Medical Misdiagnosis

Surgeons are responsible for performing sensitive and precise operations. They are highly trained, and they are expected to follow specific procedures to reduce the risk of errors. When they fail to do so and patients are harmed as a result, they can be held legally accountable.

At the Law Office of Cid Lopez LLC, the Albuquerque surgical error attorney will help clients in New Mexico and nationwide pursue medical malpractice claims against negligent surgeons. His medical and legal experience enables him to effectively advocate on behalf of the victims of surgical errors.

Sometimes, during childbirth, the newborn baby may suffer an injury that is related to the birthing process. While a number of factors can contribute to such an injury, many birth injuries are the result of malpractice on the part of obstetricians and other medical providers.

At the Law Office of Cid Lopez LLC, the New Mexico birth injury attorney will help parents nationwide obtain compensation for the harm done to their children by holding negligent doctors accountable. 

When emergency room physicians, nurses, anesthesiologists, lab technicians and other hospital staff members commit errors that result in injuries or fatalities, their hospitals — as their employers — can often be held legally accountable to the victims and their families.

At the Law Office of Cid Lopez LLC, the Albuquerque hospital negligence lawyer will help clients in New Mexico and nationwide pursue malpractice claims against hospitals.

Brain hemorrhages may occur in different parts of the brain depending on their cause. Brain hemorrhages may occur with head trauma, high blood pressure, aneurysms (balloon-like outpouchings of blood vessels, often at the base of the brain) and a A-V malformations (arteriovenous malformations - abnormally formed and abnormally connected blood vessels which may rupture) and other causes. Hemorrhages may occur in the spine and the spinal cord from similar mechanisms.

The brain hemorrhages occurring with brain trauma are usually just underneath the "dura", the outer fibrous covering of the brain (subdural hemorrhage) or, especially in association with the skull fractures, outside this covering and just beneath the skull (epidural hemorrhage). Epidural hemorrhages can also occur over the spinal cord. A thinner fibrous membrane is just under the dura and immediately over the surface of the brain. Brain hemorrhages can occur along the surface of the brain just underneath this membrane. These are called subarachnoid hemorrhages. Hemorrhages in this region may result in blood being present in the spinal fluid, and this may be seen if spinal fluid is removed from the spine for laboratory analysis (spinal tap or lumbar puncture).

Sometimes, to prevent blood clots from forming in the heart following heart surgery, or in the presence of certain abnormalities of the heartbeat (arrhythmias such as atrial fibrillation), or to prevent blood clots from forming in the leg veins, individuals will be given an anticoagulant medication Coumadin ("a blood thinner".) The same dose of Coumadin may cause different levels of anticoagulation. The response to Coumadin can be measured by a laboratory test called the "protime". Too much Coumadin may result in over-anticoagulation, and may cause a brain hemorrhage. Brain hemorrhage, often subarachnoid, can be one of the first manifestations of Coumadin overdose. Sometimes, brain hemorrhage may be sudden, large and rapidly debilitating or fatal. Other times, brain hemorrhages may be smaller, occurring intermittently and causing symptoms such as headache, neck pain, nausea and vomiting, visual disturbances and other neurologic symptoms. If a doctor pays attention to these symptoms in the right context, and diagnoses an early brain hemorrhage, a subsequently disabling or fatal brain hemorrhage may be preventable. If an early brain hemorrhage is missed, the hemorrhage may worsen and cause major neurologic injury, paralysis or death.

In consultation with neurosurgeons, neurologists, neuroradiologists and other physicians, the lawyer at the Law Office of Cid Lopez LLC will work with medical specialists to determine if injury or death came about as a result of medical malpractice, and advise you of your legal options. If malpractice occurred, the Law Office of Cid Lopez LLC may be able to recover money damages to help pay the enormous expenses and other damages resulting from brain or spinal cord hemorrhage as well as compensate you and your family for your pain and suffering and permanent disability.

Call the Law Office of Cid Lopez LLC at 505-242-5297. Get your questions answered. Learn your legal rights.There is no cost or obligation for us to evaluate your case.

Through litigation, making negligent healthcare providers pay for the harm they cause may change the way they evaluate and treat other patients, saving others from injury and death.

Pursuing Medical Negligence Claims Against Pharmacies and Pharmacists

Pharmacists commit malpractice most often by dispensing the wrong medications, dispensing incorrect dosages of the right medications, and dispensing medications in unsafe combinations. Pharmacists also commit malpractice by failing to recognize prescriptions that have been written negligently by doctors. Any of these errors can result in catastrophic injury or death.

A pharmacy will dispense paperwork with prescriptions designed to inform patients and family members about the medication being dispensed; the strength of the pills, capsules or liquid medicine; the dosage schedule; and potential harmful effects and dangerous interactions. Although pharmacies and pharmacists attempt to use such documents in defense of malpractice cases, it is never enough to provide such documents if a prescription should have never been dispensed in the first place. Here are some examples of pharmacy malpractice:

• A woman taking Coumadin had her dose doubled by her doctor, meaning that instead of one pill she should take two. The pharmacy misinterpreted the instructions and dispensed pills double in size, writing on the bottle to take two pills instead of one. This meant that the woman's Coumadin was quadrupled. Worsening the problem, the doctor did not properly monitor the blood level of anticoagulation. The woman died from a brain hemorrhage as a direct result of a medication overdose.

• A woman in her 60s had a history of a seizure disorder. She was on anti-seizure medication and had not had a seizure in many years. The pharmacist dispensed the wrong medication, one that was not intended to prevent seizures. Within a week, the woman had a grand mal seizure and suffered serious complications.

• A middle-aged man who had chronic back pain became addicted to narcotic pain medication. The man's doctor continued to prescribe ever-increasing dosages of narcotics. The pharmacist continued to fill these prescriptions. Neither the doctor nor the pharmacist recognized that even with higher dosages, the man was obtaining refills more frequently than if he were taking the prescribed number of pills. Finally, he was found by his wife one morning having died during his sleep from a narcotic overdose.

In consultation with pharmacists, physicians and other professionals, the Albuquerque pharmacy malpractice attorney at the Law Office of Cid Lopez LLC will analyze pharmacy, medical and additional records to determine whether malpractice occurred. If so, we may be able to recover money damages to help pay for medical expenses, rehabilitation expenses, lost income and other expenses, as well as compensation to you and your family for the emotional and physical pain and suffering and other damages that may result in these cases.

Holding Nursing Care Facilities Accountable for Abuse and Neglect

Nursing home abuse and neglect almost always come as a shock to families. This is understandable. Families place their loved ones in nursing homes based on the expectation that they will receive more comprehensive care in these facilities than the family can provide.

Unfortunately, abuse and neglect are quite common in nursing homes. At the Law Office of Cid Lopez LLC, the Albuquerque nursing home negligence lawyer has helped dozens of families pursue claims against nursing homes for the needless harm their loved ones have suffered.

Handling Cases Involving All Types of Nursing Home Injuries

As a society, we rely on nursing homes to take care of the most vulnerable among us. Sadly, some facilities — through understaffing, inadequate procedures and other errors — fail to live up to this responsibility. Common examples of nursing home negligence include the following:

• Bedsores caused by failure to turn residents in their beds at regular intervals

• Dehydration and malnutrition that the nursing home did not detect and address

• Fall injuries caused by failure to respond to call buttons and other negligent conduct

• Failure to restrain residents and prevent them from leaving the safety of the facility

• Administration of the wrong medication or the wrong dose of the right medication

• Physical and sexual abuse by improperly supervised nursing home staff members

As a seasoned trial lawyer, attorney Cid Lopez is prepared to identify the causes and consequences of our clients' injuries and aggressively pursue the justice and full compensation they deserve.