Left with a colostomy after a medical error

Attorney Answer

Whether this is malpractice turns on one question — whether the care you received fell below accepted medical practice and caused what happened to you — and New York gives you two and a half years to act, not the three most people assume.

What a claim has to show. A New York malpractice claim rests on three things: that a provider departed from accepted medical practice, that the departure caused your injury, and the harm that followed. You have described the harm clearly. The first two are what a claim is actually about, and both are established on medical evidence, usually through another physician who reviews your records and says what should have been done differently.

How the error felt does not change the standard. Words like "gross neglect" capture how serious this is, but the legal question is the same whether a mistake was small or glaring: did the care fall below accepted practice, and did that cause the colostomy and the pain. Framing it that way is also what keeps attention on the evidence that matters.

CPLR 214-a sets the period:

An action for medical, dental or podiatric malpractice must be commenced within two years and six months of the act, omission or failure complained of or last treatment where there is continuous treatment for the same illness, injury or condition which gave rise to the said act, omission or failure

Two things in that sentence matter. The period is two years and six months, not the three years most people assume for an injury in New York. And it can run from the last treatment, not the procedure, where treatment for the same condition continued — so the clock depends on dates this page does not have, and it should never be counted from the day of the procedure alone.

If a city, a county or the State runs the hospital, the first deadline is far shorter. Against a public corporation, General Municipal Law § 50-e(1)(a) requires a notice of claim:

the notice of claim shall comply with and be served in accordance with the provisions of this section within ninety days after the claim arises; except that in wrongful death actions, the ninety days shall run from the appointment of a representative of the decedent

and § 50-i(1)(c) then limits the lawsuit itself to one year and ninety days from the event, though a court can sometimes allow a late notice under § 50-e(5). A State-run hospital is different again: the claim goes to the Court of Claims, and Court of Claims Act § 10(3) requires a claim, or a notice of intention to file one, within ninety days of accrual. Finding out who runs the hospital is therefore the first fact to establish.

The harm you describe reaches well into the future. A colostomy, chronic pain and an inability to work affect ongoing medical care, lost earnings now and later, and daily life. That is part of why records and timing matter so much, and why this is a claim to take to a specialist rather than to raise informally with the provider.

What you can do

1. Request your complete records from the provider and hospital involved — the procedure, everything before it, and everything after.

2. Put together the date of the procedure and the dates of every later visit with the same provider. Those dates decide which clock applies.

3. Find out who ran the hospital or clinic — private, or a city, county or State one. A public provider means a ninety-day notice.

4. Keep the records of the doctors treating you now, and anything showing the work you have missed.

5. Consult a New York medical malpractice attorney soon. Most will review records at no cost to say whether there is a claim.

⏱ Time limits apply. CPLR 214-a gives two years and six months from the act or from the last continuous treatment for the same condition, and if the hospital is public, a ninety-day notice deadline under General Municipal Law § 50-e or the Court of Claims Act § 10 comes first. Which applies depends on dates and facts a page cannot see — take them to a New York medical malpractice attorney promptly, and do not count from a calendar yourself.

A New York attorney can look at the specifics quickly, and most offer a short first conversation at no cost. A few minutes on your actual facts is worth more than any general guidance, this page included.