Cerebral palsy, often caused by medical malpractice at birth, affects the brain and the nervous system of newborns. The condition lasts a lifetime. It often requires extensive physical and emotional therapy. Cerebral palsy is not considered a degenerative disease—meaning that the condition itself generally does not worsen with aging. Having said that, though, as many…

Cataracts are cloudiness in eye lenses that cause vision loss over time. The exact cause of cataracts is not known but they are very common for people over 65 years of age. In cataract surgery, an ophthalmologist removes the defective lens and replaces it with an artificial lens. The two types of cataract surgeries are…

While not even doctors can be infallible, we still look to them to always have the right answers and to provide the perfect cure when we are sick. Sometimes, despite their best efforts, doctors make mistakes in diagnosing a disease or ailment, and sometimes those mistakes are honest ones and other times they are a…

Stem cells hold abundant promise that one day, they will be able to repair and regenerate tissue and create seemingly miraculous therapies customized for an individual. The problem is that stem cell therapy is still in its infancy; unless a patient is undergoing hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) transplantation, his or her treatment is an experimental…

Howard University Hospital (HUH) has suffered a steady decline from its glory days as a grand hospital for the middle-class black patients of the city, to an institution that is leaking respected physicians, accreditation for five of its training programs, administrators and money. The Washington Post published an extensive expose revealing that the hospital has…

Approximately 3 million Americans undergo surgery each year in the United States with some of those procedures being elective and others are emergencies. All surgeries carry varying degrees of risk, and every time a patient goes under the knife they open themselves up to the opportunity for a medical mistake. The Washington Post reported on…