Medical Malpractice

An endoscopy is a medical procedure that uses a scope, which is a long tube with a tiny camera mounted on the end, to explore inside a patient’s body. The physician inserts the scope into an opening in the patient’s body, and they can then watch the video feed that captures an up-close view in…

Diagnosis is the medical process of determining which conditions or illnesses are causing a patient’s symptoms. Errors during surgery accounted for 24% of medical error claims, and errors in medical management accounted for 14% of the claims. A new study found that diagnostic errors were the largest part of medical malpractice claims during the years…

Biologists James Watson and Francis Crick are credited with having discovered the structure of DNA. This discovery has paved the way for medical and scientific breakthroughs for combatting disease, using fingerprinting in criminal cases, modifying food, and giving the world Jurassic Park. Over the last 65 years, we have come to rely on DNA to…

Colon and rectal surgeries, collectively referred to as colorectal surgeries, account for about 24% of all general surgery cases and about 15% of the physicians in this field face medical malpractice lawsuits each year. A study published in the Journal of Surgical Research analyzed 122 medical malpractice lawsuits and found that the most common cause…

Even the most simple of surgeries can elicit concern for patients. While surgeons and other medical professionals are highly trained in their craft, human error is always a possibility. Beyond simple errors, there is also the potential for acute carelessness and negligence that can result in serious complications or injury. Surgical malpractice can produce long-term…

Medication errors in a health care setting are rampant despite efforts to solve the problem. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality defines an adverse drug event (ADE) as harm experienced by a patient because of exposure to a medication. ADEs account for approximately 700,000 emergency room visits and 100,000 hospitalizations each year. The AHQR…

At least 100 women have come forward claiming to be patients of Dr. Charles Akoda at Prince George’s Hospital Center in Maryland. The problem is that Dr. Charles Akoda is not a real person; he’s an identity thief who managed to fool both hospital administrators and patients for eight years, as he practiced as an…

Back in October, USA TODAY published a piece about their investigation into allegations of medical malpractice at the VA hospital in Togus, Maine. They discovered that a podiatrist named Thomas Franchini was responsible for mistakes that harmed veterans in 88 different cases. Instead of firing Franchini outright, the VA “let him quietly resign and move…

Nurses are often the unsung heroes of health care. They work long, grueling hours carrying out the doctor’s orders, they interact with doctors, patients and peers in often chaotic and emotionally exhausting environments and they often do this difficult work exhausted. Fatigue, burnout, exhaustion, overworked: regardless of how you describe it, due to their often…

Back in August, regulators from the Washington, D.C. Department of Health closed the Obstetrics Department at the United Medical Center, the only full-service hospital in Southeast Washington. The Washington Post obtained a letter to Luis A. Hernandez, CEO of UMC, from the D.C. Department of Health, advising him that they were restricting the hospital’s license,…

A story on the TV program “Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly” highlighted the recent string of deaths of children in dentist’s chairs across the United States. Many adults are afraid and anxiety about going to the dentist for a dental procedure, but we go, and we sit through it with just Novocain as a local…

Plastic surgeries are usually elective procedures women and men undergo to improve their personal appearance. Sometimes they are necessary to correct the consequences from a serious accident, such as a fire that caused disfiguring burns. When you go under the knife, you expect your surgeon to be competent and professional. A simple mistake before, during,…

Cerebral palsy, often caused by medical malpractice at birth, affects the brain and the nervous system of newborns. The condition lasts a lifetime. It often requires extensive physical and emotional therapy. Cerebral palsy is not considered a degenerative disease—meaning that the condition itself generally does not worsen with aging. Having said that, though, as many…

Cataracts are cloudiness in eye lenses that cause vision loss over time. The exact cause of cataracts is not known but they are very common for people over 65 years of age. In cataract surgery, an ophthalmologist removes the defective lens and replaces it with an artificial lens. The two types of cataract surgeries are…

While not even doctors can be infallible, we still look to them to always have the right answers and to provide the perfect cure when we are sick. Sometimes, despite their best efforts, doctors make mistakes in diagnosing a disease or ailment, and sometimes those mistakes are honest ones and other times they are a…

Stem cells hold abundant promise that one day, they will be able to repair and regenerate tissue and create seemingly miraculous therapies customized for an individual. The problem is that stem cell therapy is still in its infancy; unless a patient is undergoing hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) transplantation, his or her treatment is an experimental…

Howard University Hospital (HUH) has suffered a steady decline from its glory days as a grand hospital for the middle-class black patients of the city, to an institution that is leaking respected physicians, accreditation for five of its training programs, administrators and money. The Washington Post published an extensive expose revealing that the hospital has…

Approximately 3 million Americans undergo surgery each year in the United States with some of those procedures being elective and others are emergencies. All surgeries carry varying degrees of risk, and every time a patient goes under the knife they open themselves up to the opportunity for a medical mistake. The Washington Post reported on…

Most people associate medical malpractice with errors made by medical physicians in the care of their patients. However, just like medical doctors, psychiatrists have a duty to perform their professional duties with a reasonable standard of care. The personal nature of psychiatric treatment creates an extremely delicate relationship that can easily become inappropriate if the…

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) reports that prescription drug abuse is a larger problem than ever before, with the rate of opioid pain medication overdose deaths tripling between 1990 and 2010. Opioids are the most addictive types of pain medications, affecting the brain in a manner similar to heroin or cocaine. Pain medication addiction…

The Virginian Pilot recently reported about Dr. Paul Marik, a physician at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, who is successfully treating sepsis patients with a surprisingly simple concoction. While treating a patient with severe sepsis, the chief of pulmonary and critical care at Virginia Eastern Medical School decided to order IV infusions of a combination of…

The botched surgery for which Duntsch was convicted was a spinal fusion surgery on the 74-year-old patient, which took place in 2012. Duntsch was found directly responsible for intentionally harming the patient, who is now confined to a wheelchair because she is unable to walk, and has chronic pain from the procedure. He was said…

According to a Columbia University Anesthesia Errors Study, which analyzed anesthesia-related mortality in the U.S., about 46% of the deaths could be attributed to an overdose of anesthetic, 42.5% to adverse effects of anesthetics, 3.6% to complications of anesthesia during pregnancy, labor and postpartum and the final 7.3% to other complications. The highest anesthesia-related death…

What if you lived in a world where your boss could require you to undergo genetic testing–tests that reveal deeply personal information about you and your health–and then require you to share the results of those tests with them or face steep fines? Does this all sound like a creepy, Orwellian nightmare to you? Well,…