Medical Malpractice Lawyers in Orange County
Medical malpractice, one of the firms subspecialties, is an area of law in which the firm has enjoyed extraordinary success. Medical malpractice (or medical "negligence") occurs where a medical care provider (physician, nurse, hospital employee, or other medical personnel) acts "below the standard of care" in the medical community and thereby causes damages to an individual. There are a variety of complicated laws which were enacted in the mid-1970's (entitled the MICRA laws) which work to limit the recovery to which victims of medical malpractice are entitled. Aitken * Aitken * Cohn has been on the cutting edge in developing legal strategies to minimize the adverse effects of these MICRA limitations on its clients, and to maximize case value. The firm has handled numerous medical malpractice cases with excellent results through jury trial, binding arbitration and, of course, settlement. The firm has handled a wide variety of medical negligence matters, including birth injury, failure to diagnose cancer, negligent administration of anesthesia, general surgical negligence, and the negligent injection of medication.
One of the firm's most noteworthy medical malpractice cases (entitled: An Anesthesiologist's Negligence Renders A Promising Young Student Blind) resulted in a pioneering judgment after jury trial. In that case, the client, John Chavez (a graduate of San Diego State University with the goal of post-graduate studies in Business, and who acted as a City of Huntington Beach Life Guard in the summers) was blinded due to brain injury due to negligent administration of anesthesia during routine ankle surgery. After the jury's verdict, the firm achieved a $5,000,000 present value result (despite a variety of adverse laws which would have otherwise limited the client's recovery, or prevented him from collecting the judgment immediately by paying "periodic payments" over time).
Other recent examples of medical malpractice matters that the firm has successfully handled include verdicts and settlements in cases involving:
- Wrongful death of a school principal due to failure to provide antibiotics to prevent infection after a perforated bowel; Please see: Doctor Nicked Bowel During Surgery Causing Deadly Infection
- Failure to diagnose breast cancer resulting in the disease advancing from Stage I to Stage III; Please see: Doctor Misdiagnosis' Or Fails To Diagnosis Breast Cancer For 2 Years
- Several cases involving negligent injection of drugs resulting in severe and disabling hand and arm injuries.
- Multiple brain damaged baby cases involving birth injury resulting from obstetrical negligence.
- A wrongful death of a 40-year-old mother who bled to death after giving birth to her newborn child.
