The Law Office of Sean M. Wilson Helps South Carolina Families Affected by Medical Negligence
When you seek medical care, you trust your health care providers to follow established standards of care. Unfortunately, preventable medical errors harm thousands of patients each year. These mistakes leave families facing mounting medical bills, lost wages, and profound emotional trauma while trying to understand what went wrong.
At the Law Office of Sean M. Wilson, we believe that holding health care providers accountable for negligence not only helps injured patients but also promotes better medical care for everyone. Just as civil rights attorneys fought to ensure equal access to medical care, our legal team works to protect patients' rights when health care providers fail to meet accepted standards.
Common Types of Medical Malpractice Cases in South Carolina
Medical malpractice can occur in any health care setting—from small private practices to major hospital systems. Let’s take a look at some of the different types of malpractice cases our experienced South Carolina attorneys can handle.
Surgical Errors
Surgical mistakes often have devastating consequences. Common surgical errors include:
- Wrong-site surgery. Despite universal protocols requiring surgical site marking and multiple verifications, surgeons sometimes operate on the wrong body part, wrong side, or even the wrong patient. These "never events" can result in unnecessary procedures and delayed treatment of the actual problem.
- Retained surgical items. Surgical teams may leave sponges, clamps, or other instruments inside patients. These retained items can cause severe infections, internal bleeding, and chronic pain that may not be discovered for months or years after surgery.
- Anesthesia errors. Administering too much or too little anesthesia, failing to monitor vital signs, or not accounting for patient allergies or medications can result in brain damage, organ failure, or death.
- Nerve or organ damage. Careless surgical technique can nick nearby organs, sever critical nerves, or cause other preventable injuries that lead to permanent disability.
Medication Mistakes
Medication errors can happen at any point in the prescription process:
- Prescribing errors. Doctors may prescribe medications without checking patient allergies, current medications, or medical conditions that could cause dangerous interactions or adverse reactions.
- Pharmacy mistakes. Pharmacists might fill prescriptions with incorrect medications, wrong dosages, or improper instructions, putting patients at risk of serious harm.
- Administration errors. Hospital staff may give medications to the wrong patient, through the wrong route (IV versus oral), or at the wrong time, leading to dangerous drug interactions or overdoses.
Diagnostic Failures
Delayed or missed diagnoses can allow dangerous conditions to progress unchecked:
- Cancer misdiagnosis. Failing to order appropriate screening tests, misinterpreting mammograms or other imaging studies, or dismissing early warning signs can allow cancer to spread beyond the point of effective treatment.
- Heart attack and stroke. Mistaking cardiac symptoms for indigestion or anxiety, or dismissing stroke symptoms as migraines or vertigo can result in preventable brain damage or death.
- Infection diagnosis delays. Not recognizing signs of sepsis or other serious infections can lead to organ failure, amputations, and death that proper early intervention could have prevented.
Birth Injuries
Negligence during pregnancy, labor, and delivery can cause lifelong disabilities:
- Cerebral palsy. Failing to monitor fetal distress, delayed C-sections, or improper use of delivery tools can deprive babies of oxygen, resulting in permanent brain damage.
- Erb's palsy. Excessive force during delivery can damage the brachial plexus nerves, causing permanent weakness or paralysis in the baby's arm and shoulder.
- Maternal injuries. Failing to control maternal bleeding, missing signs of preeclampsia, or improperly managing gestational diabetes can result in serious harm to mothers.
Emergency Room Negligence
The fast-paced emergency department environment requires careful attention to avoid errors:
- Premature discharge. Sending patients home without proper evaluation or monitoring can result in missed heart attacks, developing infections, or other life-threatening conditions.
- Triage errors. Failing to properly prioritize patients based on symptom severity can delay critical care for those experiencing heart attacks, strokes, or other emergency conditions.
- Testing delays. Not ordering appropriate diagnostic tests or failing to follow up on concerning test results can allow dangerous conditions to worsen while patients wait for care.
- Communication failures. Poor handoffs between emergency department staff and hospital units or failure to communicate important information to patients' primary care providers can result in dangerous gaps in car
Time Limits for Filing Medical Malpractice Claims
As with other types of personal injury claims, South Carolina law sets strict deadlines for medical malpractice cases. Generally, you have three years from when the negligence occurred or when you reasonably should have discovered it to file a claim. However, you can never file more than six years after the actual date of negligence, even if you didn't discover the injury until later.
For cases involving foreign objects left in the body during surgery, you have two years from the discovery date to file. Cases involving minors may have extended deadlines.
Regardless of the statute of limitations, it’s in your best interest to contact an attorney as soon as possible. Evidence can be lost as time passes, which can make your case more challenging.
How Our South Carolina Medical Malpractice Lawyers Can Help
Medical malpractice cases require extensive medical knowledge and significant resources. At our legal team:
- Reviews medical records with qualified experts
- Documents all damages related to the negligent care
- Handles communications with insurance companies
- Prepares comprehensive settlement demands
- Takes cases to trial when necessary
Our goal is to help you and your family get the compensation you need to support your recovery while helping to ensure that negligent health care providers are held fully accountable for the harm they’ve caused.