Honolulu Medical Malpractice Lawyer

Honolulu Medical Malpractice Attorneys Representing Injured Patients & Their Families

A Honolulu medical malpractice lawyer at Shim & Chang is committed to representing patients injured as a result of the negligence of doctors, nurses, clinics, and hospitals. Unfortunately, medical mistakes are one of the nation’s leading causes of death and injury.

According to an Institute of Medicine (IOM) study, as many as 98,000 people die in U.S. hospitals each year as the result of medical errors–the equivalent of a fully-loaded 747 jetliner crashing every other day. Preventable medical errors in hospitals cause more wrongful deaths than motor vehicle accidents, breast cancer, and AIDS.

HONOLULU LEGAL TEAM HOLDING MEDICAL PROVIDERS LIABLE FOR THEIR MISTAKES

Various factors and behaviors negatively affect the quality of health care in Hawaii and elsewhere in the United States, including but not limited to:

  • With staffing shortages and high turnover, some medical personnel are poorly trained.
  • Some medical clinics operate like patient “factories.”
  • Doctors may not spend enough time with their patients.
  • In cases of joint care, doctors may not sufficiently communicate with each other.
  • Medical personnel may make mistakes in medical records and medications.
  • Medical personnel may take unnecessary risks with patient safety.
  • Health care providers may make unsafe choices for their patients because of a lack of time and money.
  • Some medical personnel are not following patient safety rules and standards of care.

If you come to Shim & Chang after suffering harm as a patient, you will work with a Honolulu medical malpractice attorney who believes in holding medical providers to a safer and higher standard of care, which ultimately will benefit all Hawaiians.

A REPRESENTATIVE CASE HANDLED BY A MALPRACTICE ATTORNEY AT SHIM & CHANG

Shim & Chang represented the family of a man who was diagnosed with cancer. His prognosis for survival was good, provided he underwent chemotherapy. The treating clinic started giving him chemotherapy drugs but failed to do a liver function test to see if he had ever had hepatitis.

During chemotherapy treatments, he became increasingly weak because the chemotherapy was actually suppressing his immune system, allowing a once dormant hepatitis strain to flare up and destroy his liver. He eventually suffered a horrible death from hepatitis within a month. He left a wife and three children who came to us for help.

We showed that the clinic breached the standard of medical care in this case by:

  • Not taking a proper history of the patient;
  • Not requesting a liver function test prior to the chemotherapy administration; and
  • Continuing the chemotherapy in the face of obvious signs of liver failure.

This case was settled for over $1 million.

DISPELLING MYTHS & RETAINING THE RIGHT EXPERTS TO WIN MEDICAL MALPRACTICE CASES

Medical malpractice cases are sometimes difficult to win because jurors have been misled by malpractice insurance carriers that physicians will leave town or that health care costs will go up if they hold medical providers liable for malpractice. None of these fears have actually been realized. When doctors leave a hospital, clinic, or community, it is not because of malpractice lawsuits, but because of lower medical reimbursements from Medicare and health care insurance carriers.

At Shim & Chang, our Honolulu personal injury attorneys approach medical malpractice cases by first retaining the right experts to testify as to the correct standard of care in a given situation. We only work with experts who seek to make the practice of medicine safer, not those motivated by a retainer fee. Based on our expert’s insight, we then analyze the facts to find what the medical providers did wrong, and whether patients were seriously harmed or even killed needlessly. Over the course of 30 years, our Honolulu medical malpractice lawyer has found that many medical mistakes were preventable, but for the carelessness of a health care provider.

Talk to an Experienced Honolulu Medical Malpractice Lawyer Today

Our experience handling medical malpractice cases enables us to prove the mistakes made by medical providers and to hold them accountable for all the harms and losses their negligence or error may have caused. If you or a loved has been harmed as a patient, please contact Shim & Chang in Honolulu for a free initial consultation to discuss bringing a claim for medical malpractice. Only in this way can we ensure safer medical care for all of us and our families.