Medical Malpractice

• 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...

• The Airlines Solution

  Ken Margolin | January 21, 2007 1:10 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  A recent article in the Washington Post recounted how a fatal airline crash some years ago prompted fundamental changes in the airline industry. The black box tape revealed that the co-pilot had noticed something amiss, but that the pilot ignored his concerns, reflecting the military-style chain of command. In the modern airlines industry, any individual involved in the flight, from co-pilot to...

• Operating Room Miscommunication

  Ken Margolin | January 06, 2007 9:00 AM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  I handled a tragic case a few years back, in which a healthy 41 year wife, and mother of 5 children, died during routine surgery due to operating room miscommunication. The woman, Marie, (not her real name) went to her community hospital complaining of stomach pain and inability to keep food down. She was diagnosed with an obstructed bowel due to non-malignant, non-life threatening causes. The...

• FDA Medication Error Reduction Efforts

  Ken Margolin | December 27, 2006 11:15 AM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  Since 2000 the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has renewed efforts to prevent medication errors and other patient-related safety problems. The HHS formed the Patient Safety Task Force, which is a conglomeration of other agencies united to improve health-care safety, including the FDA and CDC. In 2002, the FDA devoted an entire division to assessing and correcting medication...

• Paxil Suicide Risk

  Ken Margolin | December 20, 2006 7:00 AM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  Earlier this year, GlaxoSmithKline, agreed to add a new warning to its anti-depressant drug, Paxil, and its controlled release version, Paxil Cr. The generic name for Paxil is paroxetine. The warnings will focus on young adults ages 18 - 30, and reads:"In some children and teens, antidepressants increase suicidal thoughts or actions. Young adults, especially those with depression, may be at...

• 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...

• Pharmacy Errors and Tips on Avoiding Them

  Ken Margolin | November 21, 2006 3:00 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  Pharmacy errors cause over 7,000 deaths per year, and around 5% of the more than 3 billion prescriptions filled are incorrect, according to the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP). The NABP has even created a special task force to combat medication errors in pharmacies as the number of prescriptions increases and the potential for error rises as well. Pharmacy medication errors...

• 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,...