Phoenix Medical Device Injury Attorney

A medical device is any piece of equipment meant to diagnose, treat, or prevent disease or influence specific bodily functions. Medical devices can greatly improve the quality of life for individuals with chronic health conditions. From artificial pacemakers to implantable hip prosthetics, medical devices make it possible for people to live at home with chronic conditions that might otherwise leave them hospitalized, immobile, or too ill to enjoy a satisfactory quality of life. Implantable medical devices are also used to prevent pregnancy and boost failing hearing. While medical devices outside of a hospital setting have been commonly used for many decades, the complexity of these devices has increased and now include ventilators, dialysis machines, and other serious medical equipment and implants now managed outside of a medical setting. While these devices can be life-altering for the better, their increased usage combined with failed FDA regulation policies has resulted in 1.7 million injuries and 80,000 deaths in the past ten years.

While previously doctors had little information about the number of injuries and deaths caused by faulty medical devices due to exemptions in federal reporting rules, the recent  FDA release of this information to the public through a database means that doctors have the duty to understand and interpret this information and then practice their duty of care in protecting their patients from harm.

When doctors use medical devices already known to have defects with serious impacts on health and safety they put lives at risk. If you or someone you love experienced a serious injury or death due to a failed or faulty medical device, you have a right to full compensation for your damages. Our Team of Phoenix Medical Device Injury Attorneys can help.

Why Choose Knapp & Roberts?

For over two decades Knapp & Roberts have served Phoenix residents and those in the surrounding areas of Arizona, helping victims to gain compensation and justice for medical malpractice injuries including those from medical devices. We focus our representation on those who’ve experienced catastrophic injuries, disabilities, and death due to failed or faulty medical devices as well as other areas of preventable medical malpractice. Our team passionately defends every client with dedicated, diligent legal representation to fight for the maximum compensation for the damages they’ve suffered. We have the resources, knowledge, and years of experience in navigating the Arizona legal system to successfully achieve the results each injured client deserves.

When you or someone you love suffers harm due to the negligence of a medical professional, you have the right to pursue justice and the compensation you’re due. Let Knapp & Roberts gather evidence and pursue damages in your case so you can focus on moving forward toward the best possible recovery.

Types of Medical Devices Known to Injure Patients

Most patients naturally trust their doctors and other healthcare professionals to do what’s best for them. The professional relationship between a doctor and patient presumes that the doctor will adhere to rigid professional standards and provide treatment understood by other reasonable physicians to be the best standard of care in similar cases. As a patient, you expect your doctor’s treatment to make you better or help you enjoy a better quality of life. Unfortunately, the medical devices recommended by some doctors cause harm due to the following factors:

• Manufacturer defects
• Device design defects
• Manufacturer’s failure to properly warn patients of dangers associated with the device
• Doctors are not up to date on research highlighting injuries related to the medical device

Any of these problems with a medical device can cause significant harm including necessitating corrective medical procedures and causing life-threatening danger, disability, and death. The following medical devices are just some of those known in recent years to have caused great harm to patients:

• Depuy Hip Implants with metal-on-metal design may release metal particles into the body as the metal parts rub together during movement. This may cause toxicity and early device failure.
• Biomet Hip Implants with a metal-on-metal design result in metal poisoning in the bloodstream and early device failure
• Transvaginal mesh has been commonly used to treat organ prolapse and incontinence in women and is now known to cause significant harm
• DaVinci Surgical Robots meant to facilitate simpler surgical procedures with smaller incisions are now known to have caused many injuries and some deaths
• NuvaRing birth control device, meant to be a safe and convenient alternative to a daily pill is now known to cause blood clots
• Gastrointestinal scopes used for diagnosing a variety of digestive conditions are now shown to cause serious infections transmitted from one patient to another
• Power Morcellators are meant to break up tissue while it’s still inside the body; however, it’s now known to cause the rapid spread of cancer when targeting tissue with undetected cancer cells
• Cochlear Implants, now found to cause painful shocks, balance problems, and further hearing loss
• IVC filters implanted to prevent blood clots from reaching essential organs are now recognized to prematurely break apart or migrate inside the body and cause great harm
• Lap-Band devices used to shrink the capacity of the stomach for weight loss purposes, are now known to sometimes cut into the stomach itself and cause serious injury and infection

Doctors have the responsibility to stay on top of the latest research and information, including the dangers associated with these and other medical devices. They also have a duty to present patients with all of the information on a medical device they’re recommending including all known hazards associated with the device so the patient can make a well-informed decision. Doctors must also familiarize themselves with every patient’s complete medical history and understand when a patient is not a good candidate for a specific medical device and when using that device could put them at risk of great injury and/or death.

Doctors Have the Responsibility to Treat Injuries From Medical Devices in a Timely Manner

Not only does a doctor bear the responsibility for staying on top of the latest research on medical device safety and adhering to the strictest standards of patient care, but they also owe a duty of care to their patients that includes listening carefully to their complaints of symptoms, investigating possible causes, and properly diagnosing and treating them in a timely manner. Some doctors use tactics known as “medical gaslighting.” This occurs when they dismiss a patient’s complaints, don’t take them seriously, or blame them on an incorrect cause. This type of behavior from a doctor can cause a patient to doubt themselves and then remain silent instead of reporting further symptoms.

When a doctor does not take your complaints of symptoms seriously, fails to order the proper diagnostic tests, and doesn’t treat your injury from a medical device quickly enough to minimize the injury, it’s an act of negligence. The Phoenix legal team of Knapp & Roberts can help you with an injury claim or lawsuit if you’ve experienced harm due to a doctor’s failure to take your complaints seriously and address them in a timely manner.

What to Do if You’ve Been Injured by a Medical Device?

If a medical device has caused you injury and suffering, your main goal is to improve your condition to the greatest extent possible, minimize your pain, and restore your health and functioning. By taking the following steps in a timely manner after your injury you can begin to move forward from your medical accident and toward physical and financial wellness:

• See a trusted doctor as soon as possible and follow their advice completely. Ask for detailed notes on your injury, its cause, and the recommended treatment and prognosis
• Keep a detailed journal documenting every aspect of your injury, your pain level, and the impact the injury has on your life quality
• Keep all medical records and bills
• Ask the hospital, clinic, or surgery center that installed or used the device for detailed records of your treatment, procedure, or surgery
• Call an attorney specializing in medical malpractice with experience in medical device injuries

The first steps toward recovering from an injury caused by the malpractice or negligence of a doctor or medical device manufacturer are the first important steps toward physical, financial, and emotional recovery. The compassionate attorneys at the Phoenix Law Firm of Knapp & Roberts understand how devastating these injuries can be and the toll they take on a family. We can help you with these critical steps toward compensation and justice.

How Can a Medical Device Injury Attorney Help?

Skilled Phoenix medical device injury lawyers with decades of legal experience helping clients who’ve been injured by faulty or wrongfully used medical devices know how to help your case move forward through the civil process in a timely manner with a carefully crafted and executed plan to prove liability in each case. Our top-rated lawyers have the knowledge and resources in the Phoenix area to gather evidence, advance your case, investigate the unique circumstances of your injury, and identify the liable party. A medical device injury attorney can carefully draft a demand letter and negotiate a settlement or go on to take your case to court if necessary to ensure you gain the maximum in compensation for the damages you’ve suffered.

While financial compensation cannot undo your injury or restore a disabled or deceased loved one to health, it can help injury victims and their family members to move forward with a sense of justice and greater financial security.

What Types of Damages Can You Recover in a Medical Device Injury Case?

If you or a family member has been harmed by a medical device injury, you’re likely facing mounting medical bills at the same time you’ve lost income due to missed days, weeks, and even months of work. In some instances, you may be facing a reduced ability to earn a living in the future due to the impacts of your injury. A successful medical injury claim can help you gain the following compensation for damages either through a carefully negotiated settlement with the defendant’s insurance carrier or through a court award on your behalf:

• Medical expenses and future medical expenses for ongoing treatment, corrective surgery, physical therapy, and any necessary home healthcare
• Transportation costs for trips to doctors, hospitals, and treatment centers
• Lost wages and lost future wages
• Diminished capacity for future earnings
• Pain and suffering
• Emotional anguish

These are both tangible economic damages and serious non-economic damages you may have experienced due to medical malpractice related to a medical device.

What Happens if a Medical Device Injury Results in Death?

If your loved one died as a result of an injury caused by a medical device, a personal injury case becomes a wrongful death case. Wrongful death claims are filed by a close family member of the victim and typically result in compensation for the following damages:

• Medical expenses accumulated prior to the death
• Funeral and burial costs
• Lost future earnings
• Grief, anguish, and suffering
• Loss of consortium (the close and/or physical relationship with a cherished loved one)
• Loss of support and care in cases of the loss of a parent to minor children

While compensation for damages can’t bring a lost loved one back, it can help secure your family’s financial future so you can focus on dealing with the emotional aspects of a tragic loss.

How Much Does an Attorney Cost?

The firm of Knapp & Roberts offers each new client a free evaluation of their case. We charge no legal fees unless we help you win your case. Our contingency fee arrangements mean we don’t get paid unless you win. Once you’ve received a settlement or court award, our legal team receives an agreed-upon percentage to cover any court-filing fees, deposition costs, medical consultation fees, service of process fees, and witness fees as well as attorney costs. In typical malpractice cases involving medical device malpractice, attorney costs amount to an average of 40% of your total financial compensation. For this reason, it benefits your attorney to see that you receive the maximum amount owed to you for your damages.

Why Choose Our Phoenix Team for Your Medical Device Injury Case?

At Knapp & Roberts, we have a passion for seeing justice served in cases where a patient is harmed by the entity they trust with their very lives. Our Phoenix, Arizona team will put our decades of experience to work for you to help you begin the road to recovery.