My son died of tracheitis due to pneumonia. I just received the autopsy report and his medical records. He passed on March 19th and was seen on Feb 25 along with my daughter. The doctor diagnosed him with brocialitis and said use albutarol and saline for my son however diagnosed my daughter with pneumonia and prescribed her antibiotics. He was seen 3 times before that by the same doctor and we were told the same thing no test were done no xrays we're given but xrays were given to my daughter. My husband thinks we should sue the pediatric office.
My son's treatment prescribed by the doctor was a 50/50 mixture of albutarol and saline solution used in a nebulizer. He was was rushed to the er once he stopped breathing and could not be revived due tothe closure of his trachea. On his autopsy report it states death due to tracheitis caused by pneumonia.
Gregory Scott GennarelliPersonal Injury LawyerMineola, NY ·
You may have a claim but a review of the medicals records and autopsy report would be necessary to determine whether or not there is a viable claim. What type if treatment, if any, did he receive after the appointment with the pediatrician? Did you go back to the office or call? Was he hospitalized, and if so where? what does the autopsy report say? There is nothing worse than the loss of a child and its even worse if it was preventable. I'm sorry for your loss.
Ilya NovofastovskyMedical Malpractice AttorneyNew York, NY ·
I am so sorry to hear of this terrible loss. We had a similar misdiagnoses when my kid was 1. Luckily we took him to the emergency room against our pediatricians advice where he was correctly diagnosed. You should absolutely gather all the records and call an attorney. You may call my office. We have a very competent mal practice attorneys who were nurses prior to becoming attorneys and are very sensitive to these issues.
I am very sorry for your loss.
You may have a claim. The first thing that you need to do is obtain all of your son's medicals records and autopsy report. You need to know what medications your son was taking and you need to know all the contraindications associated with each medicine. Sometimes mixing two drugs in an infant will have an adverse affect as opposed to an adult. Once you have all those records you need to have those records reviewed by a pediatric expert to opine as to whether there is medical malpractice against the doctor. If you have a claim for medical malpractice, you may have a wrongful death claim too.
In NY before a lawyer can file a medical malpractice lawsuit he or she must get an opinion from a doctor that there has been negligence. That means the doctor has to review the records. I suggest you get the records to a malpractice lawyer asap.
I agree with my colleagues. Immediately get copies of all of your son's medical records and bring them to an experienced personal injury attorney in your area. Only an expert/doctor's review of the records and autopsy report can determine whether or not there appears to be a deviation from the acceptable standard of care. Many attorneys, such as myself, offer free 30 minute consultations.
Sorry for your loss. Contact a medical malpractice lawyer to obtain medical records and have them reviewed by a doctor to determine if there was a deviation from the normal standard of care within the profession.
Christian K. Lassen IIPersonal Injury LawyerPhiladelphia, PA ·
A local malpractice lawyer can order the medical records and send to an expert to review to ascertain whether there was a breach of the standard of care.
The key thing to keep in mind is that you have a limited time frame in which to bring a lawsuit for the death of your son. Typically, you have only two years from the date of his death in which to file a lawsuit in New York. However, if the treatment involved care rendered by a municipal hospital, municipal clinic, state facility or other specialized place that was not a private healthcare facility, your time limit could be significantly less.
In order to properly evaluate whether you have a viable case, it is critical to determine whether there was (1) wrongdoing, (2) the wrongdoing caused injury and (3) the injury is significant and/or permanent. All those things must be confirmed by a doctor who has either treated your son or reviewed all his records.
The other attorneys are correct when they mention that it is critical to have a medical expert evaluate the records to determine whether the doctor or his staff violated the standard of care.
There are specific safety rules in existence for the benefit of the patients. This is often known as the standards of care that a doctor who was treating your child is presumed to know.
If the doctor is board-certified, that means he has achieved the highest level of certification of a doctor in his or her specialty. Keep in mind however that only establishes the baseline level of standards of care and the knowledge necessary to treat a patient with a particular condition. Being board-certified does not mean that the physician is an “expert.”
The autopsy report is critical in order to know what the cause of death was. However, knowing that information can be a double edged sword. It can sometimes help in a medical malpractice or wrongful death case and on the other hand it could lead to the conclusion that the treating doctor did nothing to cause or contribute to your child's injuries and death.
One of the key questions we ask when evaluating a case like this is “What was the cause of death?”
We then try and work backwards to determine what were the signs and symptoms that the child presented with and what treatment was rendered to your child based upon those office visits and complaints.
There are some instances where a doctor may have failed to further evaluate and perform certain diagnostic or clinical tests to rule in or rule out the most likely causes of your child's condition.
An attorney who has experience handling medical malpractice and wrongful death matters will know what questions to ask the expert in order to determine whether they were certain steps that the pediatrician failed to take that may have prevented or altered the outcome.
The only way for you to know for certain and to obtain an educated opinion is to have your matter fully investigated by an attorney willing to conduct a thorough investigation, obtain all the records and have it reviewed by a competent and qualified medical expert.
