McKeen & Associates

Why to monitor your child’s social media following an accident

On behalf of McKeen & Associates, PC posted in Injuries to Children on Friday, December 7, 2018.

When your child is involved in an accident, you likely have a thousand thoughts running through your head. As a concerned parent, you may be anxious to understand the severity of your child’s physical injuries—and the recovery process. You may also be worried about your child’s emotional distress from the accident—and any implications this may have on their future. Your most dominant instinct is to protect. Your child’s wellbeing is paramount above all else.

In such a trying time, one consideration that may not even cross your mind is your child’s activity on social media. However, if you are pursuing a claim against another party for your child’s injuries, then it’s important to understand how Instagram, Twitter and Facebook can impact the outcome of your case.

How to keep your children safe this Thanksgiving

On behalf of McKeen & Associates, PC posted in Injuries to Children on Tuesday, November 20, 2018.

Thanksgiving may seem like an innocuous enough time of year. You’re surrounded by family and friends, indulging in delicious food. Safety may be the furthest thing from your mind.

However, a lot can—and does—go wrong at this time of year, quickly turning a happy occasion into a trip to the emergency room. With Thanksgiving just around the corner, we thought it was an appropriate time to review some child safety tips for the holidays.

After a car accident, never settle without a lawyer.

On behalf of McKeen & Associates, PC posted in Injuries on Friday, November 9, 2018.

When you're involved in a serious car accident, your entire world can be turned upside-down. Your health and your future may be uncertain. You may have life-and-death issues that need your immediate attention. You may also be concerned about who will take care of your kids while you're out of commission.

If, amidst all this, an insurance adjuster is contacting you to settle some paperwork, it can be tempting to sign whatever documents they present just to get them out of your hair. However, accepting an insurance settlement too soon can prove to be a costly mistake over the long term. Here's why:

Jury awards $4.2 million dollars for kidney failure misdiagnosis

On behalf of McKeen & Associates, PC posted in Medical Malpractice on Wednesday, November 7, 2018.

Last week, a judge awarded $4.2 million dollars to a woman in a medical malpractice lawsuit. The woman, who is now in her twenties, required a kidney transplant almost a decade ago after her doctors failed to diagnose her kidney failure as a child.

The plaintiff began seeing her doctor as an infant and continued visits for urinary tract infections as a child. Her doctor performed blood tests that resulted in indications of kidney failure, but failed to diagnose her condition. The doctor's defense was that the blood work was normal for an adult, but the patient's attorney claimed is was highly indicative of kidney failure in children.

Early discharge from the hospital is a complex matter

On behalf of McKeen & Associates, PC on Friday, November 2, 2018.

Being admitted into the hospital means that you have something going on that's serious enough to require intensive treatment or monitoring. Even if you are admitted to have a baby, you and the newborn still need to be monitored to ensure nothing is going wrong. Unfortunately, hospitals will sometimes discharge patients before they are ready to go home.

The issue with premature discharge from the hospital is that patients are at risk of having complications when they get home. They might have to be readmitted, which costs an average of $15 to 20 billion per year. Not only could some of these costs be avoided by ensuring patients are ready to go home at discharge, but the quality of life of the patients could also be improved.

Beware of toxic agents used in MRIs

On behalf of McKeen & Associates, PC posted in medical malpractice on Friday, October 19, 2018.

When most of us go to the doctor or to the hospital for routine procedures, we want to be able to trust the medical professionals working with us to be cautious, to use the right techniques and to avoid using methods and materials that are inherently dangerous.

For example, an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) scan is considered fairly routine. Most of the commonly available literature will explain that there are no known side-effects to these scans. But what if the chemical agents used in the procedure are harmful and cause dangerous side effects?

New car seat safety recommendations for parents

On behalf of McKeen & Associates, PC posted in Injuries to Children on Thursday, October 11, 2018.

When you have a baby, there are suddenly a whole slew of safety concerns you’d never before considered. Is your furniture properly baby-proofed? Is the crib free of suffocation hazards? Is the baby within reach of anything they could potentially choke on?

And that’s just before you leave the house. When you head out into the world, you encounter an entirely new set of obstacles. For many new parents, the car seat may raise a lot of questions. In today’s post, we discuss two key pieces of safety information any parent should have about how to best use their child’s car seat.

$130 Million Won For Cerebral Palsy Victim

On behalf of McKeen & Associates, PC posted in Medical Malpractice on Tuesday, September 25, 2018.

It is always tragic when a child is discovered to have cerebral palsy. Although the parents' love for their child doesn't change, the fact of the challenges to come in the family's future is unmistakable.

The challenges of cerebral palsy are all the more tragic when they result from human errors - errors that could have been avoided if the medical professionals caring for the child would have only adhered to a minimum standard of care. This is where we step in. At McKeen & Associates, PC, we fight for clients who have suffered the tragic effects of medical malpractice.

DaVita dialysis center kills three patients

On behalf of McKeen & Associates, PC posted in Medical Malpractice on Tuesday, September 25, 2018.

Kidney disease is an increasingly common medical condition. In the majority of cases, doctors advise patients suffering from this disease to begin a dialysis regimen. Patients must regularly visit a dialysis clinic to undergo a blood filtration process that removes waste and extra fluid from their blood.

DaVita is one of the most widespread dialysis centers in the country. In a recent case in Colorado, three patients at the same DaVita clinic suffered cardiac arrest and death following dialysis treatment. These tragedies were the result of the clinic’s use of GranuFlo—a chemical compound used in dialysis treatment which has been proven to cause alkalosis and toxic pH imbalances. The families of the three patients filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the facility and were recently awarded $383.5 million in damages.

Robotics in the medical field are beneficial but still risky

On behalf of McKeen & Associates, PC posted in Medical Malpractice on Friday, September 21, 2018.

Many surgeries use machines to assist the surgeons who are performing the procedure. While this is a good thing in most instances since machines aren't as likely to make mistakes as humans, there is still a chance that errors will be made.

One thing that patients must remember is that robotic surgical procedures are still relatively new. They are showing promise for helping patients to receive the best outcomes possible, however, surgeons are still part of the process and must be able to attend to any issues that creep up.