Medical Malpractice

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…

Most people associate medical malpractice with errors made by medical physicians in the care of their patients. However, just like medical doctors, psychiatrists have a duty to perform their professional duties with a reasonable standard of care. The personal nature of psychiatric treatment creates an extremely delicate relationship that can easily become inappropriate if the…

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…

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…

The botched surgery for which Duntsch was convicted was a spinal fusion surgery on the 74-year-old patient, which took place in 2012. Duntsch was found directly responsible for intentionally harming the patient, who is now confined to a wheelchair because she is unable to walk, and has chronic pain from the procedure. He was said…

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…

What if you lived in a world where your boss could require you to undergo genetic testing–tests that reveal deeply personal information about you and your health–and then require you to share the results of those tests with them or face steep fines? Does this all sound like a creepy, Orwellian nightmare to you? Well,…

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…

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…