Medical Malpractice

• Body Parts Scandal Extends Outside the US

  Jack Landskroner | September 22, 2006 10:44 AM | 0 CommentsCleveland, OH

  It now appears that over 25 hospitals in the United Kingdom have received stolen tissue which is the subject of criminal investigations and a widespread public health scare in the US. Body parts taken by New Jersey-based Biomedical Tissue Services has been recalled and the UK media now reports that 82 pieces of bone from BTS grafted on to patients needing hip or jaw operations tissue had been...

• Baxter Heparin Recall Demonstrates Limitations On FDA's Ability To Adequately Protect Patient Safety

  Rhonda Baker Debevec | March 05, 2008 4:36 PM | 0 CommentsCleveland, OH

  On February 28, 2008, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued its most recent Public Health Advisory concerning a popular blood thinner, Heparin, manufactured by Baxter Healthcare Corporation. An unusually high number of severe allergic reactions have been associated with this product when it is administered in high doses over short periods of time - commonly referred to as a bolus. The...

• Baxter Heparin Recall Demonstrates Limitations On FDA's Ability To Adequately Protect Patient Safety(3)

  Rhonda Baker Debevec | March 05, 2008 4:36 PM | 0 CommentsCleveland, OH

  On February 28, 2008, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued its most recent Public Health Advisory concerning a popular blood thinner, Heparin, manufactured by Baxter Healthcare Corporation. An unusually high number of severe allergic reactions have been associated with this product when it is administered in high doses over short periods of time - commonly referred to as a bolus. The...

• New Brain Center to Open for Children in Cleveland

  Jack Landskroner | July 19, 2007 5:31 PM | 0 CommentsCleveland, OH

  Brain tumors are the leading cause of cancer death in children. More than 2,200 cases of pediatric brain tumors are diagnosed each year. This week Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital of Cleveland announced it will will use one of its most significant gifts ever "to establish a pediatric brain tumor center, aiming to make the hospital a national research leader."The center, launched Tuesday,...

• Failure to Diagnose Skin Cancer

  Paul Grieco | May 24, 2007 3:04 PM | 0 CommentsCleveland, OH

  As summer approaches remember that with increased outside activity comes the risk of skin cancer as a result of too much sun. Failure to diagnose skin cancer can lead too serious health problems and ultimately result in death. Recently a jury in California, found a dermatologist negligent for failing to biopsy a cyst. The patient's cyst later metastasized into cancer resulting in numerous...

• Judge Orders Doctor Into Court-Faces 110 Lawsuits

  Paul Grieco | December 01, 2006 2:40 PM | 0 CommentsCleveland, OH

  A Charleston West Virginia doctor was ordered to court by a judge and was instructed to bring with him various documents so that plaintiffs attorneys could review the documents with regard to malpractice suits against the doctor. The particular doctor has 110 pending medical malpractice cases against him arising out of care he provided to patients at Putnam General Hospital. The owner of the...

• Adverse Drug Reactions Result in over 700,000 ER Visits Per Year

  Jack Landskroner | October 24, 2006 6:21 AM | 0 CommentsCleveland, OH

  The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) has published the results of a study which reports over 700,000 Emergency Room visits a year as a result of adverse drug reactions (ADR's) to prescription drugs and over the counter medications. The article is titled "National Surveillance of Emergency Department Visits for Outpatient Adverse Drug Events" and reports:Patients 65 or older...

• Lifting Equipment in Nursing Homes Helps Patients, Employees and Saves Money

  Jack Landskroner | September 12, 2006 1:14 AM | 0 CommentsCleveland, OH

  The use of lifting equipment to maneuver patients in the nursing home setting is helpful to patients and beneficial to workers, lowering the incident of workplace injury.The National Institute of Safety and Health (NIOSH) has published a study establishing that Nursing Home investment in mechanized patient lifting equipment pays for itself. According to NIOSH, the use of such equipment has...

• Medical Malpractice: Defense Refuses $275,000, Jury Says $28 Million

  Staff Writer | June 26, 2006 3:56 PM | 2 CommentsCleveland, OH

  The always tongue-in-cheek Greedy Trial Lawyer brings my attention to a Florida medical malpractice lawsuit in which the defendants refused to settle for $275,000 before trial began. An Altamonte Springs woman had surgery to treat minor incontenence back in 2001. Things didn't go quite as expected, however, and now she must catheterize twice-daily for the rest of her life. At trial, the jury...

• Who should pay for "never events," medical errors so obvious that they should never occur?

  Halli Brownfield | August 21, 2008 11:24 AM | 1 CommentCleveland, OH

  The term "never event" is used to describe obvious and easily preventable medical errors that cause serious and costly injury and death to their victims. They received their name because these...