Can Prescribing Doctors be Liable for Medication Addictions?

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) reports that prescription drug abuse is a larger problem than ever before, with the rate of opioid pain medication overdose deaths tripling between 1990 and 2010. Opioids are the most addictive types of pain medications, affecting the brain in a manner similar to heroin or cocaine. Pain medication addiction…

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Patients are Dying from Sepsis While Doctors Wait for a Study

The Virginian Pilot recently reported about Dr. Paul Marik, a physician at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, who is successfully treating sepsis patients with a surprisingly simple concoction. While treating a patient with severe sepsis, the chief of pulmonary and critical care at Virginia Eastern Medical School decided to order IV infusions of a combination of…

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Injuries and Mortality from Anesthesia Errors

According to a Columbia University Anesthesia Errors Study, which analyzed anesthesia-related mortality in the U.S., about 46% of the deaths could be attributed to an overdose of anesthetic, 42.5% to adverse effects of anesthetics, 3.6% to complications of anesthesia during pregnancy, labor and postpartum and the final 7.3% to other complications. The highest anesthesia-related death…

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Optometry Malpractice: How Much is Your Sight Worth?

When you think of how precious your eyesight is, you might become livid to think that an eye doctor’s negligent treatment caused you to lose it. You trust your doctor to have the training and expertise to treat you when you have an illness or an injury, and you trust him/her to refer you to…

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Medical Malpractice and the Risks of Unnecessary Surgery

What is more hazardous to the average American than boarding a commercial airplane, space craft or nuclear submarine? If you guess being admitted to a U.S. hospital, then you are correct. Despite countless global patient safety initiatives, mandatory safety protocols and even surgical checklists, patients continue to be exposed to harm from doctors because of…

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Maternal Mortality Rate on the Rise in the U.S.

In a country like the United States, that prides itself on a sophisticated health care system, maternal mortality rates in the U.S. are rising while the numbers are declining in almost everywhere else in the world. A study conducted by the Institute of World Health Metrics and Evaluation reports that there were 28 pregnancy complication…

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Do Female Doctors Provide Better Care than Their Male Counterparts?

Does the gender of your doctor make a difference in health care outcomes? A new study by Harvard researchers, published at the end of last year in JAMA Internal Medicine, proposes that female doctors see better results than male doctors. The study revealed that patients in the care of female doctors were less likely to…

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Contaminated Medical Scopes Cause Potentially Deadly Infections

Duodenoscopes are small, tube-shaped medical devices used in a procedure called an endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) to diagnose health problems in the digestive tract. Due to a problem with cleaning these scopes, they can become infected with bacteria after being used on one patient which can then be transferred to the next patient. The U.S.…

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Botched Tonsillectomy Causes Brain Damage, and the Medical Malpractice Lawsuit Resulted in $12.7 Million Verdict

You might think that a tonsillectomy is a routine surgery that gets performed thousands of times each year without incident, and you would be correct. However, a Pennsylvania woman suffered brain damage after her breathing tube was removed too quickly after a routine tonsillectomy. A Montgomery County jury awarded her $12.7 million in compensatory damages…

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Medical Malpractice for Failure to Treat a Medical Condition

Doctors and other medical professionals are highly trained and go through years of study and practice in order to be able to treat patients. You know that doctors are not infallible, but you trust in their expertise in being able to diagnose what is wrong and offer appropriate treatment when you are ill. If you…

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Another Abilify Lawsuit Linked to Compulsive Gambling Losses

On November 1, 2016, a California woman named Chrystal Austin filed a lawsuit against Bristol Meyers-Squibb after having suffered excessive financial losses linked to a compulsive gambling problem caused by the drug Abilify. Ms. Austin claims that the drug maker failed to warn consumers about the impulse control side-effects before it caused her significant financial…

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What to Consider Before Filing a Medical Malpractice Lawsuit

Just because your doctor or any other medical professional made a mistake about your care, it does not amount to medical malpractice. As a plaintiff (the person who brings the claim) you need to establish a few things before you can even file a medical malpractice lawsuit. If you are unsure whether or not you…

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Telemedicine, Misdiagnosis and Medical Malpractice

Telemedicine is being lauded as the next step in the evolution of health care delivery. Whether the patient accesses their doctor through an online forum accessible from their home computer screen, or through a kiosk in a clinic or workplace, the patient is talking to the health care provider through a live, video conference arrangement.…

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Sepsis and Medical Malpractice

What did boxer Muhammad Ali, Muppets creator Jim Henson, and actress Patty Duke all have in common? Each of these legends died from sepsis, a condition which kills about 258,000 Americans each year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines sepsis as a complication caused by the body’s overwhelming and life-threatening response to an…

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Medical Errors Caused by Healthcare Technology

When you hear about a miracle of modern medicine – like when a little boy is given a hand transplant, or when a medical advancement allows someone to live when in years past he or she would have died – it can make you feel encouraged that we live in such an exciting time. Just…

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Four Common Myths about Medical Malpractice

Medical malpractice lawsuits receive a tremendous amount of news coverage when there are large verdicts involved. When there is a lot of publicity about a verdict in the millions of dollars, the general public might begin to get a distorted idea about the truth when it comes to real world medical malpractice lawsuits. Clearly there…

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Cosmetic and Plastic Surgery Medical Malpractice

If you think that cosmetic surgery and plastic surgery were just two different names for the same specialty, you would be incorrect, but you would have plenty of company. It is a common misconception that cosmetic and plastic surgery are the same. The American Board of Cosmetic Surgery describes cosmetic surgery as focused on enhancing…

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Can I Sue a Nurse for Medical Malpractice?

While many people have an image of nurses as doting caregivers who are at our bedside attending to our needs when we are ill or in pain, nurses, just like doctors or any other professional can make mistakes, too. When a nurse’s mistake can be shown to have been negligent, causing injury to the patient,…

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Can a Doctor be Held Liable for a Patient’s Opioid Abuse? A $17.6 Million Verdict Says “Yes”

A St. Louis jury awarded $17.6 million in damages to a couple who had filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against a doctor for overprescribing opioid pain medication. The plaintiff, Brian Koon, was awarded $1.4 million and Michelle Koon, his estranged wife, was awarded $1.2 million. The remaining $15 million was awarded as punitive damages against…

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