Medical Malpractice Attorneys in Pittsburgh/Erie/Greensburg/Johnstown, Pennsylvania
401 Wood Street
Suite 1600
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15222
USA
Phone: (412) 567-5433
Fax: (412) 394-1331
Website: http://www.bem-law.com/
Law Firm Overview
At the Pittsburgh law firm of Biancheria & Maliver, we represent plaintiffs in medical malpractice cases involving severe or fatal injuries to the patient. Dr. Deborah Maliver’s prior career as a practicing physician gives our clients a significant advantage in the proof of your claims and in the recovery of the full extent of your losses due to medical negligence. For a free consultation and case evaluation, contact one of our attorneys.
Our practice is highly selective, and we make a careful review of the circumstances of each medical injury case to ensure that it satisfies the standards of Pennsylvania law before commencing litigation. All medical malpractice cases involving the exercise of professional judgment must be supported by a doctor active in the relevant specialty. This requirement is intended to prevent weak cases from being filed.
Our past success with medical malpractice litigation allows us to commit significant legal, medical, and investigative resources to the evaluation and development of your case. We accept all cases on a contingent fee basis, which means that we collect no attorneys’ fees unless we achieve a favorable recovery in your case. We also assume the costs and expenses involved in developing and presenting your case. Because medical malpractice cases usually require the resolution of complex technical issues and conflicting medical opinions, the expenses can be substantial. We do not recover them until your case settles or wins at trial.
Once we commit to a client’s case, we are in it for the long haul. We communicate closely with our clients, and we will do everything we can to take care of your needs while your case is progressing. Most of our cases involve either severe disabilities or fatal medical mistakes, so we know how difficult the pressures of a malpractice lawsuit can be on families who are still adjusting to the trauma of a terrible medical accident.
Attorneys in this Office: 2
Practice Areas
Our practice focuses on the most severe injuries, including wrongful death claims, in such medical areas as the following:
- Anesthesia Errors
Errors in the administration of anesthesia during surgery formerly accounted for a disproportionately high percentage of medical malpractice claims and damages awards, due both to the extremely severe nature of anesthesia errors and to the persistent failure of some anesthesiologists to maintain high professional standards. Eventually, anesthesiologists tightened board certification standards and improved both training and continuing education. Though far less common than they used to be, anesthesia errors have not been eliminated entirely, and continue to cause either death or disabling injuries. At Biancheria & Maliver, our attorneys’ experience with the investigation and proof of both liability and damages in cases of anesthesia error can help maximize your recovery in a medical malpractice lawsuit.
- Birth Injuries
While many birth injuries reflect careless monitoring of vital signs or poor response to complications in the delivery room, others are the consequence of improper care or misdiagnoses during pregnancy. In either case, our attorneys have the experience and knowledge required to investigate and present your case effectively. Our focus on medical negligence litigation can help you recover the resources you will need to provide the best care possible for a child injured at birth.
- Brain Injuries/Stroke Misdiagnosis
Brain injuries such as stroke or cerebral palsy often represent the end point of a sequence of errors in diagnosis, treatment, or surgery. One common example of medical negligence resulting in serious and permanent brain injury is the failure to recognize and treat the symptoms of stroke–slurred speech, paralysis, numbness, headaches, or changes in personality can all reflect stroke and indicate the necessity of tests and further examination by a specialist. Pittsburgh medical malpractice attorney Deborah Maliver is a physician who practiced medicine before she went to law school. Her medical background and ability to understand and coordinate highly complex expert testimony and forensic evidence provides a significant advantage to our clients, especially in brain injury litigation.
- Delayed Diagnosis of Cancer
Failure to diagnose cancer in time for an effective intervention can result from the negligent misreading of a mammogram, a failure to order a colonoscopy, or a surgeon’s failure to identify a tumor during an operation. Because of the danger of metastasis for any cancerous condition, delay in the diagnosis of cancer can amount to a death sentence for the patient whose symptoms are missed or mistaken for another illness.
At Biancheria & Maliver, our understanding of the duty of medical professionals to identify and refer potential cancer patients for further diagnosis and treatment is based not only on a thorough familiarity with the law of medical malpractice, but also based on practical medical experience. As well as an accomplished trial lawyer, Dr. Deborah Maliver is also a board-certified internist who completed her residency at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, in New York. Her ability to analyze and present the legal consequences of a claim for damages based on a delayed diagnosis of cancer is strengthened by her medical experience with cancer patients.
- Emergency Room Negligence
Emergency medicine depends upon the ability of the physician to recognize illness and life threatening conditions, stabilize a medical crisis, and pass the patient to the right specialist for further diagnosis and treatment. Negligent errors of judgment in the emergency room can often prove fatal. Many instances of emergency room negligence reflect the physician’s failure to consider the risk of a particular medical condition on the basis of superficial characteristics of the patient, for example, she’s too young to have a stroke, or he’s too fit to have a heart attack. Our experience with the investigation and proof of malpractice claims related to emergency medicine can make the decisive difference in the resolution of your claim.
- Errors in Medication
Pain relief medication is very often mismanaged, even in hospitals and clinical settings. Patient-controlled analgesia is frequently poorly monitored and dosed. Hospital overdoses of opiates such as Demerol or dilaudid can also result in death. Pharmacies and pharmacists can be just as responsible for medication errors as physicians and hospitals. Misread prescriptions or careless attention to the proper dosage can result in blatant errors, such as preparing 350 mg capsules, rather than the 35 mg intended by the doctor.
At the Pittsburgh law firm of Biancheria & Maliver, our medical malpractice attorneys are experienced with the investigation and proof of claims related to medication errors. Whether the mistake was committed by a doctor, a nurse, or a pharmacist, our familiarity with the presentation of evidence as to liability and damages can make a decisive difference in favor of your claim.
- Failure to Diagnose Heart Attack
The failure to recognize, diagnose, or treat heart attack is a common basis for a claim of medical malpractice. The consequences are often fatal for the patient, and in many cases involving emergency medicine or other primary care, the medical errors are fairly basic. Aggressive testing and treatment of heart disease can halt and even reverse the conditions that can lead to heart attack, but a physician’s negligent failure to diagnose and understand the risk factors can render useless even the most advanced diagnostic and therapeutic techniques. At Biancheria & Maliver, we have the legal experience and medical understanding necessary to develop the case for liability against the negligent doctor.
- Failure to Diagnose Stroke
If you have had a stroke or an ischemic attack (TIA) and were not timely or properly treated by your medical professional or hospital, you may have a valid legal claim against the parties or hospitals that treated you. At Biancheria & Maliver, our lawyers’ experience with the investigation and proof of both liability and damages in cases of stroke misdiagnosis can help maximize your recovery in a medical malpractice lawsuit. For a free assessment and evaluation of your claim, your case will always be personally reviewed by Deborah Maliver who is both an attorney and a board certified physician.
- Hospital Negligence
Our lawyers understand that some medical malpractice claims raise issues completely unrelated to either surgical technique or misdiagnosis of illness by a doctor. Instead, they involve basic patient care and reflect breakdowns in training, communication, equipment maintenance, or staff supervision at the hospital. Our attorneys find hospital negligence cases especially tragic because many of the injuries and fatal errors could have been prevented easily. Too many patient deaths result not so much from mistakes in professional judgment as from indifference, laziness, failure to follow instructions, or the fatigue of overworked hospital employees. Our medical malpractice lawyers know how to investigate and prove the facts of hospital negligence in order to recover the maximum compensation possible for your loss.
- Hyponatremia (Low Blood Sodium Level)
Water and salt (sodium) are both necessary for life. Normally, the body is able to exactly balance the amount of sodium in the bloodstream by either holding on to or letting go of water. There are a number of ways this important balance can be thrown off. For example, drinking very large quantities of water or being given too much by medical personnel (usually accidentally by intravenous line or during surgery) can cause sodium levels to get too low – with dangerous consequences. Other common causes of low sodium levels include: hormonal imbalances, medications, heart failure, and cirrhosis or kidney disease.
Injuries caused by a serious mistake by a nurse, hospital or physician, very often result in permanent and catastrophic brain damage. At Biancheria & Maliver, our attorneys’ experience with the investigation and proof of both liability and damages in cases of central pontine myelination can help maximize your recovery in a medical malpractice lawsuit.
- Informed Consent Issues
Sometimes a medical malpractice case raises questions as to the injured patient’s understanding of the risks involved with a surgical procedure or course of treatment. In Pennsylvania, a physician must obtain the patient’s informed consent prior to performing surgery or certain other procedures. The patient must be given a description of the procedure, as well as its risks and alternatives. If a physician performs a procedure without a patient’s informed consent, the physician is liable for all injuries caused by the procedure if the information not provided would have played a role in the patient’s decision to undergo treatment.
- Liver Transplant Complications
Complications may be a part of any surgery. With a surgery as serious as a liver transplant, the complications may be life-threatening. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that a liver transplant surgeon at a local hospital resorted to dubious practices, using livers from questionable donors. It was reported that the physician performed transplants on patients who may not have needed or been eligible for them. Pittsburgh medical malpractice attorney Deborah Maliver was a practicing physician before she went to law school, and she has the ability to evaluate the details of any medical malpractice claim and knows what experts to call to get answers.
- Misdiagnosis of Chest Pain
Chest pain is a common presenting complaint by persons entering an emergency room. Many different life-threatening conditions can present as chest pain. It is the job of the emergency room physician and staff to sort out the possible causes of chest pain. These can range from life-threatening conditions such as heart attack, pulmonary embolism, aortic dissection or aortic aneurysm rupture to minor conditions such as a pulled muscle or a virus. In order to sort out possible causes of chest pain a differential diagnosis must be done. This means that life-threatening causes that are treatable must be ruled out immediately by the physician. We have found that many times careful histories (speaking with patients) or physical examinations are not properly preformed with disastrous results for patients. Following a history and physical examination, depending on what the doctor has identified, various tests such as blood tests, chest x-rays, EKG, CT scan, MRI scans or ultrasounds may be indicated to sort out the underlying cause of the condition.
- Misdiagnosis of Illness
A physician’s failure to make an accurate diagnosis of an illness, infection, or the signs of cancer is one of the most common forms of medical malpractice. For many conditions, delay in treatment can result in permanent disability or death. Our medical negligence practice is led by Dr. Deborah Maliver, a highly skilled trial attorney who is also a board-certified internist. Her understanding of both the legal and medical professions gives her a unique perspective in developing the facts essential to proof of liability and damages in a negligent misdiagnosis case. She also has a significant advantage in evaluating, presenting, and refuting the expert medical opinions that will sustain or defeat the claim of malpractice throughout the course of the litigation.
- Negligent Treatment of Infection
An especially unfortunate aspect of medical malpractice claims relating to death or disability from infections is that in most cases, early recognition and treatment of the infection could have prevented a minor condition from worsening. Dr. Deborah Maliver’s experience as a practicing physician, as well as a trial attorney, helps us investigate and develop the facts of negligent treatment claims, and her skill with the presentation of serious infection cases can help maximize the ultimate value of your claim for damages.
- Patient Controlled Analgesia or PCA’s
PCA, or “Patient Controlled Analgesia” involves the administration of pain medication by a machine in which a patient, usually following surgery, controls the amount of medication administered by pressing a button. The purpose of PCA is improved pain control. The patient receives immediate delivery of pain medication without the need for a nurse to administer it. The medications most commonly used in PCA pumps are synthetic, opium-like pain-relievers (opioids), usually morphine and meperidine (Demerol). If you or a loved one had adverse affects after the prescription of a PCA, you may be the victim of medical malpractice. At Biancheria & Maliver, our lawyers’ experience with the investigation and proof of both liability and damages in cases of medication errors can help maximize your recovery in a medical malpractice lawsuit.
- Pulmonary Embolism
Pulmonary embolism is a potentially life threatening blockage of the blood flow to the lungs due to a blood clot or other obstruction, such as an air bubble or even a piece of cholesterol from the lining of a vein. Because blood receives oxygen in the lungs for circulation to the rest of the body, it is essential that the signs of pulmonary embolism be recognized and treated promptly. Brain damage or death can result from the failure to treat the condition. Dr. Deborah Maliver is a board-certified internist who prior to becoming an attorney cared for post-surgical patients at risk of pulmonary embolism. The inactivity associated with extended bed rest following surgery or major illness can promote the formation of blood clots in the legs which might then break off and obstruct circulation in the lungs. She is familiar with both the danger signs and the treatment for pulmonary embolism, and her experience with the care of patients with the diagnosed condition helps her both in preparing and documenting the validity of malpractice claims.
- Radiology Errors
Today’s high-tech medical profession demands the use and understanding of diagnostic tests and techniques that are constantly increasing in complexity. While the failure of some radiologists and technicians to keep pace with advances in diagnostic technology accounts for many misdiagnosis problems attributable to radiology error, the failure to use older technologies properly continues to result in catastrophic patient outcomes, including death. In many of our cases, the radiology error compounds and aggravates the negligent care of another physician or surgeon. In other cases, a patient being tested for one condition might be discovered to have a more serious problem with more effective use and interpretation of the test results.
In Pennsylvania, all medical malpractice lawsuits must be supported by a certificate signed by a medical professional familiar with the standard of care at issue certifying that the plaintiff’s claim for damages has merit under the medical facts of the case. Our experience working with conscientious radiologists prepared to certify to another radiologist’s serious error represents an important advantage for our clients in radiology cases.
- Surgical Errors
Many unnecessary deaths and severe complications are the result of negligent surgery procedures and poor surgical techniques. As the technology available for surgery continues to advance at a rapid pace, the skill and training of practicing surgeons does not always keep up with the demands of the new methods and devices. Pittsburgh medical malpractice attorney Deborah Maliver was a practicing physician before she went to law school, and she has the ability to work effectively with the consulting medical professionals whose evaluation of your claim and testimony at trial will be essential components of your lawsuit for damages.
- Wrongful Death
At the law firm of Biancheria & Maliver, in Pittsburgh, our attorneys’ concentration on the most serious and complex medical malpractice cases means that many of our clients are the surviving families of patients who died as the result of a surgical error, a misdiagnosed stroke, or other instance of medical negligence. Our experience with the representation of wrongful death plaintiffs means that our client service will be sensitive to the full range of your personal and legal needs as you adjust to the loss of a member of your family. Our careful development and presentation of the facts that demonstrate the defendant’s liability and the full amount of your damages helps ensure not only that the negligent physician or hospital will be held to account, but also that no component of your loss will be overlooked in your demand for compensation.
* Birth Injury
* Brain Injury
* Defective Drugs
* Failure to Diagnose
* Health Care & Social
* Informed Consent
* Medical Malpractice
* Medication Errors
* Negligence
* Personal Injury
* Surgical Errors
* Wrongful Death
Additional Practice Areas: Anesthesia Errors, Delayed Diagnosis of Cancer, Emergency Room Negligence, Hospital Negligence, Hyponatremia (Low Blood Sodium Level), Liver Transplant Complications, Negligent Treatment of Infection, Patient Controlled Analgesia or PCA’s, Pulmonary Embolism, Radiology Errors
Attorneys
Ms. Christine Biancheria
Partner
Health Care and Social, Personal Injury
Dr. Deborah S. Maliver
Partner
Health Care and Social, Personal Injury
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