Medical Malpractice Lawyer: Help for Patients in Philadelphia and Delaware County

Do you have a medical malpractice case in Pennsylvania?

You may have a medical malpractice case if a health care provider failed to meet the accepted standard of care and that failure caused you a real injury. A bad result alone is not enough; the claim needs both a medical mistake and harm that the mistake caused.

Pennsylvania handles these claims under the Medical Care Availability and Reduction of Error Act, usually called the MCARE Act. It covers physicians, nurse midwives, hospitals, nursing homes, birth centers and their employees. Before a malpractice lawsuit can move forward, your lawyer has to file a certificate of merit stating that a qualified medical professional has reviewed the case and believes the care fell below accepted standards.

That means the first step is a careful review of your records by a lawyer who knows how these cases are built. Warren I. Siegel lists medical malpractice as one of the main focuses of his practice, and he has served as a Discovery Master in medical malpractice matters for the Philadelphia court system.

The four things you have to prove

Every Pennsylvania malpractice claim rests on the same four elements. Each one has to be supported by evidence, and the medical parts almost always need testimony from a doctor who practices in the same or a similar field.

• Duty: a provider-patient relationship existed, so the provider owed you professional care.
• Breach: the care fell below what a reasonably careful provider in that field would have done in the same situation.
• Causation: the breach, and not your underlying illness, caused or worsened your injury.
• Damages: you suffered real losses, such as added medical bills, lost income, pain, disability or a shortened life expectancy.

Misdiagnosis and failure to diagnose

Diagnostic mistakes are a frequent source of malpractice claims. A doctor may label a heart attack as indigestion, miss a stroke, read an infection as a virus, or never order the test that would have found the real problem. The question is whether a careful doctor, given the same symptoms and history, would have reached the right diagnosis or ordered the right test.

Proving a misdiagnosis case means rebuilding what the doctor knew at each visit. We look at the chart, the test orders, the imaging and lab results, and the follow-up instructions. We then ask whether a correct diagnosis at that point would have changed your outcome. If the result would have been the same either way, the claim usually fails on causation, even when the mistake was real.

Delayed cancer diagnosis

When cancer is caught late, the harm is often measured by what the delay cost: a lower stage at diagnosis, harsher treatment, or a worse prognosis. Common patterns include an abnormal mammogram or imaging finding that nobody followed up on, a lump that was dismissed, rectal bleeding blamed on hemorrhoids without further testing, or a pathology report that never reached the patient.

These cases turn on timing. Oncologists and radiologists review the records to estimate how far the disease progressed during the delay and how the treatment options changed. Because the clock on a malpractice claim can start when you learned, or reasonably should have learned, of the missed diagnosis, it matters to talk to a lawyer as soon as you suspect a delay.

Surgical errors

Every surgery carries known risks, and a complication is not automatically malpractice. A surgical case usually involves a mistake that careful surgeons avoid, such as operating on the wrong site, cutting or puncturing an organ or blood vessel and failing to catch it, leaving a sponge or instrument inside the body, or ignoring post-operative signs of infection or internal bleeding.

Anesthesia errors belong in this group too: too much or too little medication, poor airway management, or failure to monitor oxygen levels. We also look at informed consent. Under the MCARE Act, a physician generally must explain the nature of the procedure, its risks and the reasonable alternatives before operating, except in an emergency.

Medication errors

Medication mistakes can happen at every step. A doctor may prescribe the wrong drug or dose, overlook an allergy, or miss a dangerous interaction with a drug already in your chart. A pharmacy may fill the wrong medication. A hospital nurse may give a dose to the wrong patient or at the wrong time.

These claims often involve more than one party, so we trace the order from the prescription through the pharmacy or medication system to the bedside. Pharmacists and nurses are licensed professionals, and Pennsylvania's certificate of merit rule applies to claims against them as well.

Emergency room errors

Emergency departments move fast, and the law accounts for that. Still, ER staff must meet the standard of care for emergency medicine. Claims often come from patients sent home too early with chest pain, a severe headache, abdominal pain or signs of sepsis, only to return hours or days later much sicker.

Other ER cases involve missed fractures or spinal injuries after a car crash or fall, delayed treatment of stroke, and failure to call in a surgeon or other doctor when the symptoms called for one. Triage notes, vital signs and discharge instructions are key evidence, so we request the full ER record, not just the summary.

Hospital negligence

A hospital can be responsible in two ways. It can answer for the mistakes of the nurses, residents and other staff it employs, and it can be responsible for its own failures, such as unsafe staffing, poor policies, failing to monitor patients, or letting a provider practice without proper oversight.

Hospital cases also include falls by patients who were marked as a fall risk, pressure injuries that developed during a stay, infections tied to lapses in basic protocols, and communication breakdowns between shifts. Identifying who employed each provider matters, because some doctors who work in a hospital are independent and carry their own insurance.

Medical harm to newborns and mothers during delivery is covered in detail on our birth injury page. Harm to residents of long-term care facilities is covered on our nursing home abuse page.

Pennsylvania rules that shape a malpractice case

Certificate of merit: Pennsylvania Rule of Civil Procedure 1042.3 requires a certificate of merit to be filed with the complaint or within 60 days after it is filed. The court can extend that time for good cause. Missing it can end the case, so the medical review has to start early.

Damages: Pennsylvania's Constitution bars the legislature from capping the amount recovered for personal injury or death in cases like these, so there is no general cap on compensatory damages, including pain and suffering, in a malpractice case against a private provider. Claims against government-run facilities are different and follow the state's immunity rules. Punitive damages are rare; under the MCARE Act they require willful, wanton or reckless conduct, gross negligence is not enough, and punitive damages against an individual physician generally cannot exceed 200% of the compensatory award, except in cases of intentional misconduct.

Where to file: in 2023 the Pennsylvania Supreme Court rescinded the special venue rule that had required malpractice suits to be filed only in the county where the care took place. Malpractice cases now follow the same venue rules as other civil cases. That can make Philadelphia an available venue for some claims about care that happened elsewhere, depending on where the defendants do business. Whether a case belongs in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas or the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas in Media is a real strategic question we review with you.

How long do you have to file?

A Pennsylvania malpractice lawsuit must generally be filed within two years. The discovery rule can delay the start of that clock until you knew, or reasonably should have known, that you were injured and that the care may have caused it. Courts apply that rule narrowly, so don't count on it.

Claims on behalf of children follow a separate MCARE rule: a minor's malpractice claim generally has to be filed within seven years of the care or by the child's 20th birthday, whichever is later. When a patient dies, the MCARE Act generally requires wrongful death and survival claims based on malpractice to be filed within two years after the death, unless the cause of death was misrepresented or concealed.

The MCARE Act also contains a seven-year outer limit for adult claims, but in 2019 the Pennsylvania Supreme Court held that limit unconstitutional in Yanakos v. UPMC. The two-year clock still applies. Deadlines depend on the facts, and a missed deadline usually ends the claim, so talk to a lawyer now rather than later.

What to do now

Request copies of your medical records, including test results and imaging reports, and keep every bill and appointment note. Write down a timeline of symptoms, visits and what each provider told you while it is fresh. Keep following your treatment plan with a provider you trust.

Don't give a recorded statement to a hospital's risk manager or insurer, and don't post about your care online. Hospitals and physicians have lawyers and insurers from day one, and you should have someone on your side too.

Your Legal Warrior handles medical malpractice cases on a 100% contingency fee. There is no attorney fee unless we recover. The firm advances all case costs, including medical review costs, and those costs are repaid only from a recovery. If there is no recovery, you owe nothing. To have Warren look at what happened, call (267) 412-4601, answered 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, or send the free case review form.