Queens New York Medical Malpractice Lawyers

Yours Trusted Medical Malpractice Lawyers in Queens

The Jacob Fuchsberg Law Firm has some of New York’s most well known medical malpractice attorneys, some of whom have over 40 years of experience. We have won and settled important malpractice and personal injury cases throughout New York City and New York State including Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island, the Bronx, and Manhattan. We also have helped many clients in Westchester and Long Island.

The Jacob Fuchsberg Law Firm LLP is well known in Queens for our exceptional work on personal injury and medical malpractice claims. We have also worked extensively on COVID-19-related cases and work on behalf of nursing home patients to ensure that they have appropriate safety measures in place during this unprecedented time.

We help clients from all over the borough from Forest Hills to Kew Gardens to Elmhurst to Astoria to Jamaica to Flushing. Our law office represents people who have suffered from serious injuries due to the misdiagnosis of cancer and other illnesses, hospital negligence, birth injuries, and all other forms of health care errors made by medical professionals.

Whether you or a loved one were the victims of medical malpractice at a hospital, doctor’s office, nursing home, or emergency room, we can provide legal services to ensure that you get the compensation that you deserve.

Below are examples of just some of the Queens County cases that we have worked on. These are just a few cases out of our hundreds of cases. To talk about your particular claim and injury, please call us at (212) 869-3500, or fill out an online form for a free consultation today.

Meet Our Attorneys

What Kinds of Medical Malpractice Cases Regularly Occur in Queens?

Medical Malpractice is a broad term and can take many forms. Included among the many cases we have worked on in this area are:

• Birth injuries (please see below for a more detailed explanation of our Queens birth injury cases)
• Cerebral palsy
• Brain injuries
• Maternal death/death of infant
• Excessive bleeding or hemorrhage after delivery
• Failure to properly monitor infants in utero
• Failure to treat gestational diabetes or placenta previa
• Failure to provide timely c-section
• Failure to Diagnose Heart Attacks
• Failure to Timely Treat or Diagnose Strokes
• Failure to Diagnose or Properly Treat Cancer
• breast cancer, including metastatic breast cancer
• ovarian cancer
• pancreatic cancer
• lymphoma
• blood cancers
• thyroid cancer
• prostate cancer
• brain cancers
• bladder cancer
• lung cancer
• liver cancer
• kidney cancer
• Surgical errors
• Infections caused by hospital and facility stays including MRSA, Staph Infection, Legionnaire’s Disease, and COVID-19
• Mis-reading of MRIs and CT Scans
• Emergency Room Misdiagnosis or Mistreatment
• Premature Discharge from Hospital with Complications
• Hospital errors and negligence
• Failure to provide adequate follow up care leading to infection and other issues

Birth Injury Cases

Many of our Queens County medical malpractice cases involve birth injuries. Our experienced attorneys are known for their diligence and compassion in these very difficult and sensitive cases. We understand what these cases mean for families and the difficulties that a child who has suffered birth injuries can go through.

We help when there have been serious birth injuries due to:

• Mistreated or undiagnosed pre-eclampsia
• Fetal heart problems that were undetected
• Improper monitoring of infants
• Improper care of gestational diabetes
• Excessive maternal bleeding/hemorrhage
• Hypoxia
• Improper forceps delivery
• Improper VBAC deliveries
• Delay in performing a C-section

Many of our cases involve children who have cerebral palsy, Erb’s palsy, brain injuries, cognitive delays, physical disabilities, and the like.

There are many causes and outcomes of birth injuries, and we would be happy to discuss your individual case with you.

Examples Oof Recent Birth Injury Cases Involving Healthcare Providers in Queens

Fetal Death: One mother who recently came to us had an almost full-term pregnancy. One week before she was about to deliver her baby, she went to her obstetrician. The doctor failed to see that she was at high risk with hypertension and preeclampsia, and the fetus had abnormal activity and positioning.

Rather than sending her to the hospital immediately to deliver the baby, the doctor sent her home.

Unfortunately, the mother’s condition was so poorly treated that the baby did not survive.  Our lawyers were able to settle this case without the need for a trial.

Maternal Death: In a very sad case, a 23-year-old mother pregnant with twins died because she was not properly treated for pre-eclampsia When she was in the final term of her pregnancy, she went to the hospital with pain in her knees and elbows, and with shortness of breath, headache, chest pain, and nausea.

Several hours later, she had an eclamptic seizure caused by high blood pressure.

She underwent an emergency c-section, but tragically, one of the twins was stillborn and the other infant was born alive but with severe injuries, including brain damage and cerebral palsy.  

The child’s mother eventually died after falling into a coma from the defendant’s failure to treat her severe high blood pressure and preeclampsia. Our lawyers handled this case with sensitivity and care towards the grieving family, and obtained a successful conclusion on behalf of the clients.

Failure to Diagnose Heart Attacks

In many cases, our attorneys have been called in when patients have suffered heart attacks or other heart-related injuries and their doctors and hospitals have either not tested them properly or otherwise failed to ascertain that they have had a heart attack.

Some patients have suffered serious complications as a result of this failure to diagnose.

Failure to Treat or Diagnose Strokes

To properly treat a stroke, doctors and hospitals must act quickly and effectively.

We have helped many clients who were not treated in a timely manner and suffered paralysis, permanent brain injury, and other serious complications.

Surgical Errors

Some of our clients have come to us after they have had a surgery where a doctor or surgeon has made a mistake, and the illness or condition that they went into surgery for becomes worse, or they develop another problem as a result of the surgery.

Very often these cases require a thorough investigation into the medical records of the doctor or hospital to see where the malpractice has occurred. Our lawyers have a great deal of experience in this area and also have a team of medical experts that they call upon to assist with determining whether a patient has a claim.

Failure to Diagnose or Properly Treat Cancer

Cancer is a prevalent diagnosis in Queens County and throughout NYC. In all too many cases, doctors or hospitals miss a cancer diagnosis because they have failed to order the proper tests or they misread the results of tests that have been taken.

We can help when this happens and understand the various problems that can occur when this diagnosis is not handled well.

Failure to Diagnose Conditions

Many of our clients’ cases involve doctors or hospitals failing to diagnose a disease or condition, like cancer or heart disease, or not diagnosing the condition in a timely manner. All too often these circumstances lead to increased injuries to patients.

Recent Examples of Misdiagnosis Cases

Failure to Diagnose Allergy to Medication: In a recent medical malpractice and wrongful death case, our client developed a condition known as heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (“HIT”), which is an allergic reaction to a blood-thinning medicine, known as heparin. The treating physician, a cardiothoracic surgeon, failed to timely diagnose and properly treat the HIT.

This resulted in the patient forming too many blood clots. He was in continuous pain, and ultimately he died after staying in the hospital for a very long time. Our attorneys were able to settle this case quickly and effectively.

Failure to Diagnose Bowel Obstruction: Our client lived and worked in Forest Hills for many years. She went to a local emergency room with complaints of abdominal pain. The doctor ordered a CT scan with oral contrast. However, the contrast was not given. The scan was not properly interpreted and the radiologist failed to diagnose the plaintiff with a small bowel obstruction. Our client was sent home within a few hours, but still experienced severe pain and returned to the hospital’s emergency room that evening.

Another CT scan was performed which showed a band wrapped around her small intestine that was causing a bowel obstruction.

The plaintiff needed extensive surgery to remove the band and, due to the delay in diagnosis and treatment, the plaintiff became septic, had to have many different surgeries, had difficulty walking, and needed assistance to perform her daily routine and extensive rehabilitation for a few years.

We persuasively presented the case in front of a well-known and respected Queens Judge, and we reached a substantial settlement for our client’s complicated course of treatment and extensive pain and suffering.

Failure to Diagnose Ischemic Bowel: We also obtained a significant settlement in a case in Queens that involved a hospital and doctor’s failure to diagnose and treat ischemic bowel (lack of oxygen to the bowel) in a 29-year-old woman. The woman was discharged from the hospital without a proper evaluation.  We successfully argued that had her ischemic bowel and the underlying causes of her ischemia been timely and properly evaluated, her condition could have been treated by non-surgical methods.

This would have prevented the life-threatening injuries she suffered, which required her to undergo multiple extensive surgeries and the resection of a large portion of her small bowel.

Infections Caused by Hospital or Facility Stays

We have helped many clients who have suffered serious complications as a result of getting infections such as MRSA, COVID-19, and Legionnaire’s Disease from their hospital stays. These conditions are quite serious and have to be treated emergently.

Misreading of MRIs, CT Scans, and Other Tests

Sometimes malpractice comes from the misreading of important tests that patients take in order for doctors and hospitals to make a diagnosis. Sometimes even major cancers or tumors are missed and not treated because a test has not been read properly or accurately.

Emergency Room Misdiagnosis or Mistreatment

Many of our clients have suffered serious injuries at the hands of emergency room departments and doctors. In some cases, patients’ complaints which turn out to be serious illnesses or conditions have been overlooked or ignored, and in some cases, our clients have been discharged far too prematurely and have suffered complications as a result of the early discharge.

Failure to Provide Follow-Up Care

In some cases, our clients received proper treatment initially, but the doctor or hospital failed to provide adequate follow-up care. There can be infections after surgery, bleeding, and other injuries that occur if proper follow-up has not been done.

COVID-19 Cases

We have recently filed a class action on behalf of patients seeking better treatment at their nursing home facility in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. We understand the complexities of these types of cases and want to do the best to ensure that our clients are not put into harm’s way, and unnecessarily exposed to or not treated for the virus. These are new cases, but we are developing expertise in this emerging area.

How Long Do You Have to File a Medical Malpractice Claim?

There are very particular rules that Queens and every borough has for filing medical malpractice claims. These rules are called “Statutes of Limitations,” and you must file your claim within the timeframe established by these rules or your case will be dismissed.

As a general rule, you have to file your claim within 30 months from the date when your injury occurred. If you are undergoing a course of treatment, the 30-month clock does not start running until the treatment is over.

There are a number of exceptions to these rules. For example, if a surgeon leaves an instrument inside of a patient, the patient has 12 months from the date that they discovered the instrument to file a medical malpractice claim.

Also, for children under the age of 18, they are not obligated to file a claim until their 18th birthday, but then they have a limit of 10 years after the malpractice occurred. But, if a child will miss a deadline based on the date that the incident occurred, a parent is obligated to file on their behalf.

You have to be very careful not to miss a Statute of Limitations because if you do, your claim is lost. We will be happy to talk to you during our free consultation about the Statute of Limitations that may apply in your case.

Queens Medical Malpractice Lawyers: Free Consultations

If you believe that you or a beloved family member has been the victim of medical malpractice, and have suffered a serious injury, we can help. Please call the Jacob Fuchsberg Law Firm LLP for a free consultation to discuss your case.

We offer free consultations to any Queens resident who believes that he or she has been a victim of medical malpractice. Our offices are open and our operators will take your call. Call us today at (212) 869-3500, or you can visit our website at fuchsberg.com for an online operator who can help you.

You can tell us about what happened when the malpractice occurred and what the injuries have been.

We will listen and we will always be compassionate. Medical malpractice cases can be very emotional and overwhelming, but we have the experience and compassion that it takes to work with even the most seriously injured patients and their families.

We can help when the unimaginable happens.

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