Medical Malpractice
Consult the Surgeon’s Scorecard Before You Go Under the Knife
People tend to put a tremendous amount of blind trust in doctors. They are willing to allow them to cut them open to fix what is ailing them without knowing much at all about the doctors’ backgrounds, training and success rates with the kind of surgery they are about to perform. But now there is…
Read MoreCentral 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…
Read MoreThe 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…
Read MoreUnderstanding Emergency Room Medical Malpractice
Emergency rooms are there to help people in the midst of a crisis. The medical personnel who staff emergency departments are generally well skilled individuals who save lives on a daily basis. However, mistakes can happen in the emergency room. People come in with life-threatening injuries, or they present with strange symptoms and the doctors…
Read MoreRecent Surge in Unqualified Plastic Surgeons Puts Patients at Risk for Injuries and Death
There has been such a significant surge in plastic surgery procedures being conducted by unqualified doctors that the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) is issuing a warning about the dangers and the failed procedures being done by unqualified physicians. Once they have had unfavorable results from using an unqualified physician, many patients seek out…
Read MorePreventable Medical Mistakes and the Role of Human Behavior
Malpractice events rarely involve “just one” error; in truth, one mistake often leads to a cascade of errors. Sometimes the errors are seemingly minor. Other times, the doctor and the team makes an error so egregious that it is almost inconceivable that it happened. These types of errors are referred to by the medical community…
Read MoreHuman Error in Electronic Medical Records and the Risk of Malpractice
Electronic health records (EHS) are the digitized version of a patient’s paper charts. EHRs contain information about the patient’s medical history, diagnoses, medications immunization dates, allergies, radiology images and lab test results according to healthit.gov. One of the key features of EHRs is that a record can be created, managed and consulted by health care…
Read MoreWhen Cosmetic Surgery Procedures Go Wrong
Whether you are going under a cosmetic surgeon’s knife to remove a mole or to get a facelift, you probably have certain expectations about the results of the surgery – but you certainly do not go in expecting to come out of surgery in a worse condition than when you went in. And even though…
Read MoreHow to Get Compensation for Vaccine Injuries and Adverse Immunization Reactions
Between the day children are born and the age of six, the U.S. government mandates that children receive 49 doses of 14 vaccines. Vaccines can be beneficial and they are responsible for almost completely wiping out diseases such as measles and saving the lives of millions of children every year. The World Health Organization (WHO)…
Read MoreAnemia Drug Feraheme Assigned Boxed Warning by FDA
The Food and Drug Administration has assigned a boxed warning – the highest level there is – for Feraheme (ferumoxytol), an anti-anemia drug. Feraheme has been found to increase the risk of “serious, potentially fatal allergic reactions” specifically for “patients who have had an allergic reaction to any intravenous (IV) iron replacement product” according to…
Read MoreDrunk Doctors and Damages for Botched Procedures
Doctors are among the most trusted professionals in our lives. When you are wheeled into the emergency room for surgery you are literally placing your life in the doctor’s hands. You are placing your trust in the knowledge, skill and acumen in those hands. Never would you think that those hands might be shaky because…
Read MoreMedical Malpractice Basics: Do I Have a Case?
Filing a medical malpractice lawsuit takes skill and resources because it is a complex area of the law. If the outcome of a procedure or medical regimen is not what was planned, that does not mean that you are a victim of medical malpractice. A solid definition of medical malpractice is the “improper, unskilled, or…
Read MoreSecret Settlements – Confidentiality Agreements in Medical Malpractice Lawsuits
Debbie Pennington went in to surgery 20 years ago for a partial hysterectomy and a surgical sponge the size of a pack of cigarettes was left in her body after the surgery. Pennington suffered years of pain and five additional surgeries that were required to fix the mistake, but she was unable to speak of…
Read MoreZofran Birth Defects Lawsuits
Zofran (Ondansetron) is a drug manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline, which was approved by the FDA in 1991 to prevent nausea and vomiting caused by cancer chemotherapy, radiation therapy and surgery. Ondansetron is a 5-HT3 receptor antagonist, which blocks the action of serotonin in the brain which is thought to cause vomiting and nausea. After Zofran was…
Read MoreHow Clean is Your Local Hospital?
Patients in hospitals face an increased risk of contracting an infection or illness while they are there, even under the best of circumstances. But when a hospital does not follow protocol to keep its equipment sterile and in proper working order, the risk to patients increases exponentially. This is what appears to have happened to…
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