Medical Negligence
Medical professionals sometimes make careless mistakes that ruin the lives of patients and their families. Coffey & Nichols has successfully represented hundreds of patients unnecessarily harmed by their medical care.
Necessity of an Expert Witness
Almost all medical negligence cases need an expert who believes and will testify that there was medical negligence, and that if things had been done right, the injury would have probably been avoided. Coffey & Nichols has access to experts willing to testify for patients if there has been malpractice.
Medical Malpractice Limits, or Caps
There are caps on non-monetary damages like pain and suffering in Missouri in medical negligence cases. Missouri Revised Statutes §538.210.2 and §538.205.1. The 2025 cap for most injuries is approximately $475,00 and $825,000 for catastrophic injuries and deaths, but they increase every year. Missouri Revised Statutes §538.210.10. To see what the cap is by year, click the link in the sidebar. It’s important to keep in mind that the cap is calculated at the time of trial.1 The cap does not apply to monetary losses, like medical bills, wage loss, lost capacity to earn or the loss of the value of household services.
The caps were held constitutional in Missouri courts.2
Medical Negligence Statute of Limitations
The statute of limitations in Missouri for medical negligence cases is generally two years from the medical negligence, not from when the patient discovered it. Missouri Revised Statutes §516.105.
However, when the negligence is placing or leaving a foreign object in the body, or not telling the patient about a test result, the patient has two years from when they knew or should have known about the object or test result to sue, with an outside limit of 10 years from the negligence. Missouri Revised Statutes §516.105.
When the patient is under 18 at the time of the injury, they have until their 20th birthday to sue. Missouri Revised Statutes §516.105(3).
If a medical provider actively hides their negligence, then the two years may begin from the time the concealment ended. Missouri Revised Statutes §516.280.3
If the health care provider continues to treat the patient after the injury, depending on the specific circumstances, the statute of limitations may not begin to run until the treatment ends.4
If medical negligence causes death, the statute of limitations is 3 years from death.5
Comparative Fault in Medical Negligence cases
Damages can be reduced for failure to follow medical advice or doing careless things that made your injury worse.6 However, if you are ill because of some poor health decisions in the past, that conduct does not necessarily count against you.7
What Are the Latest Medical Malpractice Caps?
Find Out at the Missouri Dept. of Insurance
Keep in mind that the cap is calculated at the time of trial, not at the time of filing or the time of a death.
Medical negligence cases we have handled
We can’t report the details about many of our medical negligence cases and because of confidentiality agreements, we can’t talk about a lot of our settlements. However, we can tell you about our verdicts and some of our settlements. In general, we have successfully represented people injured by: (specific cases are available as pdf links below)
- Hospital-acquired infections
- unqualified medical personnel
- Anesthesia negligence
- Emergency room mistakes
- Failures to diagnose or timely treat meningitis, heart attacks, impending paralysis, strokes, cancer, infections, fetal distress and kidney failure
- Boundary violations by psychiatrists, therapists
- OB/GYN mistakes like failure to perform a timely c-section or failed gynecological procedures
- Mistakes in the pediatric intensive care unit
- Failures to follow up on tests performed
- Failures to properly treat hand injuries
- Failures to diagnose bile leaks, cancer, spinal cord compression, stroke
- Surgical errors, including bad breast reconstructive surgery, removal of wrong kidney, careless bile duct surgery, negligent foot surgery, and faulty hip replacement
- Bad cataract surgeries
- IV infiltrations
- Nursing errors
- Post-operative bleeding
- Foreign objects left in the patient
- Nursing home and hospital negligence — bed sores, falls, other injuries
- Failure to diagnose and treat impending brain damage and paralysis
- Pharmacy malpractice
- Medication errors
Learn more | Our Results
Learn more | Additional Resources
If you are hurt by medical negligence, you may want to consider changing healthcare providers. If you are able, seek treatment outside the healthcare system where the incident occurred. Remember that you have the right to seek second opinions, and it’s perfectly acceptable to request one.
In cases involving a death, consider requesting an autopsy. While autopsies aren’t legally required in most cases, accepting one when offered is generally a good idea. Be aware that privately commissioned autopsies can cost thousands of dollars.
Case Law References
- Cook v. Newman, 142 S.W.3d 880, 894 (Mo. App. WD 2004)
- Ordinola v. Univ. Physician Assocs., 625 S.W.3d 445 (Mo. 2021)
- Clair v. Reprod. Health Servs., 720 S.W.2d 793 (Mo. App. ED 1986); Hershley v. Brown, 655 S.W.2d 671 (Mo. App. WD 1983)
- Newton v. Mercy Clinic E. Communities, 596 S.W.3d 625 (Mo. 2020)
- Wilson v. Jackson, 823 S.W.2d 512, 513 (Mo. App. ED 1992).
- Skinner v. Leggett & Platt, Inc., 325 S.W.3d 520, 523–524 (Mo. App. SD 2010)
- Van Vacter v. Hierholzer, 865 S.W.2d 355, 358–360 (Mo. App. WD 1993)