To keep food and water from traveling down your windpipe and into your lungs, your body has a small piece of cartilage just beneath your throat called the epiglottis. It naturally covers the top of your windpipe when you swallow. Under certain circumstances, though, the epiglottis can swell up and impede air flow into your lungs. This could have deadly consequences if a qualified medical professional does not intervene.
Unfortunately, not every health care provider meets the expected standard of care for their patients, and that can sometimes lead to injuries. In such instances, an experienced malpractice lawyer may be able to help you take legal action. If you or a loved one suffered preventable harm because of a doctor’s failure to quickly identify or treat a swollen epiglottis, consider reaching out to a Miami epiglottitis malpractice attorney from Kaire & Heffernan to discuss civil litigation.
In the past, the most common cause of epiglottitis was a Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) bacterial infection, which primarily affected young children. However, thanks to widespread use of Hib vaccinations, this is no longer the case in the developed world. Epiglottitis is now more common in adults, who may develop it due to strep or staph infections, burns in the throat, and certain types of traumatic injuries.
Regardless of what specifically causes a swollen epiglottis, medical professionals must use all their skills and experience as health care practitioners to identify symptoms of this condition, act quickly to resolve it, and provide sufficient follow-up care to minimize the risk of long-term harm. If a physician misdiagnoses, fails to diagnose, or fails to properly treat epiglottitis in a way that no other equally qualified physician would have under the same circumstances, they may have committed legally actionable malpractice, which our Miami lawyers can help build a lawsuit or settlement demand around.
Even with something as obviously problematic as a blocked airway, individual victims of medical malpractice are rarely permitted to file suit based solely on their own assertion that their doctor violated a professional standard of care. Instead, state law generally requires prospective malpractice plaintiffs to get a written and signed affirmation from at least one medical professional who, having reviewed all the evidence, believes that medical misconduct was likely the cause of the plaintiff’s injuries.
Furthermore, you must give advance notice of your planned malpractice claim to the health care providers and facilities you intend to name as defendants, and you may be legally mandated to go through a private settlement process before you can bring your claim before a jury. A lawyer from Kaire and Heffernan will go over procedural requirements and potential difficulties for your epiglottitis negligence claim in Miami during a private initial consultation.
Everyone has experienced a sore throat, but throat discomfort and breathing problems caused by epiglottitis can escalate from a minor inconvenience to a life-threatening medical emergency faster than many people realize. Therefore, it is vital for physicians to know what conditions cause this type of swelling in the throat, how to effectively treat it, and how to avoid the risk of permanent harm from hypoxia or other side effects of serious infections.
If your doctor failed to protect you to this degree, you may have grounds to file a civil suit against them with help from a Miami epiglottitis malpractice attorney. Call Kaire & Heffernan today to start exploring your legal options.
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