Nearly twenty years ago, a patient in Missouri underwent a hysterectomy with lymph node dissection. Shortly after this procedure, she developed lymphedema, or swelling of the legs. This condition required her to undergo physical therapy and medical monitoring for more than a decade. Several years after she was released from…
The parents of a child born with severe brain damage at a military hospital in Fort Hood, Texas recently settled their medical malpractice lawsuit against the United States government for $6.5 million. The medical malpractice lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, Austin, alleged…
When you hear the words “medical malpractice,” what is the first thought that comes to mind? For most people, it probably is that a hospital or physician made a serious medical mistake. However, medical malpractice does not just cover physicians and their medical team, but dentists, too. And sometimes dentists…
A family, whose daughter died as a result of an untreated brain aneurysm, recently has settled their wrongful death lawsuit against a medical group comprised of more than 400 doctors, prior to the case going to trial. More details of the case can be found here. For years, the woman…
It should go without saying that a person who enters a hospital has certain expectations of the level of care they will receive and how the medical staff will behave. Hospitals can be frightening and intimidating, and patients rely on their physicians to ease their apprehensions and concerns. Above all,…
Patients place incredible trust in their physicians and medical professionals when they visit hospitals for identifying or treating a medical problem. That trust comes with a responsibility on the part of the medical team, from doctors to nurses and nurse’s assistants, to conduct themselves in a reasonably careful manner under…
Being a parent – especially for the first time – often brings tremendous fear and the unknown. Many parents are overwhelmed, inexperienced and afraid that something might go wrong with their precious newborn. Parents rely heavily on their pediatrician to ease these fears and calm them down. On top of…
Today, lawyers for victims of former Johns Hopkins obstetrician and gynecologist Dr. Nikita Levy announced that a class action has been conditionally certified to resolve the victims’ claims. As many will recall, this past February, patients of Dr. Nikita Levy learned through the media that Dr. Levy had admitted to…
Patients expect that their doctors will take good care of them and do whatever necessary to stabilize or treat their condition. However, one doctor – an orthopedic surgeon – recently was found guilty of medical malpractice when his actions led to his patient becoming a paraplegic; the jury awarded the…
A New York jury in a medical malpractice recently found that a pediatric endocrinologist was guilty of medical negligence that caused the wrongful death of a six-year-old girl, and awarded the mother an $8 million verdict. Sadly, the girl died shortly after a non-board certified pediatric endocrinologist misdiagnosed her diabetes.…
For a parent, one of the greatest fears is that something bad will happen to their child. Mothers take special care when pregnant to ensure that their child is born healthy and will develop correctly. However, one thing that mothers cannot avoid is the risk of complications during the birthing…
Recently, in a medical malpractice wrongful death case in Harford County, Maryland, a jury awarded more than $958,000 to the family of a woman who died after receiving “excessive amounts” of pain medication during a hospital stay. According to the lawsuit, the woman’s death resulted from the hospital providing hospice…
In 1999, the Institute of Medicine estimated that each year 98,000 Americans die as a result of medical malpractice. A recent study published in the Journal of Patient Safety says that number now is estimated to be between 210,000 and 440,000 patients. The new estimates, developed by John T. James,…
A recent USA Today investigation has revealed that thousands of doctors who have been banned by hospitals or other medical facilities are not punished by their state medical boards. Many of these sanctions were due to medical malpractice. A copy of the report can be found here. For the investigation,…
A recent study in the British Medical Journal Open, The Epidemiology of Malpractice Claims in Primary Care: a Systematic Review, has addressed how often medical malpractice and wrongful death claims filed against primary care physicians worldwide. Authors of the study conducted a systematic search of more than 7,000 medical articles…