Medical Malpractice

• Wrong-Side/Wrong-Site/Wrong-Procedure/Wrong-Patient

  Ken Margolin | April 11, 2007 10:35 AM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  Although wrong-side/wrong-site/wrong-procedure/wrong-patient (WSPE) hospital errors are not common, they occur more often than one would expect. As the phrase implies, WSPE typically means that the right patient has been operated on the wrong side or organ, or that the correct procedure was done - correct for a patient other than the one on whom it was performed. When WSPEs occur, the results...

• Missed, and Mis-Diagnoses

  Ken Margolin | March 19, 2007 1:30 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  There was an excellent article written by Dr. Jerome Groopman, of Beth Israel Deaconness Medical Center, in today's Boston Globe, about the causes of medical misdiagnoses. When mis-, or missed, diagnoses occur, they can be deadly. The problem, writes Dr. Groopman, often stems from rigidity in the way doctors think about the symptoms presented by their patients. Dr. Groopman identifies three...

• Injuries to Disabled People

  Ken Margolin | February 26, 2007 11:20 AM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  It may be tempting to think that the value of a serious injury case due to negligence, to a person already burdened with significant disabilities, has to be substantially discounted. Unfortunately, I've dealt with some insurance adjusters who take just such an attitude. They are seriously mistaken. Juries throughout the country, including my own state of Massachusetts, have recognized the value...

• Problem Medical Negligence Areas

  Ken Margolin | January 24, 2007 5:00 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  There may be no better way to learn the current areas in which there are the most problems with substandard medical care, than to look at the web site of CRICO/RMF (also known as "Risk Management Foundation"), one of the largest medical malpractice insurers. Risk Management Foundation's web site identifies 4 areas that generate just over 2/3 of all medical malpractice claims. These areas are...

• Spinal Cord Injury

  Ken Margolin | January 22, 2007 1:00 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  An estimated 250,000-450,000 Americans are living with spinal cord injury . The primary causes are motor vehicle accidents (nearly 50%), falls, violence (especially gunshot wounds) and sports activities. The majority of victims are males under the age of 30 (some studies indicate that the age range has risen in recent years). Spinal cord injuries are either complete or incomplete and their...

• Cancer Misdiagnosis

  Ken Margolin | January 19, 2007 6:30 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  A disturbing study reported in the journal Cancer reported that misdiagnosis of cancer is much more common than realized. Worse, the authors concluded that many of the misdiagnoses caused serious harm to the patient. Time is the key element for people with treatable cancers. Treatment for many types of cancers has improved so that complete recovery and long-term survivability is no longer a...

• Drug Errors Scourge Continues

  Ken Margolin | January 02, 2007 1:00 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  Today's New York Times has a chilling article by Jane E. Brody, detailing a pharmacy error that ended the independence of a previously healthy elderly woman. The pharmacy gave her methotrexate, a chemotherapy drug that suppresses the immune system, instead of her glaucoma drug, methazolamide. The woman took the wrong pills for a month, with a catastrophic result. She ended up in a coma and...

• Easy Open Pill Bottles Unsafe for Children

  Ken Margolin | November 20, 2006 9:00 AM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  Following demographics, many pharmaceutical companies are making so-called "EZ Open" pill bottles designed for adults with arthritis in their hands. The problem is that some of the bottles can also be readily opened by children. The danger of a medication overdose to a child is made greater because many pills are colorful and sugar-coated, making them attractive to a child. Recently, a...

• 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...

• Solutions to the Medication Error Crisis

  Ken Margolin | October 09, 2006 12:48 PM | 1 CommentBoston, MA

  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...