Legal Question in Medical Malpractice in Wisconsin
Misdiagnosis
I fell in my home, went to the Emergency room at a Hospital, after taking xrays, they sent me home saying it was just strained muscles in my neck. No collar or any precautions. The next day I couldn't get up for work. My husband went to town to get a prescription filled for pain pills, and he called our family Dr to get a excuse from work form. That Dr called the Hospital, had someone else read the xray, and was told I had 3 fractured vertibrae in my neck. This resulted in a 2nd trip to the Emergency room in an ambulance. After a 4 day stay in the Hospital I was sent home in a Halo for the next 3 months. I can't say if any damage was done by the error, but it certainly could have been very serious. Is ther anything I can do?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Misdiagnosis
In order to be able to recover compensation for medical negligence, a person must be able to prove negligence on the part of a health care provider AND that the negligence caused injury to the patient. From your description of the events, it looks as though you can prove negligence. The problem is that it may be difficult to prove that the negligence was a cause of injury to you. In my opinion, that would be a very difficult thing to prove.
Medical negligence cases are usually defended vigorously by the insurance companies for the doctors. Cases take a long time to come to conclusion and are usually expensive to pursue. Because it may be difficult for you to prove that you were actually injured as a result of the negligence, your potential claim is not one that I would be interested in pursuing. Other lawyers may disagree with my assessment, so I would encourage you to seek a second opinion.
If you seek a second opinion about this, please keep in mind that the statute of limitations for medical negligence cases in Wisconsin is three years from the date of injury. If a request for mediation or a summons and complaint are not filed within that three-year time period, you would no longer be able to pursue a claim. If the negligent doctor is a state employee, then you would have to serve a notice of claim upon the state attorney general within 180 days of the date of injury.
You may contact me directly if you would like to discuss this in further detail.
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