Posts tagged Medical Malpractice

• The Airlines Solution

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

  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...

• Cancer Misdiagnosis

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

  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...

• Significant Plaintiff Recoveries Continue in 2006

  Ken Margolin | January 17, 2007 7:00 AM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA Category: Head & Brain Injuries
  

  This week's Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly contained a summary of significant plaintiffs' verdicts and settlements in Massachusetts in 2006. Fifteen jury verdicts equaling or exceeding $1 million were reported, as well as 88 seven figure settlements. A survey of these positive results gives an idea of the current thinking of juries and insurance claims personnel. I will start with the verdicts...

• The Vocational Expert

  Ken Margolin | January 16, 2007 12:45 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA Category: Head & Brain Injuries
  

  Success in serious personal injury cases require the plaintiff's lawyer to put together many pieces in a way that makes the jury decide that justice requires a verdict in favor of the plaintiff. One of these pieces is testimony from a vocational expert. Testimony from a vocational expert is called for in any serious accident case in which the injuries permanently impair the plaintiff's ability...

• More on Medical Miscommunication

  Ken Margolin | January 07, 2007 9:00 AM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA Category: Medical Malpractice
  

  The image is familiar from television and real life alike: doctors, nurses, orderlies, scurrying through maze-like hospital hallways, off to one task or another. The size and varied crises faced in hospitals makes a certain amount of apparent chaos inevitable. When there is real disorganization, though, the results can be tragic. Miscommunication between medical professionals remains one of the...

• Operating Room Miscommunication

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

  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...

• Nursing Home Drug Errors

  Ken Margolin | January 03, 2007 7:00 AM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA Category: Nursing Home & Elder Abuse
  

  Any regular readers of this blog site know that two of my primary concerns are medication errors and nursing home negligence. The two areas are not entirely unrelated. Medication errors often harm the most vulnerable - children and infants, people weakened from the illness that is being treated, elderly patients. Nursing home negligence always harms those who are vulnerable. Tragically, the two...

• Drug Errors Scourge Continues

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

  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...

• Preventing Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect

  Ken Margolin | January 01, 2007 1:00 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA Category: Nursing Home & Elder Abuse
  

  It is frightening to think about the vulnerability of seniors in nursing homes. Stories of nursing home abuse and nursing home neglect show up with alarming frequency in the news and some sources claim that these incidents are increasing as funding decreases across the healthcare system, leading to the staffing problems that create situations for abuse and neglect. Many of the instances of...

• Risks of Office-Based Anesthesia

  Ken Margolin | December 28, 2006 6:00 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA Category: Medical Malpractice
  

  The recent case of a young person dying during a wisdom-tooth removal has raised questions over the safe use of anesthesia in office-based surgical procedures. Anesthesia complications or deaths are not limited to office surgery, (such as oral surgery, plastic surgery, etc.), yet in hospital or ambulatory situations there are perhaps more precautions taken, better monitoring and certainly more...