On behalf of The Bell Law Firm, PLLC posted in Doctor Errors on Wednesday, May 22, 2013
West Virginia media outlets have over the years reported on various claims made by proponents of medical malpractice caps. The cap advocates say medical malpractice cases are "frivolous" and that large awards are driving up the costs of health care for everyone.
A new study of medical malpractice claims shows that those arguments are wrong.
On behalf of The Bell Law Firm, PLLC posted in Doctor Errors on Monday, May 20, 2013
As our Kanawha County readers know, misdiagnosis is a problem too often experienced by West Virginia patients at the hands of negligent doctors.
A new report indicates a new trend in medical malpractice claims: a rising number are being filed against hospitalists for misdiagnosis.
On behalf of The Bell Law Firm, PLLC posted in Birth Injuries on Monday, May 13, 2013
Newborn deaths and birth injuries happen far too frequently in West Virginia hospitals. Those devastating events happen even more frequently in home births, the American Academy of Pediatrics says.
The group issued a new policy a few days ago, saying that planned home deliveries should include the same level of care for the newborn that they would receive in a hospital or birthing center.
On behalf of The Bell Law Firm, PLLC posted in Surgical Errors on Monday, May 6, 2013
Far from us in West Virginia, there is renewed talk of a cap on medical malpractice claims. When the Missouri bill appeared to have little chance of passage, one lawmaker apologized to doctors who would have been shielded from responsibility for their negligence.
That apology was followed by one issued by the head of a St. Louis hospital, who apologized to a 53-year-old woman who was rendered unable to speak or care for herself for life because surgeons operated on the wrong side of her brain.
On behalf of The Bell Law Firm, PLLC posted in Doctor Errors on Thursday, May 2, 2013
The job description for a West Virginia hospital patient advocate is not particularly attractive: long hours and no pay. Plus, the advocate must have patience, be assertive and able to ask tough questions of doctors and nurses while remaining calm and keeping track of information received.
While there's no financial compensation for the position, the rewards can be great. Advocates for hospital patients can help prevent medical errors from being committed in the care of their loved one.
On behalf of The Bell Law Firm, PLLC posted in Surgical Errors on Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Many West Virginia readers might not be surprised by the results of a recent study showing that hospitals reap bigger profits by making surgical errors than they do by preventing them. That's right: bad medicine might be good business.
A report published earlier this month by the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that surgical mistakes meant longer hospital stays and additional care for the injured patients. That added up to a 330 percent increase in profit margins compared to patients with no surgical complications.
On behalf of The Bell Law Firm, PLLC posted in Hospital Negligence on Saturday, April 27, 2013
According to a John Hopkins University School of Medicine study, the majority of medical malpractice claims comes about because of a failure to diagnose, or because of a misdiagnosis. The headline grabbing stories of sponges being left inside of a patient or the wrong body parts being amputated are actually rarities. Yet a wrong diagnosis is as potentially damaging as any medical mistake.
The study concluded that diagnosing errors resulted in the most cost and most harm to patients. It is estimated that these diagnosis errors affect anywhere between 80,000 to 180,000 patients every year. And failures to diagnose a health issue appear to be a much more serious problem than even a misdiagnosis.
On behalf of The Bell Law Firm, PLLC posted in Doctor Errors on Friday, April 26, 2013
The medical malpractice lawsuit process can often be drawn out and complicated. Such is the case of a 38-year old truck driver from Charleston, West Virginia that reported to a number of physicians concerning pain and numbness in his left arm.
The truck driver was originally seen by a variety of West Virginia doctors, but it appears that his concerns remained unaddressed. Eventually he was referred to Duke Hospital where he was diagnosed as having thoracic outlet syndrome. Surgical removal of a rib then took place, but it now appears that the wrong rib was removed.
On behalf of The Bell Law Firm, PLLC posted in Medical Malpractice on Thursday, April 25, 2013
There is an infamous medical error case our West Virginia readers might well have heard of: surgeons amputated the wrong leg of a man. He was in surgery for amputation below the knee of a diseased right leg, but doctors mistakenly removed his healthy left limb instead.
As bad as that case was, and as bad as similar wrong-site surgeries are, "the most frequent, most severe, and most costly medical mistakes" are diagnostic errors, a new study concludes.
On behalf of The Bell Law Firm, PLLC posted in Birth Injuries on Monday, April 22, 2013
The heartbreak and harm are forever for a family that lives about 600 miles northeast of Charleston.
A Long Island, New York, jury recently decided the family should receive $130 million in a birth injury medical malpractice lawsuit.