Posts tagged Medical Malpractice

• Injuries to Disabled People

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

  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...

• Missed Heart Attack Diagnosis

  Ken Margolin | February 23, 2007 5:05 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA Category: Medical Malpractice
  

  For years, we have been hearing of the importance of a prompt trip to the emergency room or a call to "911" if one is suffering from symptoms of potential heart attack. The expectation is that once in the care of physicians, the various tests available to detect heart attacks will be correctly employed and proper treatment administered. It turns out that getting to the emergency room on time may...

• Chiropractic Malpractice

  Ken Margolin | February 17, 2007 7:00 AM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA Category: Medical Malpractice
  

  Chiropractors can seem to work miracles at times for patients with ailing backs. Some people swear by them and I don't doubt their ability to help in appropriate cases. There have been, however, some cases of horrific chiropractic malpractice, resulting in severe injury, even paralysis or death. While chiropractors are trained in the mechanics of the body, they are not medical doctors. As is the...

• Working to Lower Medication Errors - Credit Where it is Due

  Ken Margolin | February 13, 2007 7:00 AM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA Category: Medical Malpractice
  

  Michael Leonard, MD, is an anesthesiologist who has written on the subject of medication error reduction. Readers who have followed my blogs may know that the anesthesiology profession was a leader amongst physicians and hospital professionals in analyzing the causes of medication errors and other medical mistakes. The doctors who studied the problem, such as Lucien Leape, MD, and others,...

• Failure to Diagnose on Time

  Ken Margolin | February 12, 2007 2:50 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA Category: Medical Malpractice
  

  Doctors who are named defendants in medical malpractice cases based on failure to make timely diagnoses, often complain that the plaintiff's lawyer had the benefit of hindsight that they lacked. A review of cases of late diagnosis, however, shows that the real culprit was often a lack of curiosity by the physician. The best doctors are medical detectives and like the best detectives, they will...

• Causes of Anesthesia Mortality

  Ken Margolin | January 30, 2007 7:00 AM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA Category: Medical Malpractice
  

  Despite the fact that the anesthesia profession led the way in medical error reduction techniques, there are still too many anesthesia deaths and serious injuries. When anesthesia malpractice occurs, the results are often catastrophic. With general anesthesia, the patient is helpless. Serious anesthesia errors can deprive the brain of oxygen, causing irreversible damage within minutes or result...

• Pressure Sore Risk in Nursing Homes

  Ken Margolin | January 27, 2007 7:00 AM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA Category: Nursing Home & Elder Abuse
  

  Pressures sores, also known as "bed sores" and "decubitus ulcers," are a risk for anyone confined to bed for long periods of time with limited mobility. They can become a dangerous problem in nursing homes, especially in residents already frail from age and other diseases. Pressure sores can kill as they can provide the conduit for deep systemic infection. Certain residents are at highest risk...

• Blame it on the Trial Lawyers

  Ken Margolin | January 26, 2007 11:15 AM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA Category: Head & Brain Injuries
  

  I was thinking the other day about the gripes of the anti-justice forces who would reserve the courts for corporations and the wealthy and who enhance political careers by bashing trial lawyers. If they long for an America of 100 years ago, they have a good reason for their animosity. Want your segregated schools back? Sorry. Brown v. Board of Education took care of that, using trial lawyer...

• Problem Medical Negligence Areas

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

  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 Category: Medical Malpractice
  

  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...