Chandler Wrongful Death Medical Malpractice Attorney

Few experiences are as devastating as losing a loved one in a preventable death, especially at the hands of medical professionals you trusted with their healthcare and their very lives. Unfortunately, medical malpractice deaths are more common than we’d like to believe. 

If your loved one died due to a doctor or other medical provider’s negligence, no legal process can erase the grievous loss; however, a wrongful death medical malpractice attorney in Phoenix can help your family recover the financial compensation and voice for justice your family deserves.

Why Select Knapp & Roberts as Your Wrongful Death Medical Malpractice Law Firm?

For over 30 years, Knapp & Roberts has been dedicated to advocating for injury victims and their surviving family members, including in complex medical malpractice cases. With an attorney from Knapp & Roberts on your side, you have the following:

• A commitment to delivering the professional excellence of a large city law firm with the compassion of a small town law office
• Access to medical expert witnesses to support your case
• A personalized strategy by an attorney dedicated to your case, with maximizing your family’s compensation as their highest priority

After a free case consultation, we go to work for you at no upfront cost. We only charge our fee after first recovering compensation for your losses.

What Types of Medical Malpractice Cause Wrongful Death?

Suffering a medical malpractice injury always feels like a shocking betrayal, but when a loved one dies from egregious malpractice by a provider you trusted with their health and their life, it’s a devastating loss. The following types of medical malpractice in Chandler and elsewhere can cause a patient’s wrongful death:

• Misdiagnosis
• Missed diagnosis
• Delayed diagnosis
• Medication mistakes
• Failure to treat
• Failure to order appropriate labs or imaging tests
• Misinterpreting test results
• Anesthesia errors
• Wrong-site, wrong-patient, or wrong-side surgeries
• Surgical implements left in a body cavity
• Improper post-surgical patient monitoring
• Premature hospital discharge
• Failure to obtain a complete patient history
• Failure to spend adequate time assessing an ER patient

The medical community considers some of the above causes of medical malpractice wrongful deaths as “never-events” because they should never happen when providers and care teams carefully follow the universal protocols in place to prevent them. Still, these “never events” continue to occur due to malpractice.

Proving a Provider’s Liability In a Chandler Wrongful Death Medical Malpractice Case

Most personal injury claims center on the understanding that we all owe a general duty to take reasonable care to avoid causing harm to others. However, doctors and other medical providers have an enhanced duty of care to their patients. In a medical malpractice or medical malpractice wrongful death case, proving liability requires evidence demonstrating the following:

• A doctor-patient relationship was established when the malpractice occurred
• The doctor or other medical provider owed a legal duty of care to their patient, requiring them to treat them at the medical community’s accepted standard of care
• They breached this duty of care through negligence
• The breach of care caused the patient’s injury or death 
• The injury victim or their surviving family members sustained economic and non-economic damages from the malpractice

Damages in Chandler wrongful death due to medical malpractice cases are often extensive. While no financial compensation erases the family’s grief, it provides relief for the financial consequences of the death so the family can focus on moving through the grieving process.

Common Liable Parties In Medical Malpractice Wrongful Death Claims In Chandler, AZ

The most common responsible parties in Chandler medical malpractice wrongful death claims are doctors who violated their legal duty of care; however, even when an individual doctor is responsible for the harm, they are not always the legally liable party. Depending on the circumstances, the following entities could be liable or share liability under Arizona’s comparative negligence system:

• The attending physician, if they are an independent contractor and not a hospital employee
• The hospital or other medical facility 
• A lab or medical imaging department
• The hospital administration
• A member of the medical care team or staff

It’s common for various entities to point their fingers at others and deny liability in wrongful death medical malpractice cases. An experienced Arizona medical malpractice lawyer investigates all aspects of the malpractice and compiles evidence of liability to move forward on recovering the full compensation the family of a wrongfully deceased patient deserves.

Who Can File for Wrongful Death In Chandler Medical Malpractice Cases?

Only the closest family members of the decedent may file a wrongful death claim in Arizona. This prevents distant relatives from profiting from the death when the loss does not financially affect them. Instead, under Arizona 12-612, the state’s wrongful death laws, only a spouse, parent (or guardian), or child may file a wrongful death claim, including in medical malpractice cases. If none of those file a claim, then a representative of the decedent’s estate may file a claim on behalf of the estate. 

What Can My Family Recover In My Medical Malpractice Wrongful Death Claim?

No legal process brings back a lost loved one, but a successful medical malpractice claim for wrongful death recovers compensation for related damages as follows:

• Reimbursement for medical expenses
• Funeral costs
• Burial expenses
• The claimant’s lost wages during the grieving period
• Loss of the decedent’s income for the remaining earning years they would have had left to them
• Loss of the decedent’s benefits, such as health insurance and retirement contributions
• Loss of household services, such as caring for the home, children, and home and vehicle maintenance
• Compensation for emotional grief and anguish
• Compensation for loss of a spouse’s companionship and consortium, or a parent or child’s love and support

Families deserve justice and compensation when a medical provider’s failure to adhere to the required care standard causes a loved one’s death.

Contact the Wrongful Death Medical Malpractice Attorney at Knapp & Roberts

The wrongful death attorneys at Knapp & Roberts understand the deep distress of a preventable loss caused by medical malpractice and prioritize your family’s best interests. We also understand that taking on a challenging legal process during a distressing time can feel overwhelming. Instead of taking on a legal endeavor when you need time to grieve your loss, contact the compassionate, experienced medical malpractice wrongful death attorneys at Knapp & Roberts for legal counsel and assertive representation throughout every step of the process.