Medical Malpractice

• 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...

• Altered Medical Records - Evidence of Medical Malpractice

  Ken Margolin | October 18, 2006 5:00 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  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,...

• Doctors Must Screen Organs for Disease Before Donation

  Ken Margolin | October 16, 2006 1:45 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  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...

• Medication Errors Crisis Continues

  Ken Margolin | October 02, 2006 12:20 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  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...

• Five Million Dollar Birth Injury Settlement

  Ken Margolin | October 02, 2006 9:00 AM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  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...

• Physican Non-Violent Civil Disobedience?

  Staff Writer | June 11, 2006 4:01 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  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...

• Medical Negligence - Claims and Lawsuits

  Staff Writer | May 11, 2006 10:20 AM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  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...

• High Court Ruling-State's Rights and Medicaid Reimbursement

  Staff Writer | May 06, 2006 12:59 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  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...

• Injury During Delivery - Shoulder Dystocia and Brachial Plexus

  Staff Writer | March 23, 2006 3:41 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  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.

• Medical Malpractice "Crisis" Ends

  Staff Writer | March 22, 2006 4:51 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  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...