An 81-year-old retiree who presented himself to Mount Sinai Hospital reached a settlement of $850,000 after falling while unassisted on the way to the bathroom. The man who was admitted to undergo a laryngectomy suffered serious head injuries as a result of the fall. A CT and MRI scan revealed skull fracture, bleeding in the brain and a subdural hematoma which is usually associated with traumatic brain injury.
The plaintiff argued that staff at Queens Hospital failed to properly assess his risk of falling and failed to properly monitor/ observe him, which constituted medical malpractice. The plaintiff also claimed that he had informed staff he had suffered dizziness on arrival at the Queens Hospital. An expert nurse for the plaintiff said that his dizziness should have led to a treatment plan, which included safeguards against falling, such as a nurse accompanying the plaintiff to the bathroom and that failure to do so constituted negligent practice.
]]>Yet another bus crash has occurred in the City of New York. This one took place in the Corona area of Queens. The crash occurred on July 13th when a vehicle, driven by plaintiff Yesid Sanchez, was struck by a school bus when passing through an intersection.
The plaintiff sued both the driver and the owner of the bus, Lonero Transit Inc., claiming that the driver was negligent in his operation of the vehicle, ignoring a stop sign which governed his entrance to the intersection. The plaintiff also claimed the owner was vicariously liable. The defendant bus driver did admit to not immediately noticing the stop sign and estimated that 2 to 3 feet of the bus had passed the line before applying the brakes.
Sanchez sustained trauma as a result of the crash, suffering a bulging disc which required him to undergo months of physical therapy, three epidural injections for pain, and necessary spinal surgery for fusion of his spine's discs. The injury has left him with permanent residual pain and physical limitations preventing his resumption of work.
With the use of a mediator, a pre-trial settlement was reached between the parties for the sum of $2,925,000.
]]>The authors of the letter state that it may take more than 10 years "for acquisition of expertise and skill maturation" before hysterectomies performed robotically can match those done by ordinary laparoscopy. They also state, as do almost all doctors, that what is needed is truly random trials to compare the safety of doing hysterectomies via robot with earlier forms of surgery.
In their reply, the authors of the earlier Wright article agree that a large learning curve is involved in performing robotic surgery, and they show concern for "adoption of novel surgical procedures..before standards are set to define proficiency." At present there are no standards by which any particular surgeon using the robot can be graded as to how proficient that doctor is on the machine.
]]>A lead research specialist and study author who works at 3M's infection prevention division was surprised by the number of dirty instruments that were found in the endoscopy suites of the hospitals that volunteered for the survey. The participating hospital's names were not released. Since a single scope can be used 6-12 times in a single day, and there are tens of millions of procedures using these instruments each year, the discovery of these dirty instruments caused hospitals to issue warnings to endoscopy patients that they should be tested for HIV and Hepatitis B and C among other diseases as such medical errors could be the source of disease.
]]> This study, researchers fear, could inspire more reluctance in people to undergo endoscopies. Even though the American Society of Gastroenterology issued a guideline stating that infections from dirty endoscopes were as rare as one in 1.8 million, researchers believe this number is actually higher due to the fact that the source of a disease may not be obvious.A New York lawyer has affirmed that while it could be tough to determine if the hospital is at fault for an infection without self-reporting, if fault is determined to lie with the hospital, it could sustain economic and non-economic damage. If you or someone you know has suddenly developed an infectious disease following an invasive hospital procedure, a well-qualified medical malpractice attorney may be the only way to determine the root of the problem when a hospital does not engage in self-reporting.
Source: CNBC, "Dirty Endoscopes Raising Alarms for Colonoscopies", Dan Mangan , June 07, 2013
]]>The United States Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) has this month ordered that pre-trial proceedings concerning the Stryker's Rejuvenate and ABG II modular-neck hip implant products litigation should be centralized. Currently 41 actions are pending in sixteen states with a further 110 potentially related actions pending in others. Minnesota was chosen as the appropriate district for these proceedings with Judge Donovan W. Frank chosen as the best available judge to handle the proceedings. It was found that these actions involve similar questions of fact concerning design, manufacturing and marketing regarding Stryker and ABG hip products. The JPML also held that the devices contained enough similarities to allow for multidistrict litigation. Centralization will allow for the conserve of counsel resources, prevent duplicate discovery and inconsistent pre-trial rulings.
Our firm has been litigating Stryker hip implant cases in the New Jersey consolidation before Judge Martinotti, a more mature litigation which has created a pilot mediation program for Stryker plaintiffs. Hopes are that there will be significant and fair settlements for plaintiffs.
]]>Studies show that too many children are being exposed to unnecessary radiation from CT Scans.
CT Scans are important in examining internal organs for bleeding, fractures and cancer. Although important, they can lead to increased risk for cancer in children because their organs are still developing and the cancer has longer to form.
Children with issues such as suspected appendicitis are initially getting CT Scans instead of ultrasounds, which do not use radiation.
Researchers found that abdomen scans put children at the highest risk. They expect that one case of cancer could be expected in 300 to 400 girls and one in 700 to 800 who received a scan of their abdomen.
Doctors have been using a wide variation in the dosage of radiation used in these scans. If doctors used the lowest dose of radiation necessary to obtain and image and eliminated unnecessary scans the number of cancers linked to scans could be reduced by 62 percent.
]]>Twenty percent of hospital patients are falling each year while in the hospital for other problems. Not only do 25 percent of the elderly patients who suffer from these falls die from related complications, they are also a huge financial burden. These falls are completely preventable.
Many doctors and nurses think that the falls are inevitable when in reality only simple preventative measures are necessary to prevent the falls. Because the falls are preventable, Medicare will no longer reimburse hospitals for "fall-related" treatments and are considered "never events."
Patients should not be worrying about injuries or death from falling when they are coming to hospitals to get better.
]]>He never turned himself in but was found and summoned on two accounts, "failure to yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk" and "failure to exercise due care." He was found not guilty on both in court last week.
On Tuesday May 24, 2012, Buta left her job as a waitress at 1:26 a.m. on a rainy night. She was walking across the street neither drunk nor talking on her cell phone when the truck ran her over.
The driver has been found not guilty because officials "have no proof" that he was aware that he hit her.
Buta's family has already lost her and with the driver receiving no punishment, they feel as though they have nothing.
]]>The SUV hit the pedestrians on the sidewalk and the cross walk before running into the bookstore, Barnes & Noble.
The child was rushed to Weil Cornell Medical Center in critical condition, while the others injured went to Bellevue Hospital for further assessment and treatment.
]]>Claims arising directly from police actions, such as false arrests or imprisonments, shooting of a suspect, excessive force and failure to provide protection have risen 94 percent in the last five years. Claims against the NYPD alone have risen 52 percent in the last five years.
Claims against all other city agencies, such as the Departments of Transportation, Sanitation, Education, Health and Hospitals Corporation have fallen 10 percent in the last five years.
This report also tracked payouts in judgments and settlements of tort claims, which fell to $459 million, a 12 percent decrease. Because of the continuing increase in tort claims, this drop in payouts is most likely not long term. In contrast, payouts from non-tort claims increased from $135.9 million to $250.7 million.
This report comes from the Office of Comptroller, John Liu, who says that something must be done. These growing number of claims cause taxpayers to pay more and leads to frustration and disdain toward the NYPD.
Liu proposes a series of recommendations in his report to keep New York "truly the safest big city." One suggestion for the NYPD is to institute training to avoid claims and figure out who is directly responsible. In order to reduce traffic claims in motor vehicle accidents, he has proposed studying where accidents occur, fixing safety hazards on the road and instituting new traffic controls.
The prime goal of his proposal is to, "work with Corporation Counsel to reduce the overall cost of litigation and settlements while being fair to people who have been harmed."
]]>An FDA panel recently voted in favor of easing the use restrictions on diabetes treatment, Avandia, that were placed on it in 2010. It was emphasized that when re-analyzed, previous heart-safety risk warnings may have been overstated.
13 out of 26 panelists voted in favor of removing limitations, which was favorable for GlaxoSmithKline's controversial diabetes treatment. Over a decade ago, this was the "best-selling diabetes drug in the world." These restrictions were placed on the drug in 2010 after critics said the industry-sponsored trial was flawed. A study by Cleveland Clinic suggested that patients using Avandia had a 43 percent higher risk for heart attack. EU regulators pulled Avandia off the market at that time.
The Center for Drug Evaluation and Research has not come to a final decision on whether they will be removing use limitations or not, but it is unlikely that prospects will be improved for Avandia.
After the Cleveland study GSK had more than 10,000 lawsuits claiming that the company did not warn them about the risks associated with Avandia. Although the company settled some of the claims, many are left unsettled and the company has paid $3 million to settle other cases.
]]>A biker was hit and severely injured by a sedan going the wrong way down East 29th Street. The cyclist was riding his bike around 6:30 a.m. on June 8 when a sedan hit him, only to speed the wrong way down the street, take out a light post, and run into a drycleaner store.
The driver, who had totaled his own car by this point, was terrified and ran away from the scene while the biker laid in critical condition on the ground waiting for EMS to pick him up.
These drivers are not paying attention to their surroundings, hurting people, and too often fleeing the scene immediately after.
]]>The medical profession has a nickname for errors that take place but are caught before the error leads to a fatal outcome. They call these types of errors "near misses." Because not even doctors can always detect their occurrence, there is no method to systematic study of the number of near misses that take place, but medical experts suspect that there are a large number of them.
]]> Most health care professionals are deeply ashamed when they commit an error or know of a near miss. They often respond to errors with a deep need to hide their actions. For the most part, physicians, nurses and other medical professionals weren't trained on how to deal with mistakes when they are attending medical school. The fear of medical malpractice actions is also a powerful deterrent to discussing these incidents more openly.The first stage to controlling medical errors has to be admitting that such errors occur. The health care profession has many safeguards in place, from electronic prescriptions to reduce penmanship issues, to surgical checklists, all to minimize the occurrence of some of the most frequent types of oversights.
Transparency is being encouraged in many health care facilities in order to improve patient care. The more honest that health providers are about occasional mistakes, the better the health care provider community as a whole will be able to think of ways to prevent errors from occurring. Those who have been injured through a medical error may not be aware that they may be able to take legal steps that they can take to protect their patient rights.
Source: The New York Times, "My Near Miss", Danielle Ofri, May 28, 2013
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