Eeeeeeeeeeeeek its too late…

You finally decided to have that surgery you had been putting off to correct your lower back pain.

You go in for surgery and come out feeling better than ever.  A few weeks pass and you have reduced your pain medication substantially,

but, to your dismay…the pain is back.

You return to your doctor to see what is going on. 

He tells you one thing or the other, and, suggests going back in to have surgery to correct the issue.  Again!

You trust him because he was recommended to you by a good friend and you don’t think twice about his reputation because he is a surgeon with years and years of training.   

You go into surgery and he spends a short time correcting the issue, and voila!, you are all better right? 

Wrong! 

Months later you return feeling worse than you did the first time around.  This situation goes on and on for some time until you go to another surgeon who corrects the problem.

He also informs you that it was done incorrectly the first time and below the standard of care expected for surgeons in the field.

You are disappointed but are not the type of person that sues.  After all, people make mistakes and doctors are people too.

You don’t have the time in a hectic schedule between work and schlepping the kids around to deal with this. 

Time passes…one month, two months then one year. 

You’ve gotten used to the pain.  You’ve gotten used to protecting your back.  You can’t play with your kids the way you used to.  You can’t exercise the way you used to.  You can’t be the person you used to be.

These thoughts race through your head as you are watching television one night with your family.  You see an ad for a local personal injury lawyer and his client who says that he recovered a six figure settlement for his injury. 

You start thinking…You’ve adapted your life to accommodate this mistake.  And you are sad and angry that this doctor should take responsibility for his mistake that cost you so much.

That night you dial the number for that television lawyer.  He tells you that you have an open and shut case.  He says you have three years to file a case from the date you knew or should have known about the malpractice. 

Except, after he files the case with Louisiana’s Patient’s Compensation Fund the defense gets it easily dismissed.

Because he was not a specialist in medical malpractice cases he didn’t realize that while a victim has only three years to file a claim, in actuality, she has only year from the date she knew or should have known about the injury.  Moreover, she can’t file a valid claim, at all, after three years from the date of the malpractice, even if she didn’t know about it. 

Louisiana’s rule is harsh.  Non-specialist lawyers as well as regular people like you, can make significant mistakes when filing these complicated cases.

Your case, which would have certainly brought you justice and a sizable amount of money, will be dismissed because you filed your case more than one year after you had actual knowledge of alleged malpractice (this happened when the second doctor told you about it).

You come to find out that Louisiana has one of the shortest periods of time within which a suit must be filed when a person is injured. 

And, you kick yourself that you waited. 

You had the time to make justice happen for you and your family, but you were too accommodating.

Meanwhile, your surgeon has performed more botched surgeries to more helpless victims who, more likely than not, will make the same mistake as you and wait until it is too late.

Don’t let doctors get away with making mistakes.  Too much is at stake, and too much can be lost, for you and your family to just walk away.

When doctors have a bad day…don’t be the one who pays.

Get Reddy to win your medical malpractice claim today.