Law Blog
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…
Read MoreWorkplace Wellness Programs and Employee Privacy: Do I Have to Share My Medical Records with My Boss?
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,…
Read MoreOptometry 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…
Read MoreMedical 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…
Read MoreThe NFL Concussion Settlement is Now Open for Registration for Injured Former Players
In December of 2016, the National Football League (NFL) came to an agreement with retired players who are suffering from debilitating brain ailments caused by serious blows and multiple less-severe blows to the head during their football careers. The settlement, which might be worth as much as $1 billion and will cover almost every former…
Read MoreMaternal 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…
Read MoreDo 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…
Read MoreAlabama Jury Awards $10M to Family for Failure to Diagnose Meningitis
There are few things to make a parent feel more helpless than when your child is deathly ill. You take them to see a doctor and you trust that with the doctor’s decade of training and years of experience helping patients they will know what to do, and do what is best to care for…
Read MoreContaminated 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.…
Read MoreBotched 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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