Medical Malpractice

• California Jury Awards $2.5 Million For Surgical Malpractice

  David Lowe | August 01, 2007 12:00 AM | 0 CommentsMilwaukee, WI

  A story in the Merced Sun-Star reports that a California jury has awarded $2.5 million to a patient who lost control of his bowels due to medical malpractice during routine surgery to remove a cyst from his buttocks. The patient alleged that his surgeon negligently cut a nearby muscle while attempting to remove the cyst. But this medical malpractice victim will likely face another painful cut...

• Damage Award Against Nursing Home Operator Stirs Debate

  David Lowe | February 23, 2007 9:13 AM | 0 CommentsMilwaukee, WI

  A $4.1 million judgment awarded against a Tennessee nursing home is generating debate in that state over the rights of abused residents to compensation versus the costs to insurance companies and nursing home operators.The jury heard evidence that the resident developed bedsores, and had an undiagnosed hip fracture and other problems, all of which were ignored by the nursing home because of...

• Intimidation of Expert Witnesses for Malpractice Victims Blocks Access To The Courts

  David Lowe | January 10, 2007 1:03 PM | 0 CommentsMilwaukee, WI

  It is always a challenge for the malpractice victim to find a qualified doctor willing to stand up in court and point the finger at another member of the profession who has committed malpractice. Most potential experts are specialists who depend on referrals from general practice doctors and others in the same community. Testifying against a colleague in the community can be the death knell...

• Pregnant Woman Warned Against Use Of Paxil

  David Lowe | November 30, 2006 10:09 PM | 0 CommentsMilwaukee, WI

  Pregnant woman are being urged to avoid taking the antidepressant Paxil because of the risk of birth defects. A committee of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has issued the warning based on two separate studies showing that children born to women taking Paxil during their first trimester have experienced nearly twice the incidence of heart defects.In December 2005, the...

• Suit Challenges Illinois Caps on Damage Awards

  David Lowe | November 21, 2006 4:31 PM | 2 CommentsMilwaukee, WI

  My colleague Jeffrey M.Goldberg, a nationally-renowned trial attorney who is an expert in birth injury cases, has filed a medical malpractice suit in Illinois on behalf of a child born with cerebral palsy and severe brain damage as the result of a mismanaged labor and delivery. The suit seeks fair compensation for the child and his family, but argues that fair compensation can only be provided...

• Consumer Rights Remain At Risk Despite Mid-Term Election Results

  David Lowe | November 14, 2006 6:19 AM | 0 CommentsMilwaukee, WI

  Stephanie Menciimer, author of the blog The Tortellini, cautions in a guest editorial posted in TomPaine.com that victims' rights remain at risk despite the Democratic Party's victory in the mid-term elections. The business lobby, led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, is not going away. As Mencimer observes, So long as Americans continue to exercise their right to sue when they've been injured,...

• Jury Finds for Infant Who Lost Sight Following Birth

  David Lowe | November 13, 2006 4:11 PM | 0 CommentsMilwaukee, WI

  A Pennsylvania jury has awarded a 6-year old boy $20 million in a medical malpractice case after he went blind almost immediately following his birth. Those held responsible by the verdict included the hospital, the head of the neonatology unit, the hospital's pediatric opthamologist, and the boy's pediatrician. The boy was born premature and developed retinapathy of prematurity, an eye disease ...

• Jury Awards $15.8 Million For Cerebral Palsy Victim

  David Lowe | October 19, 2006 12:44 PM | 0 CommentsMilwaukee, WI

  A Michigan court jury has awarded $15.8 million in damages for a child born with cerebral palsy allegedly the result of medical malpractice. The family's attorneys alleged that the doctors managing the birth were negligent in failing to perform a cesarean section delivery when the fetus experienced difiiculty during prolonged labor.Unfortunately, this type of tragic error occurs all too often....

• Another Hospital Medication Error Leads to Patient Death

  David Lowe | September 17, 2006 10:33 PM | 0 CommentsMilwaukee, WI

  The tragic deaths of two preemie infants are being blamed on human error by hospital employees at an Indiana hospital. We have discussed the problem of medication errors before, and it appears that the same problem occurred here. The two infants were given adult doses of Heparin, rather than the less powerful infant doses. Heparin is a blood thinning medication administered to adults for a...

• Ignore The Spin: The Math Shows That Medical Malpractice Cases Are Mostly Well Founded

  David Lowe | May 11, 2006 9:20 AM | 0 CommentsMilwaukee, WI

  It is amazing how different news organizations will report on the same study and spin completely different slants for their readers. A prime example concerns the AP story yesterday reporting about a study published in the May 11, 2006 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, from a panel of physicians, headed by David Studdert, an associate professor of health policy and management at...