Medical Malpractice

• Doctor must Pay $9M for Patient Death

  Christina Cole | December 13, 2006 1:33 AM | 0 CommentsBirmingham, AL

  A Miami-Dade Circuit Court jury has held a Miami Doctor liable for $9 million dollars in damages in the death of a patient. The case involves Dr. Carmel Barrau. Jessie Sturdivant was his patient in 1999. On Thursday, Jay Cohen, of the Miami firm of Grossman and Roth won the judgment on behalf of Sturdivant's wife. The attorney said his next step is to file a bad faith claim against Barrau's...

• Deadlocked Jury in Olesky Malpractice Case

  Christina Cole | December 13, 2006 1:18 AM | 0 CommentsWichita, KS

  A Collier County jury was deadlocked today after 2.5 days of deliberation in a medical malpractice and wrongful death lawsuit. The lawsuit involves two local physicians and a physician assistant in the death of Ann Olesky, before her death in 2004.The jury of four women and two men were sent back into deliberations by the Judge. The defendants are Dr. Dennis Stapleton, a cardiothoracic surgeon...

• Study Shows Long Hospital Shifts and Sleep Deprivation Cause Deaths in Hospitals

  Scott Smith | December 12, 2006 4:36 PM | 0 CommentsColumbus, OH

  A recent Harvard Medical School study found long hospital shifts and sleep deprivation resulted in fatigue related mistakes and increased harm to patients by 700%. Residents who worked five marathon shifts (24 hours or longer) in a single month directly correlated with making errors that in turn increased the risk of death by 300%.The study included the fact that medical residents are regularly...

• Are Sleepy Doctors Malpractice Waiting to Happen?

  Robert Wolf | December 12, 2006 3:42 PM | 0 CommentsDallas, TX

  Imagine yourself as a hospital patient. Your doctor walks in and lets out a long yawn. When you ask why he is so tired, he admits to working nonstop for the last 24 hours. He says that he works these marathon shifts many times a month.Should you be concerned for your safety? Increasing evidence suggests yes. Physicians who work marathon shifts -- those longer than 24 hours -- can cause real harm...

• Off Label Use of Drug Eluting Stents Carries Increased Risks

  Jamie Sheller | December 12, 2006 1:57 PM | 0 CommentsPhiladelphia, PA

  According to the FDA, off-label use of drug-eluting stents carries an increased risk of thrombosis, myocardial infarction and death. An FDA advisory panel recommended changing the labels of such stents. The two approved devices are Cypher (sirolimus-eluting) and Taxus (paclitaxel-eluting). Approximately 60% of the three million drug-eluting stents implanted in Americans, are off-label. In...

• Nobody Should Send An Impaired Driver Onto The Highway

  Bob Carroll | December 12, 2006 5:33 AM | 0 CommentsPinellas, FL

  If an employer sends a drunk employee off the worksite knowing he would likely drive home, should the boss be liable if the drunk employee does what drunk drivers often do, crosses the center line and kills an oncoming motorist? My answer is yes. If a doctor discharges a hospital patient knowing that his medical condition and medications would make him an unsafe driver without warning the...

• Caps On Medical Malpractice Damages Produce Windfall Insurance Profits

  Bob Carroll | December 11, 2006 10:45 PM | 0 CommentsPinellas, FL

  When the Florida Legislature was being pressured to place a cap on the damages in medical malpractice cases there were those who said doing so would only result in windfall profit for the medical malpractice insurance industry. They were right. Three years after the Legislature capped medical malpractice payouts, insurance company payouts have decreased dramatically, but not their...

• Hospitals May Soon Have Financial Incentives To Reduce Medication Errors

  Bob Carroll | December 11, 2006 5:49 PM | 0 CommentsPinellas, FL

  Maybe, just maybe, hospital medication errors will be reduced soon. Congress has tied Medicare reimbursements to a hospital's adoption of new quality standards related to medications. Congress Passes Legislation to Prevent Medication Errors U.S. Senators Evan Bayh and Richard Lugar today announced that the Senate passed legislation late last night that includes steps to prevent hospital...

• Wrongful Death Beneficiaries Don't Waive Their Right To Privacy

  Ben Glass | December 10, 2006 12:16 PM | 0 CommentsNorthern Virginia, VA

  We represent the family of a mother whose death was allegedly caused by the medical malpractice of one of the major HMO-type healthcare providers in Northern Virginia, Washington and Maryland. That defendant sought to obtain by subpoena a lifetime of medical, scholastic and mental health records for the decedent's 11 year-old son and 25 years of medical and mental health records for the...

• New FDA Drug Information Rules

  Ken Margolin | December 08, 2006 5:00 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  Earlier this year, the federal Food and Drug Administration passed new rules designed to make it easier for doctors to get essential information from the inserts inside packages of prescription drugs. The rules change reflected an understanding that the growing complexity of information presented in package inserts, was becoming confusing even to physicians. Serious medication errors were a...