Medical Malpractice | InjuryBoard Boston

On September 6, 2006, two years after its voluntary withdrawal of Vioxx from the market, Merck released a self-funded study attempting to evade charges that the company knew of the dangers of Vioxx prior to selling the drug to the public. According to an ATLA (Association of Trial Lawyers of America) press release, documents produced because of the numerous lawsuits in several states that have...

Continue article

While going down a ramp, a 79 year old nursing home resident fell out of her wheelchair head first. The injury did not seem at first to be severe. The resident complained of neck, shoulder and back pain, and was taken by nursing home staff to her bed with no further evaluation. When the on-call physician was notified, he prescribed narcotics for pain, but conducted no further examination....

Continue article

Two year old Andreas Perry developed lymphoblastic lymphoma, a potentially deadly cancer two years ago. In accordance with Andreas' doctor's prescription, his parents were treating eczema with the topical ointment, Elidel. Andreas' parents filed a lawsuit against Novartis Pharmaceutical Co., alleging amongst other things that Novartis had negligently failed to warn users - especially pediatric...

Continue article

Objectively viewed data leads to the undeniable conclusion that medical malpractice lawsuits are not skyrocketing in number, nor are they the cause of escalating insurance premiums for doctors. The malpractice insurers will continue their campaign to prejudice potential jurors by their repetition of the big lie of the evils of malpractice litigation. That crisis - the one invented by the...

Continue article

There is no medical malpractice crisis - except in the scripts of the well funded campaign of the insurance industry to deprive injured victims of their rights. Our system of civil justice rests on the time-honored principle that a person harmed by the carelessness of another is entitled to compensation for the injury. As has been the case for many years, businesses and professionals maintain...

Continue article

In a blog entitled, "When to Call a Lawyer," I touched on the topic of alteration of medical records. In this posting, I will address it in more detail. Accuracy in medical records is essential. They are relied upon by subsequent treating physicians to give an accurate picture of a patient's prior medical history. In those instances when a medical professional must change a record - for example,...

Continue article

A Superior Court judge has ruled that the Massachusetts Promotion of Anatomical Science Act does not immunize doctors from liability if they implant a diseased organ into a donee. Nelson Gonzalez's liver was failing and he needed a transplant. Doctors implanted a liver that turns out to have been riddled with cancer. The donor had died of brain cancer and the doctors who used the donor's liver...

Continue article

Medication errors injure an estimated 1.5 million Americans each year. That staggering number is reported in studies conducted by the medical profession and pharmaceutical industries themselves. While there is no single cure for this terrible problem, borne ironically, of the tools used to cure disease, the steps to be taken to greatly reduce the problem have been understood for more than 10...

Continue article

In the mid-90s, two articles published in the prestigous Journal of the American Medical Association revealed that medication errors created a terrible human and economic toll (LL Leape et al, "Systems analysis of adverse drug events..." JAMA 274 (07/05/19950; DC Classen et al, "Adverse drug events in hospitalized patients...." JAMA). Various studies by the medical professiona and pharmaceutical...

Continue article

In a highly publicized case, a Bedford, New Hampshire family received a $5,000,000 pre-trial settlement arising out of severe injuries suffered by their son, Dustin, during his delivery. The medical malpractice settlement was reported on the first page of the September 18, 2006 Boston Herald. Dustin's parents alleged that numerous errors by his doctors and nurses caused Dustin to suffer severe...

Continue article

Today the Boston Globe reported the story of a Massachusetts physician, Dr. Stephen A. Hoffman of Framingham, Massachusetts, writing illegal prescriptions to circumvent abusive insurance practices. According to the story, Dr. Hoffman has become frustrated with insurance company practices restricting prescriptions allowances for patients--particularly for those patients whose prescription...

Continue article

This week there were two medical malpractice Bills introduced into the United States Senate--both involved caps on lawsuits. The way a Bill works in the Senate (if you recall from those Saturday morning cartoons) is that a Bill will pass (and move onto the House) with a majority vote of the Senate. However, the minority may delay voting on the Bill by what's referred to as a filibuster. A...

Continue article

Medicaid is a program where an individual unable to afford necessary medical treatment may be eligible to receive state and federal Medicaid benefits. This is true even when another person or entity may be legally responsible to pay one's medical expenses yet the medical bills are unpaid awaiting a jury verdict or a settlement. Once a settlement or judgment is reached, Medicaid seeks...

Continue article

Mulitple pre-delivery factors may be asessed by your OBYN to determine whether you will have a complicated delivery. The existence of such factors, known as risk factors, may be determined... by the use of ultrasounds.

Continue article

Chicago personal injury lawyer Jordan Margolis offers his take on the Americans For Insurance Reform study saying malpractice premiums have stabilized over the past six months and lays into the people who support tort reform, including the Insurance Industry and the media:Shame on each and every cowardly legislator and executive official who voted to deprive the most seriously injured victims...

Continue article