Connecticut Medical Malpractice Attorney

A medical malpractice claim is not the same as a bad outcome. Medicine is uncertain, and not every injury or unexpected result is the fault of a provider. To bring a claim under Connecticut law, four elements must be established:

• A provider-patient relationship. The medical professional owed you a duty of care.
• A breach of the standard of care. The provider failed to act as a reasonably competent professional in the same field would have under similar circumstances.
• Causation. That failure, not the underlying illness or another factor, caused the injury.
• Damages. The patient suffered measurable harm: physical injury, financial loss, or both.

Connecticut also requires a procedural step before a medical malpractice case can move forward. The plaintiff must obtain a written opinion from a similar healthcare provider stating that there appears to be evidence of medical negligence, and that opinion must be filed with the complaint. This requirement is strict, and a missing or deficient opinion letter can end a case before it begins. The Connecticut medical malpractice attorneys at SGT work with leading medical experts from the start to ensure every claim is built on a foundation that will withstand challenge.

The firm focuses on serious, often catastrophic, medical malpractice cases across the full range of clinical settings, from delivery rooms to operating theaters to outpatient practices.

Anesthesia Errors

Anesthesia errors can cause brain damage, organ failure, and death within minutes. Common failures include incorrect dosing, failure to monitor vital signs, and failure to recognize complications during surgery.

Birth Injuries

Few medical errors are more devastating than a preventable injury at birth. SGT has secured many of Connecticut's largest birth-injury verdicts and settlements, including cases involving hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, cerebral palsy, shoulder dystocia, and brachial plexus injuries.

Diagnosis Errors

A missed or delayed diagnosis can turn a treatable condition into a fatal one. The firm represents patients and families harmed by failures to diagnose cancer, stroke, sepsis, heart attack, and other time-sensitive conditions.

Failure to Treat or Monitor

Once a diagnosis is made, providers must act. Failures to monitor patients during and after surgery, to follow up on abnormal test results, or to escalate care when warning signs appear can cause preventable harm.

Hospital Errors

Hospitals can be liable for the negligence of their employees and for systemic failures, including understaffing, inadequate training and broken communication between departments. SGT has held some of Connecticut's largest hospitals accountable in cases involving hospital errors.

Medication Errors

Wrong drug. Wrong dose. Dangerous interaction. Medication errors occur at every stage, including prescribing, dispensing and administering, and can cause severe injury or death.

Surgical Errors

Wrong-site surgery, retained foreign objects and damage to surrounding structures are among the most preventable medical errors. SGT represents patients catastrophically injured by surgical mistakes and the systems that allow them to happen.

Medical malpractice litigation is among the most demanding work in the law. Cases turn on complex medical evidence, require expert testimony from leading physicians, and are vigorously defended by hospitals and insurers with significant resources. Few firms have the experience, the capital, and the willingness to take these cases all the way to verdict.

SGT does. We have secured numerous eight- and nine-figure recoveries in medical malpractice cases, results that reflect a deliberate choice to focus on serious matters and prepare every case for trial from day one. Many of our largest results came in cases other firms had declined to take.

When a Connecticut medical malpractice attorney from SGT accepts a case, the client gets the full weight of the firm: senior trial lawyers leading the work, medical experts of the highest caliber, and the financial resources to see complex litigation through.

Connecticut law allows medical malpractice victims to recover both economic and non-economic damages. Economic damages cover quantifiable financial losses, including past and future medical expenses, the cost of long-term or lifetime care, lost wages, and lost earning capacity. Non-economic damages compensate for pain and suffering, emotional distress, disfigurement, loss of enjoyment of life, and loss of consortium for spouses and family members.

In wrongful-death cases, damages may include the decedent's pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, lost wages and lost earning capacity. Connecticut does not cap compensatory damages in medical malpractice cases, which means juries are free to award the full measure of harm a victim has suffered.

Connecticut's statute of limitations for medical malpractice is two years from the date the injury was discovered, or reasonably should have been discovered, with an absolute outside limit of three years from the date of the negligent act. The rules can be more complex when an injury was concealed or when the harm is from a course of continuing treatment.

Because these deadlines are strict and the pre-suit opinion-letter requirement takes time to satisfy, families should contact a Connecticut medical malpractice attorney as soon as they suspect that medical negligence has caused harm. Waiting can mean losing the right to bring a claim at all.