Knoxville Amputations Attorney
Few injuries are more devastating than the loss of a limb. Doctors and other medical professionals should take all reasonable steps to preserve a patient’s limb and only perform amputation when absolutely necessary. Unfortunately, medical malpractice sometimes results in an unnecessary or hasty amputation.
At Atkins Brezina, PLLC, our Knoxville amputations attorney can help if you believe your amputation was unnecessary. Contact us today.
When is an Amputation Necessary?
Sometimes doctors have no choice but to amputate a limb to protect the health of a patient:
- Response to a crush injury. When a limb gets crushed, the skeletal muscle can break down, flooding the body with toxins which lead to kidney failure. Consequently, an amputation might be necessary to prevent this tragic situation.
- If an infection is resistant to antibiotics, a doctor might amputate an infected limb to keep it from spreading and potentially causing death.
- Sometimes the best way to eliminate a tumor is to remove the limb where it is located, thus ensuring it doesn’t spread.
- Poor circulation. When a limb does not get necessary oxygen, tissue can die. An amputation might be the only reasonable course of action.
- Diabetic complications. Foot ulcers sometimes do not heal when a person suffers from diabetes, and an amputation is the only solution.
What Causes Unnecessary Amputation?
A patient might erroneously have a limb amputated because of:
- Medical records mix-up. It might sound like science fiction, but some doctors perform amputations on the wrong patient because of a mix-up of patient records.
- Wrong diagnosis. A doctor might believe a patient has a dangerous tumor, but the diagnosis is wrong due to lab or radiology errors.
- Lack of medical knowledge. A doctor might decide that amputation is the correct course of action when other doctors would have chosen a different treatment first.
- Delayed treatment. Limb tissue could have died because doctors did not treat your condition (like diabetes) early enough.
If you suspect that your limb loss was unnecessary, contact Atkins Brezina, PLLC. We can review your medical history and meet with experts who can review whether the doctor made the right diagnosis. Sometimes, it’s reasonable for trained doctors to disagree with each other about the right course of action. But in other cases, a doctor might have failed to follow the correct standard of care and made a preventable error.
Compensation for Limb Loss
Losing a limb can make life much more difficult. We seek compensation for our clients to cover:
- Prosthetics
- Future surgery
- Doctor visits
- Surgical costs
- Occupational therapy
- Lost income
- Pain and suffering
Some clients will need to take a new job after they have lost their limb, which can result in thousands of dollars of lost income. Others might be unable to work at all.
Our team strives to maximize the amount of compensation our clients receive. Pain and suffering, along with emotional distress, should not be overlooked—and compensation is available to make up for the psychological trauma many clients suffer.
Give Us a Call
Knoxville medical malpractice attorney Michael Brezina is available to meet with you in a consultation. Contact our law firm today to schedule a day, time, and location.
