Law Blog
Hospital Acquired Infections Affect One in 25 Patients According to the CDC
Hospital Acquired Infections (HAI) or health care associated infections affect patients in hospital or other health-care facilities and were not present or incubating at the time of admission. HAIs represent the most frequent, adverse events in health-care delivery worldwide. Approximately 30 percent of patients in ICUs will be affected by at least one health-care associated…
Read MoreAmusement Park Accident Injury Lawsuits
Perhaps it is the threat of imminent danger that rollercoasters and other amusement park and theme park rides impose which gives thrill-seeking riders such a rush, but every year about 4,400 children get injured on these rides according to the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS). The most serious injuries that cause death are not…
Read MoreMedical Malpractice Lawsuit about Patient Suicide Being Decided by the Florida Supreme Court
In 2008, a Florida woman named Jacqueline Granicz, who was suffering from depression, called her doctor’s office and reported that she felt like she was under a great deal of mental strain;, she was crying easily and experiencing stomach pain and other problems. When Dr. Chirillo learned about Ms. Granicz’s call from his assistant, he…
Read MoreNursing Home Abuse: What are Your Rights and Protections When You Have Been Injured?
If you are a resident in a nursing home that is certified to receive Medicare or Medicaid funding, you are protected by federal and state laws that were enacted to make sure that you get the quality of care and health services that you require. If you have a loved one who is living in…
Read MoreFecal Microbiota Transplantation Is Saving Lives
There are few topics more distasteful than fecal transplants, and discussing them with a doctor can be embarrassing for many people. However, a fecal transplant could be the cure to Clostridium difficile, or C. diff, a nasty infection that affects up to half a million people each year and kills close to 30,000, according to…
Read MoreWest Virginia’s Water Contains an Unsafe Amount of Teflon
The Ohio River Valley in West Virginia used to be a base of operations for DuPont, where is manufactured a chemical called perfluorooctanoic acid, usually abbreviated to PFOA or C8. It was used in a variety of products, but the best known among non-scientists or engineers is Teflon. The risks have been known since the…
Read MoreBirth Injury Primer: What Expecting Parents Need to Know about HELLP Syndrome
When doctors or lawyers talk about birth injuries, they usually focus on injuries to the baby or fetus. However, one of the most serious pre-labor conditions that can affect both mother and child is HELLP Syndrome, a relatively common condition that can prove potentially fatal if not diagnosed and treated right away. HELLP Syndrome is…
Read MoreDangers of Driving in the District of Columbia
The dangers of driving in the District of Columbia are legendary. Each year, Allstate releases the Allstate America’s Best Drivers Report, which is based on claims for that insurance company, and ranks the 200 largest cities in the U.S. in terms of how frequently drivers get into collisions. The national average frequency for car accidents…
Read MoreKeeping Updated about Auto Safety Recall Information
The U.S. Justice Department has ordered General Motors to pay $900 million to settle criminal charges related to a faulty ignition switch that has been linked to at least 124 deaths. GM admitted that its employees were aware of the problem for almost a decade before it initiated the recall of millions of cars last…
Read MoreHeart Failure, Pancreatic Cancer and Severe Joint Pain Linked to Onglyza and Januvia
Onglyza (saxagliptin) is a prescription drug that was approved by the FDA in 2009 as a treatment for type 2 diabetes. The drug, which is manufactured by AstraZeneca, gained popularity because it helped patients control their blood sugar without causing weight gain as can occur with other diabetes medications. Onglyza belongs to a class of…
Read MoreFailure to Warn: What are the Dangers of Faulty Medical Advice?
A new research study has uncovered the lack of knowledge and a high level of misinformation about gynecological conditions that could be keeping women from getting the health care they may need. A team of doctors from the Center for Innovative GYN Care (CIGC) has launched a new public education campaign designed to inform women…
Read MoreMedical Malpractice: Suing Your Doctor for Enabling Your Addiction to Pain Medication in West Virginia
What if you received a serious injury in an auto accident and your doctor prescribed pain medication to which you quickly became addicted? Can you sue your doctor for medical malpractice? In West Virginia you can. In May 2015, the West Virginia Supreme Court, in a 3-2 decision, rules that those who are addicted to…
Read MoreWhat the Media Does Not Understand about Premises Liability
A woman recently sued Dunkin’ Donuts and settled her premises liability case for $522,000. The media has had a bit of a field day with the story (as have the commenters on the sites covering the news) because they assume that this is another hot coffee lawsuit. In actuality, the victim “tripped over an exposed…
Read MoreDefective IVC Filters Spur Defective Medical Device Lawsuits throughout the Country
An inferior vena cava filter, or IVC filter, is a medical device designed to prevent blood clots from traveling into the heart or lungs. They are primarily used in patients who, for myriad reasons, cannot take blood thinners. When they work properly, IVC filters have the potential to save lives. When they fail, they have…
Read MoreWhy Medical Malpractice Lawsuits Rely on Expert Testimony
Medical malpractice is defined as “improper, unskilled, or negligent treatment of a patient by a physician, dentist, nurse, pharmacist, or other health care professional.” In order to prove that a healthcare provider was negligent, and that the negligence led to a breach of duty and harm to a patient, attorneys consult with experts in the…
Read MoreAre Cameras in the Operating Room an Effective Way to Curb Medical Malpractice?
Preventable medical errors are absolutely rampant in this country, and what goes on in operating rooms is not always carefully documented. A study conducted by Patient Safety America estimates that more than 400,000 people die each year of preventable medical errors in hospitals and other medical settings. There are several cases of preventable medical errors…
Read MoreThe FDA Warns about the Dangers of Medication Errors from Drug Mix-ups
The Food and Drug Administration has issued a safety advisory to doctors, pharmacists and patients to check both the prescription and the label on medicine bottles before taking a new prescription drug. They have received several reports concerning prescription errors with regard to drugs with similar sounding names, but with completely different purposes. For example,…
Read MoreParental Responsibility when a Child Causes a Personal Injury
Imagine you are driving along one day and you are involved in an auto accident. Another car ran a stop sign and came barreling through the intersection and broadsided your car. When you step out of your car to assess the damage, you notice that the driver of the other car looks really young —…
Read MoreMedical Malpractice and the Rise of Gastric Bypass Surgical Errors
The rise in popularity of gastric bypass and other surgical weight loss procedures is directly linked to the rising obesity rates in the Unites States. Gastric bypass is a bariatric surgery technique which treats morbid obesity by dividing the stomach into a small pouch and re-routing the small intestine. This procedure reduces the volume of…
Read MoreCan a Blood Test Detect Traumatic Brain Injury?
A new blood test being developed may be able to detect traumatic brain injury, or TBI, according to an article published in the Journal of Neurotrauma. TBIs affect about 1.7 million people each year, and it is one of the leading causes of death and disability, according to the CDC. Until this point, doctors relied…
Read MoreCongratulations, Barry Nace and Chris Nace, for Your Best Lawyers Award!
Nace Law Group, is very proud to announce that both founding member Barry J. Nace and partner Christopher T. Nace were named Best Lawyers in America by U.S. News & World Report! Barry has been recognized by Best Lawyers on numerous occasions, and this is Chris’s second year making the list. Both attorneys were named…
Read MoreThe Harsh Reality of the Damages Cap for Amtrak Victims’ Losses
After the tragic Amtrak derailment in May 2015 when eight people died and more than 200 people were injured, victims of the crash received the harsh news that they are unlikely to be fully compensated for their injuries, and survivors for the deaths of their loved ones. A federal law enacted in 1997 limits recovery…
Read MoreFDA Approves Praluent a Pricey New Cholesterol-lowering Drug
On July 24, 2015, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration approved Praluent (alirocumab) the first in a new class of cholesterol-lowering drugs known as PCSK9 inhibitors (protein convertase subtilisin kexin type 9). This new class of medications hold the promise of reducing heart attacks and strokes, which kill approximately 610,000 Americans every year. The PCSK9…
Read MoreNew Report Links Robotic Surgery to 144 Deaths Since 2000
A team of researchers from MIT, Rush University Medical Center, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have published a paper on Adverse Events in Robotic Surgery, which takes a look at the causes and patient impacts of surgical adverse events in an effort to improve operational systems and practices in the future. After reviewing more…
Read MoreCDC Uncovers a Link to Birth Defect Risk for Pregnant Women Taking Paxil and Prozac
The Centers for Disease Control has published an analysis on the use of a class of SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) such as Prozac and Paxil during pregnancy and whether or not there is a link to birth defects in babies born to women who took these antidepressants immediately before becoming pregnant and in the…
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