A successful surgeon needs steady hands and good judgment, two things not commonly associated with doctors who have drug and alcohol problems. That makes the results of a recent medical study particularly unsettling for patients across the nation....
Medical Malpractice
Surgeon’s delay caused woman lifelong disorder; jury awards $1.5M
After roughly eight years, an Indiana woman's medical malpractice claim has finally been resolved via a favorable jury verdict. The $1.5 million jury award is bittersweet; however, because the woman's suffering will continue throughout her lifetime.In 2003, a...
Put a lid on it: Lidless toilets in hospitals spread dangerous infection
A newly published study in the International Journal of Hospital Infection concluded that bacteria that can cause a life threatening infection, Clostridium difficile, is spread when lidless toilets are flushed. The lack of a toilet lid allows bacteria-laden material...
Unusual Child Cancer, Unusual Medical Malpractice Case
As Abby Simons reports for the Star Tribune, a Minnesota girl, only five years old, is said to have only a five percent chance that she will survive her battle with a rare type of cancer that attacks children. Were it not for the doctor's delayed cancer diagnosis, her...
Complications: The Adverse Side Effects of Steroid Injections
"It is a very rare event, but it is not zero, and it's devastating," says James Rathmell, a doctor at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. "We used to say this is so safe." As David Armstrong reports for Bloomberg Businessweek, steroid injections - epidurals near...
Does your Doctor or Nurse flunk the hand washing test? You have the right to ask!
If your doctor or nurse scored below fifty percent on a test in school they would flunk. A recent study published in the December 2011 edition of the journal Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology suggests that fewer than fifty percent of doctors and nurses wash...
NY Pilot Program Focuses on Early Settlement of Medical Malpractice Cases
"Even though people are not forced into it," says the director of the Center for Medical Consumers, "I have no idea how coercive or not the pitch is." By "pitch," director Arthur Levin is referring to early settlement talks in medical malpractice cases, which in New...
Medical Malpractice: No Dollar Value for Pain and Suffering?
Walter Olson, writing for the Cato Institute, argues that pain and suffering caused by medical malpractice is worth not one single penny. Were it not for what we have today in our civil justice system, Olson argues, pain and suffering wouldn't even enter into the...
INFORMED CONSENT/ACCEPTED COMPLICATION/BUYER BEWARE!
Healthcare consumers, like other buyers of services, must know their rights. Anyone who has ever been admitted to a hospital, or had a surgical procedure has been asked to sign Consent Forms. These forms are typically pre-printed, with very small font, and are...