It was 20 years ago that the Institute of Medicine found that medical errors killed between 44,000 and 98,000 patients in America each year. An expert panel condemned the handling of medical mistakes at the time and recommended new reforms to improve patient safety. Now,…
Popular heartburn drugs like Nexium and Prilosec (called “proton pump inhibitors” or “PPIs”) have been linked to a number of potential side effects, including dependency, chronic kidney disease, bone fractures and dementia. Though these drugs were designed to be used for short-term relief, studies have…
Here is a common scenario: You or a family member is suffering from a physical ailment that requires surgery. You do your research, get all of the correct referrals, pick a date and go in for the procedure. After surgery something goes horribly wrong. You…
On August 19, 2012, Illinois resident Jamie Rae filed a lawsuit against James Dalla Riva, an obstetrician who worked at Anderson Hospital in Maryville. Rae claimed that the doctor had failed to provide the right standard of care during the birth of her baby, resulting…
Would you feel better about your surgery if there was a device recording every moment of it? A “surgical tracking box” is in the works in Canada, which would record surgeons’ movements and identify errors during an operation. Dr. Teodor Grantcharov told CNN that a…
What are normally seen as “routine” medical procedures can often go very wrong. Comedienne Joan Rivers, for example, was going through a routine scoping of her throat in September 2014 when she went into a cardiac arrest, from which she never recovered. Single mother Stacey…
A September 2013 study published in the Journal of Patient Safety reported that an estimated 210,000 to 400,000 people die in hospitals every year from some sort of preventable harm. Medical malpractice claims continue to be filed in great numbers across the nation as patients…
What constitutes medical error? According to a 2005 study, despite a lot of research in the area of error in medicine, “few studies have defined or measured ‘medical error’ directly.” Yet properly defining the term is important if hospitals are to improve and commit fewer…
A New York man was recently awarded $2.3 million in his medical malpractice lawsuit. According to The Journal News, a Rockland County jury found the doctor in the case negligent for failing to properly treat a serious infection. A 2011 study published in the Journal…
Patients diagnosed with septic shock are seriously ill. Without immediate and effective treatment, they can easily succumb to organ failure and death. This was Connecticut resident Vivian Gagliano’s diagnosis in 2008, after she went through what was supposed to be a routine hernia operation. The…