Glendale Medical Malpractice Wrongful Death Attorney

When the doctor or medical facility you trusted with a loved one’s care causes their death, it’s more than a grievous loss; it’s a deep betrayal of trust. Unfortunately, medical malpractice deaths occur more often than we’d like to believe. If you lost a loved one in a preventable death caused by medical malpractice, your family has the right to seek recovery of the economic losses your family has sustained and compensation for your grief and anguish. Call Knapp & Roberts to speak with a Glendale medical malpractice wrongful death lawyer who is ready to listen to the details of your loved one’s case.

Why Choosing Knapp & Roberts May Be Right for Your Medical Malpractice Wrongful Death Claim In Glendale

At Knapp & Roberts, we have over 30 years of experience fighting for justice for injury victims and their surviving loved ones. We offer the following advantages to your case:

• A free, confidential consultation and contingency-based payment, so you pay nothing until after we’ve obtained compensation for you through a settlement or jury verdict
• A personalized legal strategy based on the unique details of your case
• Our firm has dedicated our legal careers to advocating for catastrophic injury victims and the close surviving family members of wrongful death victims, including in medical malpractice claims
• We are committed to open communication, availability, compassion, and professional excellence

Our exceptional track record includes multi-million-dollar recoveries, including a recent $900,000 recovery in a medical malpractice wrongful death claim.

What Types of Medical Malpractice Cause Wrongful Death?

During the initial days and weeks after a loved one dies while in the care of a doctor or medical facility, it’s common to feel overwhelmed by grief and loss, but often questions arise about what the medical provider could have or should have done differently. Unfortunately, common types of medical malpractice that cause wrongful death include the following:

• Medication mistakes
• Misdiagnosis
• Missed diagnosis
• Delayed diagnosis
• Anesthesia errors
• Surgical errors, such as wrong-site, wrong-side, and wrong-patient surgeries
• Surgical tools left in body cavities
• Birth injuries
• Failure to refer to a specialist
• Inadequate post-surgical monitoring
• Failure to diagnose an infection
• Failure to diagnose sepsis
• Failure to take a complete medical history
• Administrative failures, such as failing to obtain a patient’s complete medical records during a transfer

When a doctor or other medical provider makes an error, the results can include injury, a worsened medical outcome, shortened life expectancy, and wrongful death. Failure to diagnose cancer is one of the most common causes of medical malpractice wrongful death claims in Glendale and elsewhere.

Proving Liability In Glendale, AZ Medical Malpractice Wrongful Death Claims

A successful wrongful death claim requires substantial evidence. The evidence must demonstrate the following legal standards of medical malpractice liability:

• A doctor/patient relationship was in place at the time the malpractice occurred
• The doctor owed a duty of care to the patient, requiring them to treat the patient at the standard of care accepted by the medical community
• They breached this duty of care through negligence
• The breach of duty directly caused the patient’s death
• The family member (claimant) suffered damages from the injury

Damages in medical malpractice claims are typically recovered through a settlement from the negligent doctor’s or medical provider’s medical malpractice insurance, but some cases require court due to the insurance company disputing their policyholder’s liability.

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

Like other states, Arizona limits who may file a wrongful death claim to immediate family members who suffer the financial consequences of the death. This prevents distant family members from exploiting a death for financial gain. In Arizona, only a spouse, parent, or child may file a wrongful death claim, including in medical malpractice deaths. If no immediate family member files a claim, the representative of the injury victim’s estate may file a claim.

When a representative of the decedent’s estate files a claim, any compensation awarded goes to the estate to be distributed according to the decedent’s will. If the decedent doesn’t have a will, the state’s intestacy laws for inheritance determine the distribution.

What Are the Recoverable Losses In a Glendale Medical Malpractice Wrongful Death Claim?

All deaths are tragic and feel terribly wrong to grieving loved ones, but a death is legally wrongful if it could have been prevented by reasonable care, or in the case of medical malpractice, by the medical community’s required standard of care. When a medical professional violates their duty of care and is found liable, the injury victim may recover common wrongful death damages such as the following:

• Reimbursement for decedent’s medical expenses
• Funeral and burial costs
• The claimant’s lost wages from bereavement leave
• The loss of income from the remaining earning years that would have been left to the decedent had they not died
• Loss of the decedent’s benefits, such as health insurance and retirement contributions
• Loss of household services
• Compensation for emotional grief and anguish
• Compensation for the loss of a spouse’s companionship and consortium, a parent’s guidance and support, or a child’s love and support

At Knapp & Roberts, our Phoenix medical malpractice lawyers carefully calculate damages to recover the maximum compensation available to you.

How Long Do I Have to File a Medical Malpractice Wrongful Death Claim In Arizona?

Like all states, Arizona has a time limit for filing a wrongful death claim after medical malpractice. In most cases, a surviving family member or representative of the estate must file a claim within two years of the date of death, not the date the malpractice occurred, unless the malpractice caused immediate death or death on that date.

Exceptions sometimes apply. For instance, if there is a delay in determining that medical malpractice caused the death, the two-year statute of limitations begins on the date of discovery.

Call or Contact Knapp & Roberts for Your Loved One’s Medical Malpractice Wrongful Death Claim

Medical Malpractice insurance companies may sound compassionate when they call you about your case, but they are not on your side, even when you’ve suffered a tragic loss. Instead, the insurer may actively undermine your claim or undervalue your losses to protect the company’s profits. They often dispute the medical provider’s liability. A successful case requires compelling evidence, careful attention to filing details, and adherence to required timelines, including the state’s two-year statute of limitations for medical malpractice wrongful death claims.

Contact an experienced Glendale medical malpractice attorney who will work tirelessly to give your loved one back their voice for justice.