Stein, Mitchell & Muse LLP Who We Are What We Do Our Track Record
What We Do Washington's premier law firm for serious personal injury, medical malpractice and business litigation

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For new cases involving medical malpractice,
contact Gerard E. Mitchell or Denis C. Mitchell.

MEDICAL MALPRACTICE:

Stein, Mitchell & Muse has an unsurpassed track record for representing clients who have been seriously hurt by the negligence of health care providers: doctors, nurses, hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, pharmacists and others. Partner Gerard E. Mitchell was described by the Washingtonian magazine recently as "the area's most effective medical malpractice attorney." Partner Laurie A. Amell brings her long experience as a critical care nurse to the practice. These lawyers among them have more than fifty years experience in medical malpractice law.

Our specialty areas within the medical malpractice field include:

> Brain-damaged newborn babies. A variety of mishaps can occur in the labor and delivery process that result in serious life-long disability for infants and a substantial emotional and financial burden for their families. Perhaps no area of malpractice work requires as much skill, dedication, knowledge and experience to win a successful result. Lawyers who prosecute cases for obstetrical malpractice must be familiar with the stages of labor, ominous signs of fetal distress on electronic fetal monitoring, diabetes in pregnancy, pregnancy-induced hypertension, and a variety of other medical issues.

> Other injuries to infants and children. We have major experience working for children and their families in a host of tragic medical malpractice situations. Some examples:

  • Nerve injury from improper delivery techniques (sometimes known as Erb's palsy).
  • Neonatal intensive care unit mishaps.
  • Pediatric intensive care unit errors.
  • Anesthesia errors.
  • Brain damage from negligence by neurosurgeons.
  • Pediatricians causing death or serious injury by failing to recognize a problem until it was too late.

> Cancer misdiagnosis and failure to detect cancer. Many cancers can be completely cured if early signs are appropriately recognized and treated aggressively. Patients may have a good malpractice claim if doctors have ignored or failed to recognize the significance of signs and symptoms. We have substantial experience with a wide range of cancer malpractice cases, including:

  • Breast cancer (misread mammograms or failure to take other appropriate diagnostic steps)
  • Cervical cancer (misread Pap smears and biopsies)
  • Colon cancer
  • Lung cancer
  • Prostate cancer
  • Kidney (renal cell) cancer
  • Liver cancer

> Brain and spinal cord injuries. A variety of negligence in medical practice, from anesthesia errors to malpractice by neurosurgeons and orthopedic surgeons, can lead to terrible injuries to the brain and the spinal cord. Stroke, for example, is a preventable disease all too often, but early signs of stroke, known as transient ischemic attacks, are ignored or misinterpreted by some doctors. Aggressive treatment of stroke in its early stages also can greatly lessen the disability caused by stroke.

> Diabetes. The consequences of poorly treated diabetes can be vast: blindness, limb amputation, loss of kidney function, nerve damage, and other bad outcomes. Stein, Mitchell & Muse has extensive experience representing clients injured by the poor treatment of their diabetes. Click here to learn more about the standards of medical care in the treatment of diabetes. 

> Other types of medical negligence and malpractice. We have experience in almost every field of medicine and every major type of disease. Our cases include:

  • Anesthesia and anesthesiology
  • Allergy
  • Angioplasty of the heart
  • Bariatric surgery for weight loss
  • Blood clot mismanagement leading to fatal pulmonary embolism
  • Cardiology
  • Diabetes
  • Emergency medicine
  • Glaucoma
  • Gynecological surgery
  • Heart attack
  • Hematology
  • Infections
  • Internal Medicine
  • Laparoscopic surgery
  • Neurology
  • Neurosurgery
  • Optometry
  • Ophthalmology
  • Otolaryngology
  • Orthopedic surgery
  • Pathologist errors
  • Pediatric cardiology
  • Pediatric pulmonary medicine
  • Pediatrics
  • Prenatal care
  • Psychiatry
  • Pulmonary medicine
  • Radiology
  • Stroke
  • Urology
  • Vascular surgery

If you think you or a family member has been seriously injured from medical malpractice or neglect by a doctor, hospital, nurse or other health care provider, contact us for a free no-obligation consultation.

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Washington DC's premier medical malpractice law firm :: Stein, Mitchell & Muse
www.steinmitchell.com
Research Tips

Standards of medical practice:
A key issue in medical malpractice cases is whether the health care provider met accepted standards in his or her treatment of the patient. The National Guideline Clearinghouse is a government-sponsored research tool that allows one to search for the medical care guidelines and standards of care that are specific to a variety of diseases, conditions and treatments. Patients can search for guidelines by disease, type of treatment, or medical organization.

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Medical Literature Online:
The National Institute of Health's PubMed is a huge, easy to use database of information on nearly all of the medical journal articles written in the past 40 years. Users can search by keyword, author, and journal title. Most of the articles found provide free summaries of their content, and some link to free online versions of the full article.

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Research a Physician:
There are many ways to get information about a physician, including whether he or she has been subject to previous lawsuits or disciplinary actions for medical malpractice.

[-] AMA Doctor-Finder: The American Medical Association's Doctor-Finder lists background information including doctors' specialties, education, and board certification.

[-] HealthGrades.com: HealthGrades.com, Inc., offers extensive report cards on doctors, hospitals, health plans and nursing homes nationwide (the reports cost between $3-7). State and national disciplinary actions are listed along with other background information.

[-] Licensing Boards: The Administrators in Medicine site provides searches of Maryland's and Virginia's state government licensing board information on specific doctors. This includes licensing background, malpractice, criminal conviction and disciplinary information for physicians and other health care providers.

[-] Questionable Doctors: Public Citizen's Questionable Doctors database allows you to search for disciplinary action records for doctors in 42 states, including Washington D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. The search is free, though the reports are sold at the price of $30 for 10 reports.

[-] Questionable Therapies: Quackwatch, run by Dr. Stephen Barrett, helps patients examine and debunk questionable medical therapies from acupuncture to wild yam cream.