In the wake of sudden tragedy, we often find our thoughts to be flooded with questions of why? How could this have happened? How could it have been prevented? You start picking apart the little details, trying to find the exact moment when things went wrong, where they reached a point of no return. Eventually, all the little issues might start to stack up and point back to one answer–one thing that could have allowed for the crisis to be averted. You realize that the incident really could have been prevented if only the proper precautions were taken.
If this is all sounds familiar, you might be the victim of a wrongful death or injury, and this very situation is a lot more common than you might expect. In fact, accidents are the fourth leading cause of death in the United States, behind heart disease, cancer, and covid-19. There are approximately 300,000 cases of accidental deaths and 400,000 personal injury cases reported annually in the U.S. If you or a loved one are a part of this number, it’s important to know what you’re entitled to.
Car Accidents
If you’ve ever been afraid of flying, then surely you’ve heard the saying that you’re more likely to die on the way to the airport than on your flight–and it’s the truth! Road-related accidents are so common, in fact, that you have at least a 30% chance of ending up in a fender-bender each time you get behind the wheel. Of the almost six million car crashes that occur in the United States each year, approximately 40,000 result in a fatality–with roughly 1200 road-related deaths each year in Chicago alone.
The top causes of car accidents in the United States include; driving while under the influence, driving while distracted, and otherwise reckless driving. What do these causes all have in common? They are all rooted in negligence. Each time a person gets behind the wheel, they are taking on the responsibility of keeping others safe by following all traffic laws. If a driver does not fulfill their duty of safety and their negligence causes another person’s death, then they could find themselves subject to a wrongful death lawsuit and be forced to give financial compensation to the victim’s family for any medical bills, lost wages, and additional pain and suffering.
Medical Malpractice
Many people get nervous anytime they have to go to the hospital, and this fear is certainly justified given the fact that medical errors are found to be the cause of nearly 100,000 deaths each year, making up almost 10% of annual deaths in the United States.
One of the top errors reported in medical malpractice lawsuits is misdiagnosis, where a doctor simply reads a patient’s chart incorrectly and fails to alert them of a serious health condition. The doctor could be held negligible for the patient’s death in this case because were it not for their failure to correctly diagnose the patient, then the patient might have survived. Another common cause of medical malpractice-related fatalities is surgical errors, where a doctor makes even the tiniest mistake–maybe improper sterilization, maybe a knick in a vital organ–that changes the trajectory of the whole procedure and causes the death of the patient.
If someone you love suffers from a wrongful death at the hands of their healthcare provider, you should consider filing a wrongful death lawsuit against their practice. Doing so could earn you and your family financial compensation for any pain and suffering that you experienced, and could also help to prevent any other families from facing the same tragedy.
Worker’s Compensation
No one expects their regular 9-5 work day to end in tragedy, but the possibility is entirely real. If you lose a loved one in a workplace incident, you are entitled to benefits through the workers compensation program. However, these benefits only cover a fraction of the victim’s lost wages, without even beginning to provide compensation for the pain and suffering that you face as a result of losing your loved one. If you suspect that your loved one’s employer failed to comply with safety regulations put in place by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), you should file a wrongful death lawsuit so that you can receive the full compensation you are entitled to. Filing a wrongful death lawsuit could also help to reinforce the importance of safety in the workplace and could prevent another family from having to go through the same heartache of losing a loved one to employer negligence.
