Medical Malpractice Lawyers

Wrong-Site, Wrong-Patient & Wrong-Procedure Surgery
These are classified as "never events" — errors so egregious they should never occur under any circumstances. They represent a fundamental failure of the surgical safety systems every hospital is required to maintain. When they occur, liability is typically clear, though proving the full extent of damages still requires expert testimony.

Bowel Surgery Errors
Bowel perforations, anastomotic leaks, improper resections, and failure to diagnose post-operative complications are among the most serious surgical errors. Delays in recognizing a bowel injury can lead to sepsis, multiple additional surgeries, and permanent disability.

Gallbladder Surgery Errors
Bile duct injuries during laparoscopic cholecystectomy are a leading source of surgical malpractice claims. These injuries — often caused by misidentification of anatomy — can require complex reconstructive procedures and cause chronic, debilitating complications.

Diverticulitis & Colon Resection Errors
Improper surgical technique, failure to recognize post-operative complications, or premature discharge after colon resection can lead to catastrophic harm including fistula formation, peritonitis, and permanent colostomy.

Retained Surgical Objects
Sponges, instruments, or other objects left inside a patient following surgery lead to infection, organ damage, and additional invasive procedures to locate and remove them. These cases typically involve clear liability.

Bariatric Surgery Complications
Weight-loss surgeries carry significant risks that are compounded when providers fail to properly screen candidates, use inappropriate technique, or fail to monitor for post-operative leaks, strictures, or nutritional deficiencies.

Anesthesia Errors
Dosing miscalculations, failure to monitor vital signs during a procedure, improper intubation, or failure to account for a patient's drug interactions can cause permanent brain damage, cardiac arrest, or death.

Failure to Diagnose / Delayed Diagnosis
Missed or late diagnoses of cancer, heart attack, stroke, pulmonary embolism, appendicitis, meningitis, and other serious conditions can dramatically worsen outcomes and reduce survival rates. Many of these cases hinge on what a provider knew, when they knew it, and what further testing was indicated under the applicable standard of care.

Misdiagnosis
Treating the wrong condition causes direct harm from inappropriate treatment and delays the care needed for the actual illness. Misdiagnosis of cancer as a benign condition — or a stroke as a migraine — are common patterns we investigate.

Medication Errors & Prescription Errors
Administering the wrong drug, an incorrect dosage, or failing to account for dangerous drug interactions can cause serious, permanent injury. We represent patients harmed by hospital pharmacists, nurses who administer medications, and prescribing physicians who failed to review a patient's complete medication profile.

Failure to Order Appropriate Testing
A provider who does not order indicated imaging, labs, or specialist consultations — and who thereby fails to diagnose a serious condition in time — may be liable for the harm that results from the diagnostic delay.

Hospital Malpractice
Hospitals are responsible not only for the actions of their employed physicians and staff, but also for systemic failures — inadequate staffing, broken equipment, poor infection control, and deficient nursing care. We represent patients harmed by all forms of institutional negligence.

Emergency Room Errors
Overcrowded ERs and time-pressure decision-making create conditions for serious errors — misdiagnosis of heart attack or stroke, failure to order critical imaging, improper triage, and premature discharge of patients with unrecognized critical illness. These cases are time-sensitive because ER records and surveillance footage must be preserved quickly.

Obstetrical Errors & Birth Injuries
Negligent care during pregnancy, labor, or delivery — including failure to diagnose preeclampsia, HELLP syndrome, or fetal distress, delayed C-section, or improper use of delivery instruments — can cause catastrophic injury to both mother and baby. Our firm has specific depth in birth injury cases. See our dedicated Birth Injury page for complete information.

University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics (UIHC)
As a state-run institution, UIHC is subject to the Iowa Tort Claims Act — which requires a formal notice of claim within 60 days of the incident and follows a separate procedural framework from standard malpractice litigation. Our firm has specific experience with UIHC claims and understands how to navigate these requirements without missing the critical notice deadline.

Post-Operative Care Failures
Many surgical injuries occur not in the operating room but in the post-operative period — when nursing staff fail to monitor for complications, when warning signs are dismissed, or when patients are discharged before they are medically stable. These cases often require detailed nursing standards experts in addition to surgical specialists.

Medical Malpractice Wrongful Death
When a provider's negligence causes a patient's death, surviving family members may pursue a wrongful death claim. Iowa law allows spouses, children, and parents to recover for the financial support, companionship, and care they have lost, in addition to medical expenses and funeral costs. There is no cap on economic damages in wrongful death cases.

Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) & Pulmonary Embolism (PE)
DVT and pulmonary embolism are preventable conditions in many hospitalized patients. Failure to implement DVT prophylaxis, failure to recognize DVT symptoms during recovery, or failure to act promptly on signs of PE can be fatal. When a provider's failure to meet the standard of care causes or worsens a DVT or PE, a malpractice claim may be warranted.

Sepsis & Infection Failures
Sepsis is a life-threatening response to infection that progresses rapidly. Hospitals have established protocols for early sepsis recognition and intervention. Failure to identify sepsis signs, administer antibiotics promptly, or follow established protocols can allow sepsis to progress to septic shock — causing organ failure, amputation, or death.

Failure to Monitor Post-Operative Patients
Inadequate monitoring of vital signs, oxygen saturation, or neurological status during recovery from surgery or anesthesia can allow deteriorating conditions to go unrecognized until they become catastrophic. These cases often require nursing standards experts and anesthesiology consultants.