trial coming up & atty.bailing-help!

What is the name of your state?California
I will try to make this as short as possible. I am in desperate need of some help. Two years ago I had a 2 disc fusion w/bone graft from hip. (Doc operated on wrong hip also). Anyways I developed a staph & streph infection. Was re-admitted 10 days later and had 2 more surgeries. I & D's. I didn't even wake up in between the 2 surgeries. Doc put in retention sutures on last surgery. I also received 10 units of blood during those surgeries but noone knows why. There are no records other then the one showing I received 10 units. I had stitches in for 78 days, came home with IV and received antibodies for 3 1/2 months 24/7. Had home nurse for 4 months. Had another surgery 5 months later as I still had a paraspinal abscess. This time I just had a needle aspiration. Was treated by infectious disease doc who claimed I got infections from hospital but he couldn't say where. i.e. operating room, recovery room etc. I should add I was showing signs of infections before I was even discharged from my first surgery. I was in bed for 4 months, couldn't walk, sit, it was the most painful horrible time of my life.
One month before the deadline of filing a lawsuit, I found a lawyer who took my case. I tried a few atty's. but noone would take my case as I didn't have the money they wanted. 25,000.plus. Anyways this atty is not a med-mal but wanted to learn. She was gung ho at the begining and things were moving along. I applied for a lawsuit funding and they gave me 25,000. She hired a paralegal (made me pay for her) and we won the summary judgement. I should add she missed a few deadlines, didn't know how to do things etc. Luckily the judge is in our favor and denied defense the motions etc. that they filed. He even post-poned our trial and re-opened discovery til the day of trial. We have been unable to find an expert other than a nurse expert that takes care of the standard of care. I have spent about 8,000. looking for either an infectious disease or an ortho expert. Either they have the same insurance co. or they say my case is not solid enough etc. To tell the truth I'm not really sure what they have said. My lawyer has begun to lie to me (after she found out that I had been calling around to get info). She did admit to me that she had never been to trial and was afraid. I don't think she has even done a depo. She totally blew a depo of my infectious doc. He lied about a few things and she wouldn't call him on it claiming she didn't want to make him look bad. But what about me?? Also I should add that none of the experts had the same info to review. We had trouble getting hospital records and atty had to do a motion to get the rest of the records. She had to go to hospital herself and found many, many records that were not given to us.
I also complained to the health dept and they made a surprise visit to hospital and fined them with 2 federal citations. One being they did not keep a surgical count during my surgeries, and the other more important they did not have an infection control program in place. They were not keeping track or reporting any infections. They couldn't even give them any information on me or the other 3 patients of my ortho surgeon's who also had infections from same hospital. Ok now comes the good part, my atty was hoping to settle before trial but the insurance co we are sueing owns almost all the hospitals in my county and are using the fact that she has no med-mal experience. They have even sent her a letter threatening her with that fact. So now she's getting mean and is demanding more and more from me. When I refuse, she keeps threatening to quit on me. Can she? I don't know what to do. I can't sleep at nite, I am so torn. My husband and I are fighting cause he wants to go all the way, so do I, but I can't find an expert or an atty. without money. I even paid $2,000. for an expert that also said case had gray areas but wouldn't take it. Come to find out, he was so expensive cause the deadline for expert witnesses was due. Makes me sick that I had to pay 2,000 for nothing!) Other docs were only $500-600.(she filed late with fictious experts). We are on social security and have no more money. Original law suit was filed for $1,450,000. Now since trial is set for Oct.12 she wants me to go to mediation and try to settle for 50,000. She will try to get funding group that gave me money to settle for 1/3. I told her no and she sent me a letter a few days ago demanding 25,000. by the 28th of Aug. to continue my case or she will no longer be my atty. She knows I don't have the money. I am desperate, I don't know what to do. I have even thought of suicide. I am in more pain and more disabled than before I had my first surgery. Defense doctors that I went to even said I would need multiple surgeries etc. in the future. My atty. said they helped me as far as damages but not causation, which is what we need. Please, some one help me. I don't know what to do. I hope I explained enough for someone to help me, even though I'm sure I left alot out. HELP! SOSPLEASE

sosplease
I don't think your attorney can bail out on you without the court's permission; maybe IAAl or stephenk will answer your post. I believe they are CA attorneys.

I don't understand the basis for your lawsuit as development of infection(s) is a known risk. You would have to prove that the damages would not have occurred (more likely than not) without one or more acts of negligence. No matter how many negligent acts are found, ie. not providing an accurate count, you must prove that the damages are directly related to the negligence. Not counting supplies in the OR did not cause the infections and result in further surgery, UNLESS something was left in you because of the failure to count the supplies.

To prove negligence caused the infections, you are going to have to prove that the MD and/or the hospital knew or should have known that infection control measures were not being provided at or above the minimum standard of care. That will be difficult to prove. An infection control nurse or QA nurse expert may be of benefit in determining whether or not the MD or the facility had an infection control problem and failed to take corrective actions and as a result, you suffered these damages.

If you can prove that negligence caused the infections and additional surgeries and treatments, you should be able to use the additional acts of negligence to increase the monetary value of your claim.

I'm don't understand why your attorney is not pursuing the easier of the claims of medmal--operating on the wrong hip. I believe that is medical battery (though I am not an attorney and I can not state that as fact).

Do a search on the net for physician experts, orthopedics. You should be able to find an MD to review the records and to render an opinion, even if the deadline is approaching. Search for a medical battery expert, also.

I hope it is possible for you to find an experienced attorney willing to join your case and protect you from the inexperienced attorney. Is your attorney independent or part of a larger firm where more experienced attorneys may be available to assist in your case?

You may want to consult with an attorney with experience in attorney malpractice and gather information and/or representation to ensure that your case is not lost due to an inexperienced attorney's freaking out and losing your chances to be heard in court.

EC

The reference to the "wrong hip" sounds very peculiar. Without details you cannot expect any answers.
However, the plain fact is that if it were indeed a solid lawsuit there would be no dearth of experienced attorneys willing to take your case on contingency. Since they all expect you to come up front with so much money means the case is weak.
Although your judge appears sympathetic at this point, you still have to prove your allegations. As ellencee pointed out, that is going to be extremely difficult.