Medical Malpractice

• Consumer Rights Remain At Risk Despite Mid-Term Election Results

  David Lowe | November 14, 2006 6:19 AM | 0 CommentsMilwaukee, WI

  Stephanie Menciimer, author of the blog The Tortellini, cautions in a guest editorial posted in TomPaine.com that victims' rights remain at risk despite the Democratic Party's victory in the mid-term elections. The business lobby, led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, is not going away. As Mencimer observes, So long as Americans continue to exercise their right to sue when they've been injured,...

• Jury Finds for Infant Who Lost Sight Following Birth

  David Lowe | November 13, 2006 4:11 PM | 0 CommentsMilwaukee, WI

  A Pennsylvania jury has awarded a 6-year old boy $20 million in a medical malpractice case after he went blind almost immediately following his birth. Those held responsible by the verdict included the hospital, the head of the neonatology unit, the hospital's pediatric opthamologist, and the boy's pediatrician. The boy was born premature and developed retinapathy of prematurity, an eye disease ...

• Anesthesia Disasters

  Ken Margolin | November 13, 2006 3:00 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  Two incidents involving anesthesia within the last two months, illustrate that anesthesia mistakes can be deadly when they occur, despite the medical profession's efforts to prevent them. At the end of September, a 5 year old girl died at the dentist's office, where she had gone for routine filling and capping of teeth. The child never awoke. Although the facts are not definitively known as yet,...

• Medical Malpractice or Just a Bad Outcome?

  Jack Landskroner | November 12, 2006 9:29 PM | 0 CommentsCleveland, OH

  What is medical malpractice? Generally medical malpractice, also know as medical negligence, occurs when a physician or medical professional fails to practice within the realm of accepted medical standards. In English, this means that a doctor or care provider failed to do what a reasonable care provider would have done or in the alternative did something that the care provider should not have...

• Call for Sprinkler Systems in Hursing Homes Following Fatal Fires

  Ricky Bagolie | November 12, 2006 6:51 AM | 0 CommentsJersey City, NJ

  Federal regulators are calling the up to 2500 of the nation's oldest nursing homes be retrofitted with sprinker systems following a rash of deaths due to nurisng home fires. This would be a great step toward helping to protect this vulnerable population although I am sure that the rich, powerfull and gready nursing home industry will fight it tooth and nail.

• Mild Brain Injury Discharge Instructions Deficient At Hospital ER's

  Bob Carroll | November 12, 2006 6:06 AM | 0 CommentsPinellas, FL

  Mild brain injury is a matter evaluated and treated at many emergency rooms. Apparently, most of the patients are being discharged with inadequate information sheets. Hospital discharge instructions for mild brain injury faultyIn a study published in a recent issue of Brain Injury, researchers at the University at Buffalo found that discharge sheets from 14 of 15 hospitals that were reviewed...

• Diagnostic Googling May Improve Your Medical Care

  Bob Carroll | November 10, 2006 11:24 AM | 0 CommentsPinellas, FL

  A study on diagnostic Googling by physicians, reported in the British Medical Journal, is summarized at Docuticker.com. Googling for a diagnosis--use of Google as a diagnostic aid: internet based study Objective: To determine how often searching with Google (the most popular search engine on the world wide web) leads doctors to the correct diagnosis.Cases: 26 cases from the New England Journal...

• GlaxoSmithKline Settles Paxil Lawsuit

  Beth Janicek | November 09, 2006 3:39 PM | 0 CommentsSan Antonio, TX

  GlaxoSmithKline agreed to pay $63.8 million to settle a class action lawsuit accusing it of promoting its antidepressant Paxil for use by children and adolescents while withholding negative information about the drug's safety and effectiveness.United States residents who bought Paxil or Paxil CR, a controlled-release version of the drug, for their children could receive full refunds if they have...

• Pharmacy Errors Continue to Kill

  Ken Margolin | November 09, 2006 7:00 AM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  A trip to the local drug store to fill a prescription seems as benign as a trip to the supermarket to buy a quart of milk. As a matter of fact, many supermarkets now have pharmacies. In addition to the huge number and varied types of pharmacies, add the proliferation of new drugs and the aging of the general population, and you get billions of prescriptions filled each year. The United States is...

• Medical Articles Available As Audio Files

  Bob Carroll | November 07, 2006 5:52 PM | 0 CommentsPinellas, FL

  If you are addicted to medical journal articles and need a new source, you may want to try JournalJunkie.com.You will find immediate access to audio files (Podcasts) from some of the most authoritative medical journals in the world - Annals of Internal Medicine, Circulation, JAMA and NEJM, among others. Some of the articles are too technical for my taste, but you certainly can impress your...