Failure To Treat

Utah’s Top Rated Failure to Treat Attorney

With some medical conditions, time is critical. Failure to treat Utah patients can mean the difference between recovery with little or no damage and premature death.

• When a patient has had a heart attack or stroke, proper treatment in the first 3 to 4 hours can completely reverse the damage.
• When a person has suffered a spinal cord injury, failing to order and read a test within the first critical hours can result in permanent spinal cord damage.

If you were injured, or a loved one died prematurely because a hospital or clinic failed to treat a medical condition promptly… you may be able to bring a medical malpractice lawsuit. The personal injury and wrongful death lawyers at Rasmussen & Miner have been helping injured people for more than 20 years. Allow us to help you.

Contact us for a free initial consultation with an experienced attorney. 

Justice for your family may save lives. When a delay in medical treatment leads to the death of a patient, family members want answers. They want to know if their loss could have been avoided. A medical malpractice lawsuit can uncover problems with hospital staffing that contribute to negligent medical care and failures to treat medical conditions. This can lead to system-wide changes that save lives.

Why You Need an Experienced Legal Advocate

When a person arrives in a hospital or clinic with a medical emergency, their condition may already be critical. Your legal team will need to prove that it was not the medical condition that caused the injury or death, but negligence in diagnosing and treating it. This is a complex case to make. Examples of cases we’ve handled include:

• Failing to order the proper tests and to treat the cancer promptly;
• Failing to evaluate test results promptly;
• Misdiagnosing colon cancer as hemorrhoids, causing a delay in treatment of the true medical condition;
• Improperly evaluating the risks of a skull or sinus fracture leading to bacterial infection of the brain.

At the law office of Rasmussen & Miner, we know this is not just a court case for you, it’s your future. We are here to protect your rights. Call our office or contact our Salt Lake City law office to schedule a free consultation.

Discharged from the Hospital Too Soon

No one wants to stay in the hospital any longer than they have to. But leaving the hospital before you are physically ready can actually be dangerous to your health and recover. When a patient is sent home too early from the hospital, this failure to treat Utah patients can result in a medical malpractice lawsuit.

Examples of Early Discharge

It is not uncommon for a hospital to overbook. This is usually due to mistakes in the administrative side of the hospital staffing. However, this can also result in patients being discharged and sent home too early and before it is medically safe to do so. Two of the most common examples of this failure to treat in Utah includes:

• Newborns: It often takes a few days after birth before newborn infants begin to exhibit symptoms of any illness or condition. This is why the American Association of Pediatrics recommends that all newborn babies be kept in the hospital for at least 48 days after delivery.
• Post-surgery: There are many post-surgical complications that can occur, such as infections or misfunctioning of a pacemaker or other implanted device. This is why it is critical to observe the patient to ensure there are no complications. Releasing the patient too soon can result in failure to treat these complications.
• Inadequate discharge instructions: When hospital staff are in a rush to discharge a patient, there is a high risk that whatever critical instructions the patients need for their post-hospital stay are not appropriately given. This often results in readmission to the hospital because of issues that could have been avoided.

Proving Failure to Treat in Utah

If a patient ends up back at the hospital because they were discharged too soon, they may qualify for medical malpractice compensation if their malpractice attorney can show that a medical doctor with similar background and experience as the patient’s would not have discharged the patient as early as the their doctor did. The elements that must be proven are:

1. The doctor owed the patient a duty of care.
2. That duty was breached.
3. The doctor’s actions were the direct cause of the breach.
4. The patient suffered harm.

In many medical malpractice lawsuits, the victim’s attorney will call expert witnesses to prove the four elements needed to show the victim’s doctor was guilty of medical malpractice.

Are You the Victim of Medical Malpractice?

If you have been the victim of a failure to treat in Utah by your medical provider, call Rasmussen & Miner to schedule a free and confidential consultation with one of our skilled medical malpractice attorneys. We will evaluate your case and determine what the best legal recourse is for your situation.