What the Media Does Not Understand about Premises Liability

A woman recently sued Dunkin’ Donuts and settled her premises liability case for $522,000. The media has had a bit of a field day with the story (as have the commenters on the sites covering the news) because they assume that this is another hot coffee lawsuit. In actuality, the victim “tripped over an exposed…

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Why Medical Malpractice Lawsuits Rely on Expert Testimony

Medical malpractice is defined as “improper, unskilled, or negligent treatment of a patient by a physician, dentist, nurse, pharmacist, or other health care professional.” In order to prove that a healthcare provider was negligent, and that the negligence led to a breach of duty and harm to a patient, attorneys consult with experts in the…

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The FDA Warns about the Dangers of Medication Errors from Drug Mix-ups

The Food and Drug Administration has issued a safety advisory to doctors, pharmacists and patients to check both the prescription and the label on medicine bottles before taking a new prescription drug. They have received several reports concerning prescription errors with regard to drugs with similar sounding names, but with completely different purposes. For example,…

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Medical Malpractice and the Rise of Gastric Bypass Surgical Errors

The rise in popularity of gastric bypass and other surgical weight loss procedures is directly linked to the rising obesity rates in the Unites States. Gastric bypass is a bariatric surgery technique which treats morbid obesity by dividing the stomach into a small pouch and re-routing the small intestine. This procedure reduces the volume of…

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Can a Blood Test Detect Traumatic Brain Injury?

A new blood test being developed may be able to detect traumatic brain injury, or TBI, according to an article published in the Journal of Neurotrauma. TBIs affect about 1.7 million people each year, and it is one of the leading causes of death and disability, according to the CDC. Until this point, doctors relied…

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FDA Approves Praluent a Pricey New Cholesterol-lowering Drug

On July 24, 2015, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration approved Praluent (alirocumab) the first in a new class of cholesterol-lowering drugs known as PCSK9 inhibitors (protein convertase subtilisin kexin type 9). This new class of medications hold the promise of reducing heart attacks and strokes, which kill approximately 610,000 Americans every year. The PCSK9…

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New Report Links Robotic Surgery to 144 Deaths Since 2000

A team of researchers from MIT, Rush University Medical Center, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have published a paper on Adverse Events in Robotic Surgery, which takes a look at the causes and patient impacts of surgical adverse events in an effort to improve operational systems and practices in the future. After reviewing more…

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How Do Doctors Deal with Medical Mistakes?

Preventable medical errors are frightfully frequent in modern medicine. Research in the Journal of Patient Safety estimates that upwards of 440,000 people die each year and thousands more are injured in the United States from medical errors. This makes medical/hospital mistakes the third leading cause of death for Americans. Doctors (as we and they may…

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Is There a Link Between Glyburide and Gestational Diabetes?

A recent study that was published in the JAMA Pediatrics on the risk of birth injury connected to gestational diabetes has been connected to the mother’s use of glyburide during pregnancy. Glyburide, which is sold under the brand names, DiaBeta and Micronage, is an oral diabetes medication that controls blood sugar levels in people with…

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Central Line Infections Are Deadly

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are an estimated 30,100 central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSA) in U.S. health care facilities each year. These are serious infections that cause the prolongation of hospital stays and increased risk of death. These infections are preventable through the use of proper insertion techniques and the…

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Study Links Sugary Drinks to High Death Tolls around the World

Most people probably understand that drinking too many sugary drinks is not good for their health. Now a group of researchers from Tufts University in Boston have published a study in the medical journal, Circulation, which puts the death toll from consuming sugary drinks at 180,000 adult deaths each year worldwide. Dariush Mozaffarian, M.D. Dr.P.H.,…

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The Heartbreaking Truths about Stillbirths

When you work in the world of medical malpractice, and especially when your job involves helping the victims of that malpractice, you have to learn to separate your emotions from your work; sometimes it is the only way to effectively help someone. But there are some stories, and some cases, that make it almost impossible…

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