New York Medical Malpractice Attorney

This video features Sonna F. Goldstein, a Personal Injury attorney based in New York.

Over 30 Years’ Experience Helping Injured New Yorkers

Video Transcript:

Sonna Goldstein: 

When clients come to us, they often don't know what happened other than that they do know something went wrong.

Rob Rosenthal: 

So if you think you or a loved one may have a medical malpractice case, how do you know and how do you get help? We're gonna find out right now, because that's the question we're gonna Ask the Lawyer today on this episode of Ask the lawyer. Hi again everybody, I'm Rob Rosenthal with askthelawyers.com and my guest is New York City lawyer Sonna Goldstein. I wanna tell you right off the top, if you'd like to ask Sonna questions of your own, go to askthelawyers.com, click the button at the top of the page, that says Ask a Lawyer, or you can just call the phone number that's on the screen when we talk to Sonna. Sonna it's good to see you. Thank you for helping us out today.

Sonna Goldstein: 

Thank you, nice to see you as well.

Rob Rosenthal: 

Let's just start with a little bit of your background and your experience in the medical malpractice field.

Sonna Goldstein: 

Great. Well, I've been a plaintiff's personal injury attorney for over 30 years, helping injured New Yorkers seek the redress they deserve for their serious injuries. I have a particular focus and interest on medical malpractice cases where New Yorkers have been seriously injured due to wrongs committed by doctors or hospitals. I am well-versed in all phases of personal injury litigation. I've spent many years in the courthouses conducting trials, handling depositions, working on appeals, all phases of case preparation.

Rob Rosenthal: 

What is it about medical malpractice that speaks to you, why that?

Sonna Goldstein: 

Well, it's interesting, I grew up in a family with a lot of medical professionals. It was my father, my sister, my husband, brother-in-law, they're all in the medical field, so I'm familiar with the terminology and I really understand how medical operations function. So that gives me a comfort level when I look at medical records, when I talk to clients about their experiences, I feel like I have a unique insight. Luckily, I ended up becoming a lawyer and being able to help those victims and represent them.

Rob Rosenthal: 

So let's talk about the victims a little bit. Let's say someone is pretty sure or they're not sure that there's been a medical malpractice, what can you do for them, what can an attorney do for them?

Sonna Goldstein: 

Well, medical malpractice cases are particularly complicated, and then we have the experience and the resources to be successful. We are able to tap into a large network of medical experts who we work with to help us zone in on the particulars of our client's cases. Medical malpractice and other serious injury cases, I find when the clients first come to us, they are physically damaged, they're often confused about what has happened to them, and they are looking to us to guide them through the legal process, of course. We provide them really with a voice. And I like to think that at the end of a case, when we are successful and have obtained compensation for them, that we not only restore them with some dignity, but also with a real understanding as to medically, what did happen to them or a loved one.

Rob Rosenthal: 

It seems to me that some of these cases, you could be going up against a big corporation, some of these hospitals are parts of big corporations or big insurance companies. Do you feel like you guys help to level that playing field, because I'm sure the person injured feels like they have no chance.

Sonna Goldstein: 

Absolutely. And as I mentioned, when they... When clients come to us, they often don't know what happened other than that they do know something went wrong. I've found very often that in personal injury cases, medical malpractice cases, it's not just our client who comes in injured, but in fact the entire family is affected. Often our clients are unable to go on with their daily lives. They are unable to work, which has an income effect on a family. They are unable often to care for their children now. They really rely on an extended network of family and friends to help them, whatever it is they're going through, whatever treatment they're undergoing of at the time. And so we're able to provide them with some support as they work through their process.

Rob Rosenthal: 

Sonna I would imagine, like you said, these medical malpractice cases don't just affect the person that's injured, they can affect everyone around them. Tell me more about that.

Sonna Goldstein: 

Yes, well, when someone is severely injured, and we handle all kinds of medical malpractice cases. But imagine a doctor fails to timely diagnose your cancer, thyroid cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer, and by the time you are diagnosed, you're very late stage, which has drastic and dire ramifications, not only on your treatment, but on your prognosis. And your family is now along for all the surgeries and the extreme treatment that you undergo, and whatever care you need in the home, your inability now to go to work. Your inability to just carry on a life has been drastically altered and those around you as well. Ultimately, as we're evaluating damages on a case, it's much more than just an injury. There's greater damages, which are these effects on somebody's daily life, their family's life, just their whole quality of being has changed.

Rob Rosenthal: 

That makes a lot of sense. Can you give me a couple of case examples that you've worked on, and that you can tell us about.

Sonna Goldstein: 

I can tell you about one particular recent case involving a gentleman who was not timely diagnosed with thyroid cancer. He's undergone multiple surgeries, he's had drastic treatment cancers, and again, all because he was late diagnosed, so that changes his stage, and unfortunately for him, it has extreme ramifications to his prognosis. So I was actually able to deliver that settlement check to him, and it felt really wonderful. It felt wonderful knowing that as a family man, he has four children, he's married, he has grandchildren. And while his quality of interaction with his grandchildren has drastically changed, he tried to work throughout all his treatments, but ultimately he was unable to continue with that, so there's financial constraints on the family. Knowing that we were giving him the ability to have some small piece of mind, that regardless of what his actual outcome will be, he knows that his family... He's leaving them being taken care of and that the fact that we can give him that piece of mind it's very satisfying and all because he was wronged at the hands of a doctor.

Rob Rosenthal: 

Wow. Do you have any other cases you can tell us about?

Sonna Goldstein: 

Well, I'd just like to talk to you generally about the effects on families who end up with a baby who has suffered brain damage or other catastrophic injury as a result of medical malpractice. These families in particular, I admire very much. They have children, a baby that will always be a baby, despite the fact that the baby will grow and on some level develop, but perhaps never be able to care for itself, speak, show love to a parent, really just basic human things that we take for granted. And the fact that we're able to help these families, get them compensation so that they can care for their child's in the best way that they would like to, for the life that's ahead of all of them, is wonderful.

Rob Rosenthal: 

Sonna, thank you for making some time to answer our questions, I appreciate it.

Sonna Goldstein: 

Thank you.

Rob Rosenthal: 

And that's gonna do it for this episode of Ask the Lawyer. My guest has been New York City Attorney Sonna Goldstein. I remind you, if you'd like to ask Sonna questions of your own, just gotta askthelawyers.com, click the button in the upper right hand corner that says, Ask a Lawyer. And it doesn't cost you anything to ask questions. Thanks for watching. I'm Rob Rosenthal with Ask the Lawyers.

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