Medical Malpractice

• Slice of Humble Pie: Doctors may get Cash Bonus for an Apology

  Nick Avgerinos | May 27, 2008 2:52 PM | 3 CommentsChicago-Land, IL

  Medical malpractice claims cause doctors far and wide to head for the hills. After all, nothing can put a dent in many years of hard work quite like a hard-wrought fight about who messed up what...

• Mistakes Were Made: 5 Tips for Avoiding Medical Malpractice

  Nick Avgerinos | July 29, 2008 10:22 AM | 0 CommentsRockford & Moline, IL

  Early this July, the CEO of large hospital in Boston posted a blog entitled: “The message you hope never to send.” Talk about a jarring headline for anyone with loved ones at the hospital. What...

• It’s Never Too Late To Say You’re Sorry (But Earlier Is Better for Business)

  Nick Avgerinos | June 26, 2008 10:36 AM | 0 CommentsChicago-Land, IL

  To apply the law to a given situation, specific facts are needed. Legal battles then center upon a game of “he said, she said,” leading to a messy fight and often less-than-ideal resolution. But...

• Bad Medicine: Illinois Insurer Refuses to Pay for ‘Never Events’

  Nick Avgerinos | August 07, 2008 2:52 PM | 7 CommentsChicago-Land, IL

  What’s a ‘never event’? That was my first question, too, when I heard about this new development. ‘Never event’ is the term used to describe medical errors that should never happen. Despite the...

• Lap Band Procedure on Louisiana Child Causes Pancreatitis

  Jamie G. Goldstein | August 15, 2007 6:32 PM | 0 CommentsChicago, IL

  A young Louisiana child had lap band surgery to help her reduce her body weight. The obese child went into surgery on June 24, 2005 and had reoccurring complaints shortly after the surgery. She returned to Dr. Felix Spiegel's office on several occasions complaining of problems keeping certain foods down, abdominal pain and a choking sensation. The daughter of Warren and Melissa Strother was...

• Hospital sued for medication error

  Barry Doyle | June 13, 2007 2:30 PM | 0 CommentsCook County, IL

  A Missouri hospital has been sued by the parents of one of its patients after the 8-year old girl received the wrong medication. The girl had been prescribed israpidine but was given risperdal instead.The girl suffered brain damage and kidney damage and will eventually require a kidney transplant."Sound-alike" medications cause the potential for medication errors. This arises from the custom...

• Dilantin overdose kills patient

  Barry Doyle | January 30, 2007 10:18 PM | 0 CommentsCook County, IL

  A Florida woman died recently of a massive overdose of dilantin while she was hospitalized. The attending physician ordered 800 milligrams of the drug, but a nurse gave her 8000 milligrams instead. Two to five grams is considered a fatal dosage.Heart failure was a cause of the patient's death. According to the Institute of Medicine, this was one of the estimated 400,000 patient deaths...

• Illinois Medical Malpractice Caps Soon To Be Challenged

  Jamie G. Goldstein | September 04, 2007 4:24 PM | 0 CommentsChicago, IL

  Illinois passed medical malpractice legislation two years ago that limited the amount a person could recover for pain and suffering in a medical malpractice lawsuit. There have been no challenges to date because only cases filed since the change would be affected and most of these lawsuits have not gone to trial, but this is about to change. A lawsuit filed in Cook County by Jeffrey Goldberg...

• Northwestern Doctor Exposes Patients and Visitors to TB

  Jamie G. Goldstein | April 21, 2009 6:44 PM | 0 CommentsChicago, IL

  Over the past ten months, a doctor at Northwestern Hospital in Chicago has potentially exposed hundreds of patients and visitors, including infants and children to tuberculosis or TB. The...

• Medical Malpractice Lawsuits Not The Cause Of Rate Increases

  Jamie G. Goldstein | August 01, 2007 9:26 AM | 0 CommentsChicago, IL

  Doctors and tort reformers continue to wage a propaganda war about the cost of medical malpractice premiums increasing because of outrageous medical malpractice awards. The real reason premiums are on the rise in some states, however, is what they are hiding from you. Research shows that lawsuits and jury awards are not causing the premiums to rise.In New York recent headlines complained of...