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Connecticut Medical Malpractice Statute of Limitations

James Sabatini — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 22:24:42 GMT

Connecticut law requires that a medical malpractice lawsuit be initiated within two years from the date when the injury is first sustained or discovered or in the exercise of reasonable care should have been discovered. The law also requires that it be initiated within three years from the date of the act or omission complained of (CGS Â§ 52-584). (The courts typically refer to the two year period as the statute of limitation and the three year limit as the statute of repose). Thus, a person who believes he has been injured because of medical malpractice must initiate the lawsuit within three years of the act of malpractice even if he does not discover and could not have reasonably discovered the injury and its link to the alleged malpractice until more than three years have passed.

For more information on this subject, please refer to the section on Medical Malpractice and Negligent Care.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by James Sabatini

Connecticut Places Hartford Hospital On Probation

James Sabatini — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 11:38:45 GMT

Hartford Hospital, the state's second-largest facility in terms of licensed beds, is on probation for a year after complaints arose about its emergency and operating rooms. State officials discovered 28 complaints over a two-year period based on patient surveys. The Department of Health found serious issues during the course of its investigation. There were a number of patient care issues on a system-wide basis ranging from psychiatric care, to emergency department care, to psychiatric issues, to infection control issues. The hospital must take corrective actions or the probation will be extended. Hartford Hopsital has issued an apology to patients and their families where patient care was inadequate.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by James Sabatini

More Lawsuits Filed Against St. Francis Hospital For Failing Protect Patients From Sexual Abuse By Dr. Reardon

James Sabatini — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 13:06:27 GMT

In the latest lawsuit filed against St. Francis Hospital, the victims allege that the doctor accused of sexually abusing his child patients used a gun to threaten the children and raped some of the victims. The lawsuits accuse St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford of failing to protect them from Dr. George Reardon. He was a chief of endocrinology at the hospital and practiced medicine there for 30 years.

For more information on this subject, please refer to the section on Medical Malpractice and Negligent Care.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by James Sabatini

Vermont Hospitals Will Not Seek Payment For Certain Medical Errors

James Sabatini — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 16:38:08 GMT

Vermont hospitals recently adopted a policy not to seek payment from patients or insurance companies if certain rare errors are made that result in serious harm. The 14 Vermont hospitals will follow a uniform system that officials said will make the hospitals more accountable. The policy will cover eight, serious medical errors including surgery performed on a wrong body part or on the wrong patient, incorrect surgery, artificial insemination with the wrong donor or injury caused by a medication error. Vermont is he third state to adopt the voluntary policy. It is unclear what if any effect this new policy may have on the rate of errors committed by hospitals. It will certainly have a positive effect on uninsured patients who suffered injuries due to a medical error. These patients will no longer have the added misery of paying medical bills resulting from certain serious medical errors.

For more information on this subject, please refer to the section on Medical Malpractice and Negligent Care.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by James Sabatini

More Lawsuits Filed Against St. Francis Hospital For Failing To Protect Patients From Sexual Abuse By Dr. Reardon

James Sabatini — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 13:06:27 GMT

In the latest lawsuit filed against St. Francis Hospital, the victims alllege that the doctor accused of sexually abusing his child patients used a gun to threaten the children and raped some of the victims. The lawsuits accuse St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford of failing to protect them from Dr. George Reardon. He was a chief of endocrinology at the hospital and practiced medicine there for 30 years.

For more information on this subject, please refer to our section on Medical Malpractice and Negligent Care.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by James Sabatini

Defibrillator Leads Recalled by Medtronic

Shannon Weidemann — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 16:45:34 GMT

Medtronic has issued a product recall for Sprint Fidelis Defibrillator leads because of possible fractures in the lines. The defibrillator leads have been on the market since 2004 and the FDA did not require human testing before gaining approval. The model was close enough to a previous one to not warrent it. Medtronic did perform short-term testing on humans before seeking FDA approval though.

Before approving the Sprint Fidelis models, the FDA reviewed results from animal tests and extensive engineering "bench" studies, including 400 million repetitions of a bending motion designed to answer questions about the devices' strength, said Megan Moynahan, chief of the FDA branch that oversees defibrillator leads. Because the fracturing issue is "extraordinarily rare," a human clinical trial was unlikely to find it, she said.
There are 235,000 of the recalled items still being used in people. Five people may have died from using the device. The leads are connected to a defibrillator implanted in a person's chest.
If you would lilke to learn more about defective medical devices, please visit InjuryBoard's Medical Devices and Implants information page.
Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Shannon Weidemann

Connecticut Emergency Room Crisis

James Sabatini — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 21:31:55 GMT

Last week an Illinois woman died from a heart attack after waiting to been seen by a doctor at the emergency room. Here in Connecticut, emergency room doctors believe that it is just a matter of time until such a tragedy occurs in a Connecticut emergency room hospital.

According to the Hartford Courant report: Michael Carius, chairman of the department of emergency room medicine at Norwalk Hospital, does not know of any deaths in Connecticut due to emergency room delay but has witnessed too many close calls. The largest contributing factor to this serious problem appears to be overcrowding. A task force has been established to seek remedies to this serious problem. Until then, sick people arriving at Connecticut emergency rooms may be waiting too long - exposing themselves to greater injury and possible death.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by James Sabatini

Guidant Issues Yet Another Defibrillator Warning

Staff Writer — Wed, 17 May 2006 12:17:26 GMT

Brandon Smith at Childers, Buck and Schlueter in Atlanta brought my attention to a Guidant article from Bloomberg News in the St. Paul Pioneer Press. It appears Guidant is having yet another problem with their difibrillators as almost 1000 devices may quit working prematurely.

According to the Guidant defibrillator defect article:

Defibrillators are implanted in the chests of heart-failure patients and wired directly to hearts to keep them from suddenly stopping, halting the circulation of blood throughout the body. When the device senses an abnormal heart rhythm, it fires high-voltage electrical pulses to restart the heart.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Staff Writer

Higher C-Section Rate Due to Malpractice Fears

Shannon Weidemann — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 14:58:27 GMT

The rate for Caesarean Sections in the Bay State rose from 31% in 2004 to 32% in 2005. That is about two thirds of all births. There were approximately 77,000 live births in the state in 2005.

Doctors cite many reasons for the increase including older women, multiple births, and malpractice fears. The more risk factors there are with a pregnancy, increases the likelihood that a doctor will recommend and perform a c-section. If a woman's first delivery is by c-section, then most subsequent pregnancies will be as well.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Shannon Weidemann

Salem Man Awarded $210K for Medical Malpractice

Shannon Weidemann — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 15:53:41 GMT

A Salem man had surgery on his gall bladder in August 1999. He was in pain following the surgery and visited with two doctors. Both of the doctors failed to diagnose a bile leak and he needed to have emergency surgery to fix the problem. He sued for medical malpractice and the jury awarded him and his wife $210,000.

Kevin Cummings said he first went to Dr. Lakshmanan about pain following the surgery and was referred to Dr. Jha who also didn't diagnose the problem during one visit to his office. After the surgery, Cummings indicated he was off work for several months at Tri-County Electric and developed post traumatic stress disorder. The two doctor's maintained that bile leaks sometime develop after surgery which is noone's fault. Both claimed to have adequately reviewed Cummings case and say the biloma may have developed after they saw him.

The Marion County jury deliberated for several hours after hearing testimony for 8 days. The surgery took place at a hospital in Kansas City.

If you would like to learn more about medical malpractice, please visit InjuryBoard's Medical Malpractice information page.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Shannon Weidemann