Medical Malpractice
Patient Sues Her Doctor for Removing the Wrong Rib and Trying to Cover it Up
When a doctor makes a big mistake during surgery, do you think that they should apologize for the error? One doctor at Yale New Haven Hospital allegedly made a big surgical error, but not only did they not apologize, they lied and tried to cover up the mistake. Deborah Crave, a 60-year-old patient had surgery…
Read MoreMedical Malpractice Lawsuit Filed over Serious Back Injury from a Botched Lumbar Puncture
When you are suffering from severe symptoms and you need emergency care, who do you trust more than your doctor at your local hospital to fix you up and send you on your way? In most cases, that is what happens. Unfortunately, an Illinois woman had a less than satisfying outcome after visiting Centegra Hospital-McHenry…
Read MoreBarry J. Nace Achieves Distinction Five Decades in the Making
Nace Law Group is proud to announce that Founder and Senior Partner Barry J. Nace has achieved something very rare. Mr. Nace has been representing victims of medical malpractice and hospital malpractice for more than 40 years. He has been representing plaintiffs in malpractice cases since 1972, when he won his first case: a $20,000 award…
Read MoreMedical Malpractice from Communication Failures and Handoff Errors in a Healthcare Setting
The technical term for the problem of communication failures and handoff errors in the medical field is discontinuity. A doctor who is treating a patient will hand them off to the next doctor when their shift ends, the nurses who administer care also change shifts and they must successfully transfer clinical information to the next…
Read MoreInadequate Postoperative Care that Amounts to Medical Malpractice
Medical negligence can occur with regard to postoperative care. Doctors and nurses must monitor their patients diligently following a surgical procedure to make sure that they are healing properly and that there are no complications. A fairly common postoperative complication is infection. An infection in the area of the surgical site can spread and lead…
Read MoreCommon Reasons Doctors are Sued for Medical Malpractice
Physicians receive years of training and they devote years to the study and practice of medicine because they understand that human error, when it takes place in a medical setting, can mean the difference between life and death. Every doctor is aware of the lasting consequences of their actions and inaction in the life of…
Read MoreMedical Malpractice: Verdict for Failure to Prevent a Pulmonary Embolism
We trust our medical professionals to help us when we have been hurt or suffer from an illness. We trust that their years of education and training and practice will equip them to offer the treatment and advice we need, but in many ways we expect that they will be perfect when they are as…
Read MoreIs Your Hospital Hiding its Medical Malpractice Data from You?
Back in March, we discussed medical malpractice confidentiality agreements: laws and regulations around the country that looked to protect healthcare professionals when something went “awry” during a procedure. The in August, we looked into research that analyzed the importance of doctors “recognizing and properly disclosing the errors they make, [and] offering an apology and explanation…
Read MoreRaise Your Hand if You Prefer Your Surgeon to be Exhausted
In 2011, a mandate was passed that doctors could no longer work 30 hour shifts. This was based in part by a study that claimed that “Interns working the traditional 30-hour shifts made 36 percent more serious medical errors,” as reported in the New York Times. Banning long shifts makes practical sense; when you are…
Read MoreBad for Mama Means Bad for Baby: Untreated Infections Can Lead to Neonatal Brain Damage
When you are pregnant, your entire world changes in a lot of ways. You will be told to avoid certain foods, to take prenatal vitamins, to avoid drinking or smoking: the usual roundup. You may also be told to avoid certain kinds of medications, because they could have a harmful effect on the baby. For…
Read MoreMedical Malpractice: The Dangers of Misdiagnosed Meningitis
The misdiagnosis of diseases is far more common in the United States than you might imagine. According to a new study in the journal BMJ Quality & Safety, approximately 12 million adults who seek outpatient medical care end up being misdiagnosed. The journal also reports that in about half of those cases, the misdiagnosis could…
Read MoreMedication Errors Take Place in 50 Percent of Surgeries
A new study conducted at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) to measure the medical mistakes made in the perioperative period has raised some eyebrows. As it turns out, the most common errors in surgical procedures are not related to the physical procedure itself, but to medication. “Incorrect dosages being administered, symptoms indicated by a patient’s vital…
Read MoreCan a Surgical “Black Box” Lessen the Number of Preventable Medical Errors?
The patient safety advocacy organization The Leapfrog Group published a report in 2014 that identified hospital errors as the third leading cause of death in the United States, after heart disease and cancer. This report estimates that up to 440,000 Americans die each year from preventable hospital errors. A new idea that could help make…
Read MoreHospital Acquired Infections Affect One in 25 Patients According to the CDC
Hospital Acquired Infections (HAI) or health care associated infections affect patients in hospital or other health-care facilities and were not present or incubating at the time of admission. HAIs represent the most frequent, adverse events in health-care delivery worldwide. Approximately 30 percent of patients in ICUs will be affected by at least one health-care associated…
Read MoreMedical Malpractice Lawsuit about Patient Suicide Being Decided by the Florida Supreme Court
In 2008, a Florida woman named Jacqueline Granicz, who was suffering from depression, called her doctor’s office and reported that she felt like she was under a great deal of mental strain;, she was crying easily and experiencing stomach pain and other problems. When Dr. Chirillo learned about Ms. Granicz’s call from his assistant, he…
Read MoreFecal Microbiota Transplantation Is Saving Lives
There are few topics more distasteful than fecal transplants, and discussing them with a doctor can be embarrassing for many people. However, a fecal transplant could be the cure to Clostridium difficile, or C. diff, a nasty infection that affects up to half a million people each year and kills close to 30,000, according to…
Read MoreFailure to Warn: What are the Dangers of Faulty Medical Advice?
A new research study has uncovered the lack of knowledge and a high level of misinformation about gynecological conditions that could be keeping women from getting the health care they may need. A team of doctors from the Center for Innovative GYN Care (CIGC) has launched a new public education campaign designed to inform women…
Read MoreMedical Malpractice: Suing Your Doctor for Enabling Your Addiction to Pain Medication in West Virginia
What if you received a serious injury in an auto accident and your doctor prescribed pain medication to which you quickly became addicted? Can you sue your doctor for medical malpractice? In West Virginia you can. In May 2015, the West Virginia Supreme Court, in a 3-2 decision, rules that those who are addicted to…
Read MoreWhy 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…
Read MoreAre Cameras in the Operating Room an Effective Way to Curb Medical Malpractice?
Preventable medical errors are absolutely rampant in this country, and what goes on in operating rooms is not always carefully documented. A study conducted by Patient Safety America estimates that more than 400,000 people die each year of preventable medical errors in hospitals and other medical settings. There are several cases of preventable medical errors…
Read MoreThe 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,…
Read MoreMedical 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…
Read MoreNew 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…
Read MoreHow 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…
Read MoreFarid Fata’s Chemotherapy Scam on Hundreds of Patients Gets Him 45 Years in Prison
In what is being called the most serious case of medical fraud in U.S. history, U.S. District Court Judge Paul Borman sentenced oncologist Farid Fata to 45 years in prison and ordered him to pay more than $17.6 million in restitution for scamming hundreds of patients. His upscale clinics were located in the Detroit area…
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