When you trust a doctor, nurse, hospital, or other healthcare provider with your care, you expect to be safe.
Most of the time, you are. But when a preventable medical error causes serious harm, the consequences can follow you for years. You may be left wondering whether what happened was an unavoidable complication or whether someone failed to provide the care you should have received.
Schafer & Schafer helps patients and families throughout Northwest Indiana find that answer.
Our firm handles complex medical negligence claims involving hospitals, physicians, nurses, specialists, and other healthcare providers. We know these cases are difficult to prove, medically complicated, and often aggressively defended. That is exactly why they require careful investigation and experienced legal counsel.
If you were harmed by a medical error in Merrillville, Schererville, Valparaiso, Hammond, Gary, or elsewhere in Lake or Porter County, call (219) 947-1911 for a free consultation.
What Counts As Medical Malpractice In Indiana?
Medical malpractice occurs when a healthcare provider fails to meet the applicable professional standard of care and that failure causes injury.
A bad outcome by itself is not enough.
Medicine involves uncertainty. A surgery can have complications, a disease can progress, or a medication can cause a known side effect even when the provider acted appropriately. The legal question is whether the provider acted as a reasonably careful healthcare professional would have under similar circumstances.
A typical medical negligence claim must establish:
- A provider-patient relationship created a duty of care.
- The provider failed to meet the applicable standard.
- That failure caused or worsened the injury.
- The patient suffered compensable harm.
Causation is often one of the hardest parts of the case. A patient may already have been ill or injured before the alleged malpractice, so medical evidence is usually needed to separate harm caused by the underlying condition from harm caused by provider negligence.
That is one reason expert review is so important in these claims.
Common Types Of Medical Errors We Handle
Medical negligence can occur at many points in a patient's care.
Our team reviews claims involving diagnostic mistakes, surgical errors, birth injuries, medication errors, anesthesia problems, hospital-acquired complications, communication failures, and other forms of provider negligence.
Misdiagnosis And Delayed Diagnosis
A missed or delayed diagnosis can cost a patient valuable treatment time.
Cancer, stroke, heart attack, infection, and other serious conditions may become harder to treat when warning signs are overlooked, testing is not ordered, or abnormal results are not followed up appropriately.
A diagnosis that later turns out to be wrong is not automatically malpractice. The question is whether the provider's diagnostic process fell below the applicable standard of care and whether the delay or error caused additional harm.
Birth Injuries And Surgical Errors
Birth injury claims can involve failures during pregnancy, labor, delivery, or immediate newborn care.
Examples may include delayed responses to fetal distress, improper use of delivery instruments, medication errors, or failures to respond appropriately to maternal complications.
Surgical malpractice may involve wrong-site procedures, avoidable injury to surrounding organs, retained surgical objects, anesthesia errors, or failures in post-operative monitoring.
Not every surgical complication establishes negligence. The medical records and expert review must show that the care departed from the professional standard and caused additional injury.
Indiana's Medical Malpractice Act: What Makes These Cases Different
Indiana medical malpractice claims are governed by a specialized statutory system that differs from ordinary personal injury cases.
One of the first questions is whether the healthcare provider was qualified under Indiana's Medical Malpractice Act. Only qualified providers receive the Act's protections, including participation in the state's Patient's Compensation Fund. The Indiana Department of Insurance maintains a database that can be used to check a provider's qualification status.
For many qualifying claims, the plaintiff begins by filing a proposed complaint with the Indiana Department of Insurance rather than immediately filing the malpractice action in court.
The matter may then proceed through Indiana's medical review panel process. The panel reviews the medical evidence and gives an opinion regarding whether the provider acted within the appropriate standard of care and whether the conduct contributed to the alleged injury.
That panel opinion can become important evidence if the dispute later proceeds to court.
The live page correctly emphasizes that building a strong panel submission requires detailed medical records and qualified expert analysis. That substance has been retained here in a more concise form.
Medical Review Panels And Qualified Providers
Indiana's malpractice system can become technical quickly.
Whether the Medical Malpractice Act applies, which defendants are qualified providers, how the proposed complaint should be prepared, and whether a claim must go through a panel all depend on the particular facts and defendants.
How Much Time Do You Have To File?
Indiana generally requires a medical malpractice claim to be filed within two years from the date of the alleged malpractice. A child who was under six when the alleged malpractice occurred generally has until the child's eighth birthday, and other limited exceptions can apply.
The filing process itself can affect the deadline. Filing a proposed complaint tolls the applicable limitations period through 90 days after the claimant receives the medical review panel's opinion.
These rules are one reason patients should not wait until they are certain malpractice occurred before seeking legal advice. Obtaining records, consulting experts, and determining whether the Act applies can take time.
A prompt review does not commit you to filing a lawsuit. It helps preserve the ability to evaluate what happened before a deadline becomes the central problem.
What Compensation Can You Recover?
Compensation depends on the nature of the injury, the medical evidence, financial losses, future care needs, and the provisions of Indiana's Medical Malpractice Act.
Potential damages may include:
- Additional medical expenses
- Future treatment and rehabilitation
- Lost income
- Reduced future earning ability
- Pain and suffering
- Disability or permanent impairment
- Other losses recognized by Indiana law
Indiana also limits damages in claims governed by the Medical Malpractice Act. Because of this and individual case factors, there is no meaningful “average medical malpractice settlement” that can predict what an individual claim is worth.
Value may depend on:
- The strength of the negligence evidence
- How clearly the medical error caused the injury
- The severity and permanence of the harm
- Past and future medical costs
- Lost income or diminished earning capacity
- Available statutory recovery
- The credibility of supporting expert testimony
A permanent brain injury, birth injury, or death presents very different losses from an injury that fully resolves.
The better question is not “What does the average case pay?” but “What losses can the evidence establish in this particular case?”
Serving Merrillville, Schererville, Valparaiso & All Of Northwest Indiana
Schafer & Schafer is based in Merrillville and represents injured patients throughout Northwest Indiana.
That includes families in:
- Merrillville
- Schererville
- Valparaiso
- Hammond
- Gary
- Crown Point
- Hobart
- Portage
- Lake County
- Porter County
- Surrounding Northwest Indiana communities
Someone searching for Merrillville medical malpractice lawyers or a medical negligence attorney elsewhere in the region should not have to choose between a local firm and a team capable of handling complex malpractice litigation.
Schafer & Schafer offers both.
Our attorneys know Northwest Indiana, the regional healthcare landscape, and the courts where these disputes may ultimately be litigated. We also represent Northwest Indiana residents whose medical care occurred across the state line in Illinois.
Why Choose Schafer & Schafer
Medical malpractice cases are not simple negligence claims.
They require extensive records, medical analysis, qualified experts, procedural knowledge, and the resources to pursue claims against hospitals, insurers, physicians, and healthcare systems that may vigorously defend their care.
Schafer & Schafer has represented injured families in Northwest Indiana for decades. Our firm focuses on personal injury and wrongful death litigation and brings substantial experience to complex medical negligence matters.
When you are ready to take that first step toward justice, contact us for a free consultation.
Talk With A Northwest Indiana Medical Malpractice Lawyer
If a medical error left you or someone you love with a serious injury, you do not have to know whether malpractice occurred before calling a lawyer.
That is what the investigation is for.
Schafer & Schafer can review the circumstances, obtain and evaluate records, determine which Indiana malpractice rules apply, and explain your options in plain language.
Call (219) 947-1911 or contact us for a free consultation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can You Sue For Medical Malpractice In Indiana?
Yes, when the evidence supports a claim that a healthcare provider failed to meet the applicable standard of care and caused injury.
Claims involving providers qualified under Indiana's Medical Malpractice Act can also be subject to the state's specialized complaint and medical review panel process.
How Do I Know If A Medical Mistake Was Actually Malpractice?
A bad result alone is not enough.
The key question is whether the provider's conduct fell below the accepted standard of care and caused additional harm. Reviewing the medical records with appropriately qualified experts is often necessary before that question can be answered responsibly.
How Long Do I Have To File A Medical Malpractice Claim In Indiana?
The general rule is two years from the alleged malpractice, with special provisions for young children and other potential exceptions. Filing a proposed complaint can also affect how the limitations period is calculated.
Because the correct deadline is fact-specific, have it reviewed rather than relying only on a general online deadline.
Do I Have To Prove The Doctor Intended To Hurt Me?
No.
Medical malpractice is generally based on negligence, not an intention to cause harm. The issue is whether the provider failed to meet the required professional standard and whether that failure caused the patient's injury.
How Much Does A Medical Malpractice Lawyer Cost?
Schafer & Schafer states that it handles qualifying malpractice cases on a contingency-fee basis, meaning the attorney fee depends on obtaining a recovery. The initial case review is free.
