency medical conditions, they can make a misdiagnosis. That can lead to discharging a patient prematurely, without the stabilizing treatment needed to prevent lasting harm.
The Bowling Law Firm has experience with emergency department cases involving:
- Failure to properly triage a patient arriving in acute crisis
- Failure to order or interpret imaging that could reveal a spinal epidural abscess, potentially resulting in spinal cord injury or quadriplegia
- Failure to recognize spinal cord injuries like cauda equina syndrome, potentially resulting in permanent nerve injury and bowel, bladder, or sexual dysfunction
- Failure to recognize emerging signs of sepsis
- Failure to diagnose a urinary tract infection or other infections that can progress to severe sepsis and lead to limb amputation and death
- Failure to promptly treat a heart attack, whether it shows up clearly on an EKG or is a more subtle type that’s easier to miss
- Failure to recognize and promptly treat a stroke
- Failure to diagnose and treat bacterial meningitis in infants, potentially resulting in brain injury
- Failure to diagnose and treat RSV and other respiratory infections in infants, potentially resulting in prolonged hospitalization or brain injury
- Failure to properly monitor a patient given their condition and symptoms
- Failure to escalate care to a specialist in a timely manner
- Failure to diagnose and treat intestinal obstruction, bleeding ulcers, acute appendicitis, and other gastrointestinal emergencies
- Failure to diagnose and treat ectopic pregnancy, placental abruption, uterine rupture, and other obstetrical and gynecological emergencies
In many emergency departments, the provider responsible for the initial screening is a nurse practitioner rather than a physician.
The Bowling Law Firm regularly pursues medical malpractice claims against nurse practitioners and the hospitals that employ them when a patient’s emergency medical condition was not properly recognized, diagnosed, or treated.
Proving an Emergency Room Malpractice Case
Establishing the liability of medical providers in an emergency room negligence or malpractice case requires proof of several elements.
First, you have to establish the “standard of care” that applies to the physician, nurse practitioner, or other emergency department staff member.
The Bowling Law Firm regularly works with emergency medicine experts and relies upon published clinical guidelines to help establish the applicable standard of care.
The next step is showing that the health care professionals in the ER failed to follow the standard of care. This is sometimes called the “breach of duty” part of the case.
Medical records and witness testimony from depositions and at trial help demonstrate a breach of duty.
Even when a breach seems clear, defendants in emergency department cases frequently argue that it didn’t cause the harm that occurred. One of their common arguments is that the outcome would have been the same regardless of the type and level of care.
This can be a complex and hard-fought question. Proving that an injury would not have occurred without the breach requires a skilled medical malpractice attorney.
It may take expert witnesses. Those witnesses may face challenges to their qualifications and methodology, so The Bowling Law Firm fights to preserve the admissibility of expert testimony.
Selecting and preparing these experts, and challenging opposing experts, is a core part of how The Bowling Law Firm approaches these cases.
Louisiana’s Filing Deadlines and Medical Review Panel in Emergency Room Malpractice Cases
Your right to assert an emergency department negligence claim or any other medical malpractice case can expire with the passage of time.
Louisiana has a one-year statute of limitations (sometimes called “prescription”) for medical malpractice claims, which begins to run from the date of the “act, omission, or neglect.”
The time period can be extended if the “discovery” of the malpractice happened at some point after the “act, omission, or neglect.” That’s called the “discovery rule.”
The question of when exactly “discovery” took place is very dependent on the facts of the case, but can be triggered by information giving a reasonable person reason to suspect malpractice.
But the discovery rule is also subject to a limitation: You generally cannot sue more than three years after the “act, omission, or neglect”—measured from the date of the incident itself, not the date the problem was discovered.
In Louisiana, most medical providers are “qualified” under the Louisiana Medical Malpractice Act. Claims against qualified providers must be presented to a medical review panel before a lawsuit is filed.
A proper filing of a medical review panel claim suspends the statute of limitations until the medical review panel completes its work. Completion of those proceedings triggers new deadlines to file a lawsuit.
Issues regarding the statute of limitations or “prescription” can be quite complex. It’s important to consult with an experienced Louisiana medical malpractice lawyer about these limitation periods and how to properly stop the clock.
Mississippi’s Filing Deadlines in Emergency Room Malpractice Cases
Mississippi has a two-year statute of limitations for medical malpractice cases against most Mississippi medical providers.
Mississippi law adds a couple of steps before a malpractice lawsuit can begin. You have to notify the health care provider in writing that you intend to sue, and in nearly every case, a medical expert must review your claim first.
There is a significant exception to the two-year rule.
Health care providers such as county or state-owned hospitals, as well as providers who are employed by public entities, are governed by the Mississippi Tort Claims Act, which carries a one-year statute of limitations.
If your case is against a government-run hospital or clinic, you must first send a special legal notice under Mississippi’s Tort Claims Act—and it must follow the law’s requirements exactly.
The Act contains waiting periods before suit can be filed and additional limitations after the waiting period has ended.
Have an experienced Mississippi medical malpractice lawyer properly calculate the deadlines for both private and public malpractice claims and meet the notice and filing requirements to preserve your claim.
Why Choose The Bowling Law Firm After Suffering Emergency Room Negligence
Handling emergency department and emergency room cases is a significant part of The Bowling Law Firm’s medical malpractice practice.
Other attorneys frequently ask the firm’s lawyers to assist with these cases. Bowling Law Firm attorneys regularly present educational seminars for attorneys on emergency room malpractice and the examination of medical expert witnesses.
Emergency room negligence can cause serious, lasting harm. The Bowling Law Firm pursues justice on behalf of clients harmed by emergency departments. We work to hold negligent providers accountable.
You only pay legal costs or fees if you make a recovery.
