Medical Malpractice

• Medical Malpractice "Reform"

  Ken Margolin | November 15, 2006 6:00 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  Massachusetts, like most states, treats medical malpractice different than most personal injury cases. The Legislature bought into the insurance industry's false, but brilliantly executed, argument that medical malpractice litigation was responsible for driving doctors' insurance rates sky high and for driving doctors out of the state. It is easy to be suspicious of the motives behind the...

• Deadly Hospital Infections

  Ken Margolin | November 14, 2006 7:00 AM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  The prevalence of drug-resistant, hospital-acquired infections should still be a cause for concern among doctors and patients, according to a recent study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC's press release on the study's findings discloses that over the past 30 years, "staph" infections, acquired in hospitals and other healthcare facilities such as nursing homes,...

• 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,...

• 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...

• Crisis in Emergency Room Care

  Ken Margolin | November 03, 2006 7:00 AM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  Since the 1990s, emergency room closings and emergency room errors have been on the rise, due to rising healthcare costs, shrinking hospital budgets and dwindling staff levels. During the same time period, the number of patients seeking ER care as risen.The American College of Emergency Physicians has posted an action-alert page urging people to write to their Congressional representatives to...

• Dangerous Drugs: Merck's Vioxx Study Fails to Clear its Reputation

  Ken Margolin | November 02, 2006 7:00 AM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  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...

• Nursing Home Wrongful Death Settlement

  Ken Margolin | October 26, 2006 9:00 AM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  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....

• Important Decision on Drug Manufacturer's Failure to Warn

  Ken Margolin | October 26, 2006 7:00 AM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  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...

• The Real Medical Malpractice Crisis

  Ken Margolin | October 25, 2006 5:00 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  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...

• The Myth of the Medical Malpractice Crisis

  Ken Margolin | October 19, 2006 1:27 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  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...