Fatal Emergency Room Errors

Emergency rooms across the U.S. are increasingly crowded, escalating what has always been a fast-paced, high-pressure medical environment. Still, emergency room doctors and staff are highly trained and legally obligated to treat every patient with diligent attention and thorough care.

Unfortunately, emergency rooms remain a common setting for medical malpractice cases, with ER errors resulting in patient injuries, worsened medical outcomes, and, in the worst cases, wrongful deaths. If your loved one died because of negligent emergency medical care, an experienced Phoenix emergency room error lawyer can investigate what happened and help your family pursue justice.

Common Emergency Room Errors That Cause Fatalities

Emergency room doctors, nurses, and staff members are often rushed and overworked, due to staffing shortages and the increased reliance on emergency departments for for overall care in addition to true emergency situations. The most common emergency room errors that result in patient injury or fatalities include the following:

• Misdiagnosis
• Delayed diagnosis
• Missed diagnosis
• Obtaining an incomplete patient history
• Triage failures
• Spending inadequate time with a patient
• Premature patient discharge
• Failure to order the correct diagnostic tests
• Misinterpreting test results
• Failure to diagnose infection and/ or sepsis
• Mdication mistakes
• Incorrectly using medical devices
• Failure to refer a patient to a specialist, or failure to consult a specialist
• Adminstrative errors, such as misindentifying a patient, or mislabling patient samples or test results
• Spreading a hospital-borne infection
• Communication failures between staff members

Patients have the reasonable expectation of skilled care when they go to an emergency room after an accidental injury, for an illness, or for painful and frightening symptoms. Unfortunately, a patient can suffer serious, life-threatening harm when an emergency room doctor or other provider fails to uphold their legal duty of care to their patient.

Missed Conditions That Lead to Emergency Room Medical Malpractice Claims

According to a systematic medical review, there are three categories of medical conditions that most commonly result in serious adverse outcomes, including fatalities, from emergency room malpractice. These “Big Three” categories include vascular events, cancers, and infections. According to the study, the most common misdiagnosed conditions include the following:

• Strokes
• Myocardial infarctions
• Aortic aneurysm and dissection 
• Cardiac arrhythmia
• Appendicitis
• Venous thromboembolism
• Meningitis
• Spinal cord compression injuries
• Sepsis
• Lung cancer
• Ectopic pregnancy
• Pneumonia
• Traumatic brain injuries
• Gastrointestinal obstructions and perforations

Fractures are the most commonly misdiagnosed or undiagnosed accidental injuries in emergency rooms, but the results rarely cause fatality. In some cases, an undiagnosed hip fracture in an elderly patient can cause death.

When emergency room medical malpractice causes a loved one’s preventable death, a close family member may file a medical malpractice wrongful death claim.

Who Can File a Medical Malpractice Wrongful Death Claim In Arizona?

Like all states, Arizona sets limits on who can file a wrongful death claim, including in medical malpractice cases. These limitations help prevent distant relatives from profiting from a wrongful death and limit compensation to those who suffer the economic consequences of the loss. Under Arizona Revised Statutes § 12-612, only a spouse, parent (or guardian), or child of the decedent may file a wrongful death claim after a fatal emergency room error. If none of those immediate family members come forward, then a representative of the decedent’s estate may file a claim on behalf of the estate, after which, any amount recovered is distributed according to the terms of the decedent’s will or the state’s intestacy laws for those without a will.

Proving Liability In Emergency Room Medical Malpractice Fatality Claims

All medical providers, including emergency room doctors, staff members, and administrators, have a legal obligation to uphold the medical community’s accepted standards of care. Proving medical malpractice requires evidence that demonstrates the following:

• That a doctor/patient relationship was in place at the time the malpractice fatality occurred
• The medical provider had a legal duty of care to the patient, requiring them to treat the patient according to the medical community’s accepted standards
• They violated their duty of care through negligence
• The negligent violation of their duty of care directly caused patient fatality
• The claimant (a spouse, parent, or child of the decedent) suffered damages from the injury

It takes substantial evidence to prove that a medical provider’s negligence in an emergency room caused the patient’s fatality.

How Does a Medical Malpractice Lawyer Help Prove a Fatal Emergency Room Error Occurred?

After a preventable emergency room fatality occurs, it takes substantial evidence of the provider’s liability to recover wrongful death compensation for the surviving family member. An experienced Arizona medical malpractice lawyer does the following:

• Investigates all aspects of the malpractice by examining medical records, the medical examiner’s report, and consulting with medical experts to prove that the doctor’s medical negligence or mistake caused the death
• Documents compelling evidence of liability for the death
• Carefully calculates the family’s total past and future economic damages and determines an amount of compensation for non-economic damages like grief and anguish
• Presents their findings to the appropriate defendant and their insurance provider
• Negotiates from a position of strength with the insurance company to seek an ample settlement, or
• Takes your claim to court and seeks a court award for your damages with a well-executed strategy if the insurance company devalues, delays, or denies your claim

Although a court case takes longer than obtaining a settlement, juries tend to sympathize with grieving families over negligent medical providers and their powerful insurance companies.

How Long Do I Have to File a Claim After an Emergency Room Error Fatality In Arizona?

Wrongful death claims follow the state’s statute of limitations for personal injury cases, allowing up to two years from the date of the death. In some cases, the state will delay beginning the two-year time limit if the cause of death as a medical error isn’t discovered until some time later. Under the Discovery Rule, the statute of limitations begins on the date of discovery, or when the malpractice should reasonably have been discovered.

Does Arizona Cap Medical Malpractice Damages In Fatal Emergency Room Error Cases?

Some states place limits on the amount of compensation available for non-economic damages like pain and suffering or grief and anguish for injury victims or their surviving family members in a medical malpractice claim. Arizona sets no caps or limits on either economic or non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases.

Call or Contact Knapp & Roberts About Your Loved One’s Fatal Emergency Room Error Case In Arizona

Medical malpractice claims require skilled, experienced handling, especially when they involve a fatality. Contact Knapp & Roberts to learn how a compassionate, assertive Phoenix medical malpractice lawyer can help your family obtain compensation, justice, and closure, so you can move forward through the grieving process.