Iowa Medical Malpractice Attorneys Fighting For You

Last updated on September 7, 2026

When a physician or another medical professional commits an act of negligence that results in the injury or death of a patient, they have committed medical malpractice. If you are injured, have an injured loved one or have lost a family member, it is crucial to seek the counsel of an experienced attorney if you suspect medical malpractice.

At the West Des Moines, Iowa, law firm of Slater Law, LLC, we have extensive experience in the practice area of medical malpractice. Combined, our attorneys have over 40 years of experience and have obtained significant verdicts and settlements for our clients. Our attorneys were born and raised in Iowa and focus their practice on helping fellow Iowans get the compensation they deserve.

We represent clients throughout West Des Moines and Des Moines, as well as across the entire state of Iowa. We’re here for you when you need us, no matter where you’re located. To set up a completely free initial consultation, send an inquiry through our contact form or simply call us at 866-412-5937 today.

Thomas and Reagan Slater bring something truly unique to every medical malpractice case they take on – a father-daughter trial partnership built on over 40 years of combined legal experience. That depth of experience means they understand how to build a case that holds up, both at the negotiating table and in the courtroom.

They dig deep into medical records, looking for the critical details, the “smoking gun,” which can make or break a case. A missed diagnosis, a documentation gap or a questionable treatment decision can all point to negligence, and finding that evidence early is key to building a strong claim on your behalf.

Des Moines Medical Malpractice Attorneys With The Knowledge And Skill To Handle Your Case

Was medical malpractice responsible? If you believe you have a claim, it is essential to seek advice from an experienced Des Moines medical malpractice lawyer. Due to the subject matter involved, medical malpractice cases are extremely complex by their very nature. We understand what it takes to make a successful claim and have extensive experience pursuing claims on behalf of individuals and families involving:

• Surgical errors: Mistakes during surgery can lead to severe and life-threatening complications.
• Failure to diagnose: When a medical professional fails to correctly identify a condition, it can lead to delayed or incorrect treatment.
• Birth injuries: Injuries to a newborn or mother during the birthing process due to negligent care.
• Emergency room and medication errors: Mistakes in high-pressure environments that can result in severe harm or death.
• Anesthesia errors: Errors in administering anesthesia can cause serious injury or death.
• Misdiagnosis: Incorrectly diagnosing a condition can prevent patients from receiving the proper treatment.
• Nursing home malpractice: Neglect or abuse in nursing homes that leads to harm to residents.

We pursue claims involving negligence by many parties, including nurses, doctors, patient care technicians, occupational therapists, physical therapists and hospital administrators. We have settled many of these types of cases in our more than 40 years of practice. We are dedicated to serving our clients.

Who Can Be Held Liable In A Medical Malpractice Case?

Medical malpractice claims often involve multiple parties, not just the doctor or medical professional who directly treated you. Liability can extend to a variety of healthcare professionals and organizations that contributed to the negligence. Depending on the specifics of your case, those who may be held liable include:

• Nurses and nursing staff for improper care or monitoring
• Pharmacists for prescription errors or improper dosages
• Anesthesiologists for administering incorrect anesthesia levels
• Hospital administrators for failing to maintain a safe environment
• Pharmaceutical companies or medical device manufacturers for defective products

By identifying all liable parties, we can pursue the full compensation you deserve, making sure no responsible party is overlooked.

What Are Common Causes Of Medical Malpractice?

Medical malpractice often results from systemic issues or individual lapses in judgment. The most common causes stem from failures in communication, protocols and patient care standards. These issues include:

• Poor communication between doctors, nurses and other medical staff, leading to errors in treatment.
• Inadequate patient monitoring, which can cause critical changes in a patient’s condition to go unnoticed.
• Lack of informed consent, leaving patients unaware of risks or alternative treatment options.
• Fatigue or overwork of medical professionals, resulting in mistakes or oversights.
• Systemic failures in the hospital or healthcare system, such as faulty equipment or understaffing.

Our firm has a deep understanding of these causes and works relentlessly to hold negligent parties accountable.

How Hospital Liability Works

Iowa law recognizes two ways a hospital can be held liable for patient harm. The first involves the actions of its staff. The legal principle behind this is straightforward: an employer can be held accountable for the actions of its employees when those actions happen within the scope of their work. When a hospital employee, such as a nurse, technician or staff physician, acts negligently while doing their job, the hospital can share responsibility for that harm.
The second way involves the hospital’s own decisions and practices. If a hospital fails to properly screen the medical professionals it hires, understaffs its facility or fails to maintain safe conditions and working equipment, it can face liability for those failures independently.

What Standard Of Care Violation Looks Like

Standard of care can take many forms. These failures can occur at any point in your care, and they do not always involve an obvious or dramatic mistake. Here are some examples: 

• Failing to diagnose or misdiagnosing a condition that should have been identified
• Prescribing the wrong medication or the wrong dosage
• Performing an unnecessary surgical procedure
• Making an error during surgery that causes additional harm
• Failing to order appropriate tests or ignoring abnormal test results
• Discharging a patient too early without proper evaluation

These are just some of the ways a provider’s care can fall short of what the law and the medical community expect.

Why Having The Right Medical Expert Matters

A qualified medical expert reviews your records, analyzes what happened during your care and gives a professional opinion on whether the standard of care was met. More importantly, they translate complicated medical language into plain terms that a jury can actually understand and connect with. That ability to bridge the gap between medical complexity and courtroom clarity can carry enormous weight in the outcome of your case.
To qualify as a medical expert witness in Iowa, a person generally must have active knowledge and experience in the same medical field as the provider whose care is in question. This typically means a licensed medical professional, such as a physician, surgeon or specialist, who currently practices or has significant hands-on experience in the relevant area of medicine.

How Common Is Medical Malpractice In Iowa?

According to the Iowa Judicial Branch, there are an average of 160 medical malpractice cases each year. These cases result in millions being paid out in both economic and noneconomic damages. The specific amount varies from year to year, but here are three of the most recent annual totals:

• 2022: $17.6 million
• 2021: $12.6 million
• 2020: $16.8 million

That said, reports indicate that malpractice could happen far more often than people realize. For instance, the Heartland Health Research Institute conducted a poll that determined that nearly one out of every five people in Iowa – specifically, 19% – knew someone who suffered an avoidable medical mistake or had suffered one themselves. The majority (60%) claimed the medical staff did not tell them about the mistake.

What Types Of Damages Can I Recover From A Medical Malpractice Claim?

Victims of medical malpractice may be entitled to various forms of compensation. The damages you can recover depend on the extent of harm suffered and can include:

• Economic damages: Reimbursement for medical bills, ongoing care needs and lost wages due to time away from work
• Noneconomic damages: Compensation for physical pain, emotional suffering and diminished quality of life
• Punitive damages: Awarded in cases involving reckless or willful misconduct by medical professionals

Our legal team will thoroughly assess your case, working to secure the maximum compensation available while advocating for your rights every step of the way.

Do You Have A Case?

Medical malpractice cases can be extremely complex. Often, patients are not precisely sure how medical malpractice is defined – it is more than just experiencing a negative outcome and often involves negligence on the part of a medical professional trusted to provide appropriate patient care. Every case is unique, and negligence can take many forms – failing to monitor a patient correctly, mixing up medications, performing wrong-site surgery, delaying a critical diagnosis, etc.

If you do have a viable case and have suffered harm, you need to show how the medical professional owed you a duty of care, breached or violated that duty and caused you direct harm, potentially leading to both economic and noneconomic damages. Our malpractice lawyers have the necessary experience to challenge liable parties in this area of law.

Additionally, remember that many parties may be involved in malpractice cases, and large hospitals often have their own legal teams set up to fight these patient claims. It’s difficult to navigate this process alone, and attempting to do so could prevent you from seeking the compensation you deserve. If you have experienced medical malpractice, contact us as soon as possible so we can gather any available evidence that is needed for your claim.

What Constitutes Medical Malpractice Under Iowa Law?

Medical malpractice happens when a healthcare provider acts negligently while caring for a patient and that negligence directly causes harm. In Iowa, the law measures negligence by looking at the accepted standard of care – meaning what a competent healthcare provider in the same field would have reasonably done under similar circumstances.

A bad medical outcome does not automatically mean malpractice occurred. Medical treatments do not always go as planned, and not every complication points to wrongdoing. What truly matters is whether the provider’s actions fell short of what any other competent professional in their field would have done.

What Is The Deadline To File A Medical Malpractice Claim In Iowa?

In most medical malpractice cases, Iowa law gives you two years to file your claim. That two-year clock starts running from the point when you actually knew – or reasonably should have known – that malpractice caused your harm.

Iowa also has a six-year absolute deadline, known as a statute of repose. Regardless of when you discovered the harm, Iowa law bars you from filing a medical malpractice lawsuit once six years have passed from the date the malpractice took place. Even if you had no way of knowing you were harmed during that time, the six-year deadline still applies.

However, there is one important exception to the six-year rule. If a surgeon or medical professional unintentionally left a foreign object, such as a surgical instrument or sponge, inside your body, the two-year window starts from the date you discovered the object.

Why Is Investigating Medical Records For A “Smoking Gun” Critical To My Case?

Medical malpractice cases are rarely straightforward. They rely heavily on evidence, and your medical records are often the most important evidence you have.

A “smoking gun” in a medical malpractice case refers to a piece of evidence in those records that clearly shows something went wrong. It could be a missed diagnosis that a competent provider should have caught, a medication error, a gap in treatment notes or a documented decision that fell below the accepted standard of care. Finding that critical piece of evidence can make the difference between a strong case and one that is difficult to prove.

Place Your Case In Experienced Hands

You can rely on our firm to aggressively pursue the maximum compensation you deserve while providing you with the individual attention you deserve. Our firm will focus on you with personal service and a commitment to your needs. Call our Iowa medical malpractice attorneys today toll free at 866-412-5937 for a free initial consultation or send us a message using our website.