Archive for February, 2012
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Wednesday, February 29th, 2012
Our medical malpractice lawyers in Maryland recommend you to pay attention, and carefully review what you sign when it comes to your medical care. A young woman suffered a serious knee injury two years ago. After an initial surgery, she developed a serious infection that caused her to lose mobility for two years. A surgeon went in to correct it, and noticed that this infection was due to the malpractice of the previous surgery.
You would think the young lady had the right to sue in court and receive compensation for this travesty. Due to a new practice in the medical arena, she cannot. This young lady signed what is known as a binding arbitration agreement. This agreement denies the patient the right to a trial by jury in the case of malpractice.
Under this new scenario, if there is a malpractice claim, it means that both sides must choose arbitrators who sit down together and decide the outcome. Many doctors now use arbitration and most of them will not speak to news agencies about the practice.
Health care providers claim that “through arbitration, physicians and patients both benefit, because they are able to more promptly resolve malpractice claims and with less expense to all parties”. Unfortunately, the only who actually benefit from this practice are the Health Care providers.
Many doctors don’t explain to patients that they are signing away their rights. Most arbitrators typically side with the doctors and hospitals, not the patients. You should be very careful when considering the signing of one of their documents as by doing so, you significantly reduce your right to receive adequate compensation and to present your case in court.
Our medical malpractice lawyers in Maryland remind you that the important thing for patients is to know what you are signing and what you may be giving up by signing. Read the documents at your doctor’s office carefully. If you’re not comfortable signing an arbitration agreement, find a doctor that does not require them.
For more information about the case: http://www.abcactionnews.com/dpp/news/local_news/investigations/i-team-patients-signing-away-right-to-jury-trial-in-malpractice-cases
Tags: maryland medical malpractice lawyers
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Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012
According to a Fox News report, the numbers of medical errors in Indiana are on the rise. In 2009 the reports showed 94, and in 2010 they show an increase to 107. The sad reality is, it causes patients to lose trust in their doctors and hospitals. This situation is unacceptable.
Some of these errors include leaving medical instruments in the patient, operating on the wrong part of the body, or even not diagnosing an obvious condition.
In one particular case in Indiana, a parent gave birth to her newborn child in 2000. The child would cry, shake and turn blue, and her mother did not know what was wrong. The hospital sent the child home saying that babies cry and shake; she would be fine. The mother took the little infant home, but she continued having these issues.
When the mom took the baby back, the doctors found a low blood calcium, and that the child was having seizures for over 24 hours. 12 years later, and the child is still suffering from the repercussions that this faulty treatment affected upon her.
The mother filed a lawsuit and won a settlement against the hospital and its doctors. Part of the settlement unfortunately does not allow her to release the names involved. It should be noted as well, there are more hospitals everywhere that are making the same mistakes. Who will you ask to help you if this happens to you?
Our medical malpractice lawyers in Baltimore believe that there are steps you can take as a parent to mitigate this. First, especially when children are concerned, do not simply settle on the first opinion given if you feel something is just not right. Second, if your fears are validated, and you feel the doctors that gave you faulty information should be held accountable, the Snyder Litigation Team would be happy to assist you with your claim.
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Wednesday, February 15th, 2012
There’s been a lot of good news lately about what hospitals are doing to protect patients by improving their infection control practices to embracing palliative care. We urge you to be aware of the other issues that exist, and are often not even reported. Our readers should be aware that advertised increased safety does not equal perfection.
For every advancement in patient safety, some hospitals are falling behind in certain areas. Any error in your medical treatment runs the risk of causing more harm to you or your loved one’s health. What is truly appalling is that hospital employees only recognize and report 1 out of every 7 mishaps, despite the fact that Medicare reimbursements to hospitals is contingent upon tracking and reporting such adverse events.
Despite the existence of reporting systems, hospitals and staff are not reporting most events that harm these patients. Even of the most serious instances, including some events that caused patients to die. Some hospitals have made little change to the policies and procedures regarding reporting, even after employees have reported the harm to patients. In many cases the hospital executives told federal investigators that the events did not signify systemic quality problems.
It was at one time that employees were afraid to admit to making mistakes due to fear of reprisal. Now however, employees do not know what causes patients harm nor do they realize that certain events should be reported. Our medical malpractice attorneys in Baltimore feel that it is appalling that certain mistakes and mishaps are so common that hospital staff consider it to be insignificant or isolated.
Medicare is developing a list of reportable events in hopes to eliminate some of the unreported instances. Medicare has also said that hospitals should give employees detailed training and instructions that is unambiguous on the types of events that should be reported.
The medical malpractice attorneys in Baltimore at the Snyder Litigation Team believe it’s apprehensible that this has not already been done.
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Wednesday, February 8th, 2012
A study was done in 2004 that discovered that nearly 200,000 people died each year in the US due to preventable medical errors. This figure does not take into account those who were merely injured (either temporarily or permanent) due to medical errors. There is a more recent study that does take this into account reports that this figure may be more staggering than previously believed.
The new study concludes that only 14% of medical errors are even reported. One in 4 patients are injured in some way, and the injury or error is not reported. The fact that “no one is perfect” is little help to the families and loved ones of those injured and affected. It could also be seen as fact, that if these instances were reported, then hospitals and doctors could learn from their mistakes, and not repeat them in the future.
Our team of medical malpractice lawyers has compiled some tips on how to protect you from medical malpractice and error.
- You spend the time shopping around for cars, or choosing a good restaurant based on reviews, so why not do the same for your health? HealthGrades.com rates hospitals based on hospital complication rates on 27 common procedures.
- While you are in the hospital, make sure you keep a close eye on the hygiene and cleanliness of those you entrust the healthcare of yourself or your loved ones to. The simplest thing you can do is demand and ensure that the staff wash their hands. This simple procedure is only done 20-30% of the time.
- Ask questions. Understand what is wrong with you, and what it will take to fix it. If your doctor seems annoyed or upset that you are showing such an interest, perhaps it is time to find a new doctor.
- Pay attention to your prescriptions. Do not just rely on a pharmacist to interpret the prescription. Make sure you know what you are getting, and what dose you are supposed to take, and then make sure your bottle says exactly that.
Some patients may feel awkward in being so forward in their own care, but at The Snyder Litigation Team, our Baltimore medical malpractice lawyers urge you to consider that it is better to be pushy and forward than to be a victim of a medical mistake.
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Wednesday, February 1st, 2012
Recently, a man in Australia named Graham Lord lost 80 percent of his stomach to surgery and having undergone several rounds of chemotherapy. As it turns out, he never had cancer. He is now suing the Central Coast Local Health District in Australia for compensation and an admission of liability for his injuries.
It is unfortunate that misdiagnosis and malpractice happens on such a global scale. Regardless of where you are, you could possibly be the victim of a bad medical decision. Our medical malpractice lawyers regularly receive cases similar to this story and much more. Children who receive brain injuries from slow-responding medical staff, surgical instruments being sewn inside of patients, wrong limbs being amputated—the list goes on and on.
The great thing about countries like the United States and Australia is that the victims do not have to take the doctors’ mistakes and just live with them. Granted, Graham Lord may never be able to eat sitting down and his diet will be significantly different. However, if he wins his case, he will have the satisfaction of holding the erring medical professionals to account, and he will be able to afford the additional expenses that this error will impose on his finances.
If you fall victim to a misdiagnosis, an improperly performed procedure or other sort of mistake made by medical professionals, there is absolutely no reason for you to take it lying down. Above all, you should not have to pay for their mistakes for the rest of your life. Our medical malpractice lawyers in Baltimore help you make erring medical professionals pay for their mistakes, rather than you paying for them.
*For more information about Graham Lord, you can read about his story on http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/13/graham-lord-stomach-removed-cancer-misdiagnosis_n_1091134.html
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