January 5th, 2009 An Illinois couple filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against Gateway Regional Medical Center and one of its nurses, claiming the nurse’s negligence resulted in serious injuries. According to the lawsuit, Sharon Daniele was being treated at Gatewa...
December 19th, 2008 A woman living in Saint Clair County, Illinois filed a lawsuit against Belleville Memorial hospital and five of its doctors claiming her infant daughter died because of their medical negligence. Courtney Williams alleges her daughter died of cardiac arre...
December 17th, 2008 A woman living in Illinois has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Memorial Hospital, Cardiology Consultants and one of its doctors, claiming her mother died on behalf of medical negligence while in their care. According to the lawsuit, Lucille Bailey...
December 11th, 2008 An Evan’s, Georgia woman was recently awarded $8.6 million in damages in a medical malpractice case filed against the U.S. Government. Jean Phillips filed the medical malpractice lawsuit following a doctor mistake that lead to serious injuries. D...
December 4th, 2008 The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently reported that some birth injuries may be significantly more common among babies conceived with fertility techniques (assisted reproductive technology, or ART) compared to babies conceived...
September 16th, 2008 An article published Sept. 16 in the New York Times reveals that medical mistakes caused by doctor negligence have more serious consequences in children than adults. A study published in April’s Journal Pediatrics noted that 11 percent of children t...
August 29th, 2008 The children of a woman who recently died after having spinal fusion surgery at a Chicago hospital are now questioning the level of care she was receiving at the medical facility. According to reports, the patient was allergic to morphine, which her f...
August 27th, 2008 An inmate in Dallas County jail was awarded nearly a million dollars for damages suffered when he was denied adequate medical care. Medication Denied Stanley Shepherd is partially paralyzed from a seizure he suffered in January 2004 while in jail. Acco...
August 12th, 2008 Several settlements have recently been reached in cases involving an Oklahoma County jail where there have been several reports of abuse and even deaths during childbirth. The lawsuits claim the jail isn’t offering adequate medical care to inmate...
August 8th, 2008 A medical malpractice lawsuit was recently filed against Lifeteam EMS, Inc. by the parents of a boy who died while being transported between hospitals. The boy’s life was cut short when he was taken from East Liverpool City Hospital to the Childre...
July 30th, 2008 Nearly $1.5 billion could be saved every year by preventing surgical errors, revealed a new study by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). The study examined insurance data from more than 161,000 patients enrolled in health plans through...
July 25th, 2008 The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts upheld a jury verdict that found a Norwood doctor liable for negligence in a specific type of medical malpractice case known as “loss of chance.” Loss of chance cases involve instances of negligence...
June 30th, 2008 According to reports, hospitals throughout the state of California are under fire due to the amount of hospital errors that have occurred within the last year. The Department of Public Health Patients claims that patients admitted to these hospitals a...
June 23rd, 2008 A student at Ohio University recently underwent an arm amputation that her parents feel is due to the wrong diagnosis given to her. The Hudson Health Center, along with some of the center’s doctors, is currently under investigation for not diagn...
June 11th, 2008 A Tennessee woman who is now partially paralyzed because of a spinal infection she developed after a pain shot was recently awarded $6 million in damages by a Michigan jury. Doctor Negligence Betty Geldersma visited the West Michigan Pain Clinic in May...
May 30th, 2008 According to reports, several hospitals throughout Southern California are being cited and fined for putting patients at risk. Among the hospitals under fire are Harbor at UCLA, Pomona Valley Medical Center, and St. Joseph Hospital of Orange. New L...
May 21st, 2008 An Ohio woman was awarded more than $22 million for severe and permanent birth injuries sustained by her daughter in 1997. After a five week trial, the Hamilton County jury ruled that Dr. Lisa Yang and Group Health Associates were negligent in the deliv...
May 6th, 2008 The parents of a brain damaged young boy have settled a birth injury lawsuit against the University of Virginia Medical Center for $1.35 million. At the time of the boy’s birth, malpractice awards were capped at $1.6 million. David and Elizabeth Mo...
May 1st, 2008 San Francisco city officials have agreed to settle a medical malpractice case for $5.1 million, reportedly one of the largest such settlements in the city’s recent history. Incident at San Francisco General The settlement stems from an incident at...
April 9th, 2008 Medical errors at hospitals are costing the U.S. billions—$8.8 billion between 2004 and 2006 to be exact, a new study released Tuesday shows. “While many U.S. hospitals have taken extensive action to prevent medical errors, the prevalence of likely prev...
March 25th, 2008 A 10-year-old boy who suffered injury at birth was recently awarded $19 million in damages by a Monmouth County jury. Bonnie Kowalski filed a medical malpractice lawsuit after her son, Brandon, was born with severe brain damage, cortical blindness and c...
March 19th, 2008 A surgeon who removed the wrong kidney from a patient at a Minneapolis-area hospital has agreed to stop seeing patients while an investigation into the error is conducted. Cancerous Kidney Left Behind The incident occurred at Methodist Hospital in St. ...
March 10th, 2008 A Massachusetts jury awarded $14.5 million in damages to a widower whose wife died less than 32 hours after an elective thyroid surgery in 2001. Shannyn MacPherson, 30, died when she developed a condition known as “abdominal compartment syndrome&rd...
March 4th, 2008 A hepatitis C outbreak at a colonoscopy clinic in Nevada may just be “the tip of an iceberg,” said the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday. Large Number of Patients Potentially Exposed Last Friday, the Endoscopy ...
February 12th, 2008 A Connecticut jury awarded $38.5 million in damages to a boy born with cerebral palsy and his family. The verdict is believed to be one of the largest of its kind ever handed down in the state. Spencer’s Birth Spencer Oram was delivered by Caesarean sec...
February 8th, 2008 Medication errors are more likely to be made by depressed doctors, a new study published in the British Medical Journal suggests. As many as 98,000 people die every year as a result of such errors. The Research Researchers followed 123 residents at thr...
February 4th, 2008 Kaiser Permanente will pay $3.2 million to a teenage girl who suffered brain damage during her delivery at the HMO’s Anaheim hospital. Untimely C-sectionAriana Ehtemam, 14, was delivered by way of C-section and now suffers from attention deficits,...
January 15th, 2008 Emergency room wait times are increasing, even for heart attack patients who require immediate treatment, according to a new Harvard study published in the journal Health Affairs. Increasing Wait Times Between 1997 and 2004, wait times to see an emergen...
January 4th, 2008 A new study shows that hospitals are often too slow in responding to sudden cardiac arrest, increasing the risk of serious brain injury and death. Approximately 500,000 Americans experience sudden cardiac arrest in hospitals every year, and less than a t...
January 2nd, 2008 A handful of intensive care units will soon be fitted with copper equipment to see if the metal is any better at preventing the spread of harmful bacteria than stainless steel, the current standard. Hospital Infections Deadly Hospital-acquired infecti...
December 18th, 2007 A Massachusetts woman recently won $2.5 million for damages suffered as a result of medical negligence. The woman underwent nearly seven years of treatment for HIV, even though she did not have the disease. In 1994, the Family Practice Clinic in Fitchbur...
December 4th, 2007 A new study suggests that doctors don’t always report incompetent or impaired colleagues, even though almost all think they should. The study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, is believed to be the first to of its kind. Researchers evaluate...
November 27th, 2007 A hospital in Rhode Island received a reprimand and a $50,000 fine from the state Department of Health after a doctor performed surgery on the wrong side of a patient’s brain. It was the third brain surgery error to occur at the hospital this year. “We ...
November 16th, 2007 A judge in Illinois deemed unconstitutional a 1995 state law that placed limits on jury awards in medical malpractice cases. Because the law was judged unconstitutional, any appeals filed will go directly to the U.S. Supreme Court. Under the 1995 law, n...
November 1st, 2007 Legislators in Massachusetts have proposed two new bills that would protect doctors who apologize to patients after making a mistake. If passed, the laws would make physician admissions of guilt inadmissible in medical malpractice lawsuits. The First Bi...
October 30th, 2007 A New York woman whose 12-year-old son died from the drug-resistant staph infection MRSA announced that she is suing a city hospital for $25 million. “What my son go through, I don't want any kid, no mother, to go through,” said Aileen Rivera. Missed ...
October 19th, 2007 A Missouri woman and her husband have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Walgreens, claiming that a prescription error made at one of the company's pharmacies caused her to suffer a miscarriage. Drug Confusion Chanda Givens went to Walgreens to fi...
October 4th, 2007 A $12 million verdict was handed down Tuesday in a medical malpractice case involving a 7-year-old boy who became disabled as a result of injury at birth. The award is the largest on record in DuPage County, Illinois. Benjamin Hayes made an appearance at...
October 3rd, 2007 A New York woman has filed a lawsuit against the lab that mislabeled her tissue sample—a mistake that led her to be misdiagnosed with breast cancer. She was informed that she never had cancer several months and a double mastectomy later. “I didn't know ...
September 20th, 2007 Medical lapses in the California prison system may have caused as many as one in six deaths last year, according to a new report on medical care in 32 lockup facilities throughout the state. Preventable Deaths Last year, 426 inmates died in California ...
August 28th, 2007 A speedier but less accurate laboratory test for pertussis, commonly called "whooping cough," is responsible for false-positive test results in thousands of individuals, according to a recent report from epidemiologists with the U.S. Centers for...
August 17th, 2007 In May 2004, 5-month-old Parker Kohl developed RSV (respiratory syncytial virus), a viral disease. He also had a preexisting heart condition. His parents Darius and Karen Kohl took him to Tripler Army Medical Center (TAMC) in Honolulu, Hawaii. At the time...
July 23rd, 2007 A recent study reported that 90 percent of the 3,000 doctors surveyed admitted having made a medical error or narrowly missed making such an error. A "near miss," a minor medical error, or a serious error (i.e., an error resulting in permanent o...
July 5th, 2007 A popular reproductive technology procedure that has long been touted as a method of boosting the successful birth rate for older women actually reduces the birth rate by a third, according to a Dutch study published today in The New England Journal of Me...
May 14th, 2007 In May, New York state’s Westchester County agreed to pay a Yorktown woman $75,000 after she received a false diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB) from the county’s Health Department. In January 2006, Maureen Ryan, 64, a nursing case manager, was or...
April 4th, 2007 Almost three percent of all patients in American hospitals may be the victims of hospital errors, a new study found. The report also found that about one in four of the patients that do experience a hospital mistake will die from it. The Study The s...
March 29th, 2007 A jury has awarded $1.2 million to the family of a woman who allegedly died as a result of two doctors' failure to diagnose a perforated stomach ulcer in 2002. The jury found that Cape Radiology group's Dr. W.J. Stoecker and Dr. James D. Meritt of Essex...
March 27th, 2007 The Justice Department has released a report Sundaycontaining data on medical malpractice claims in seven states, including Illinois, Florida, Missouri, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada and Texas. Prompted by ongoing debate about the reason for the increase...
March 20th, 2007 The mother of a 520-pound woman who died after a gastric bypass error her has filed a lawsuit against the operating surgeon and the hospital in which she had the procedure performed. The lawsuit filed by Colleen Shepherd claims that surgeon Dr. Younan N...
March 14th, 2007 The parents of a boy born with Erb's palsy have filed a lawsuit claiming their child suffered from shoulder dystocia at birth and was born disabled as a result of medical malpractice. Christy and Dennis Hartmann filed their lawsuit against an obstetrici...
March 7th, 2007 Indiana recently became one of the first states to require hospitals and surgery centers to report the errors made by their physicians. Some of the results of the first report were released yesterday. The report shockingly revealed that one of the most co...
March 2nd, 2007 A Madison, Wisconsin jury has awarded $450,000 to a man who suffered serious injuries and disabilities as a result of a doctor's accident while he was being X-rayed. The suit originally sought $2.4 million, but it was unclear which of the injuries were ...
February 22nd, 2007 A sailor's family has filed a $150 million suit against the Navy claiming that a Navy hospital acted negligently during the birth of their child resulting in serious birth injuries including the child's development of cerebral palsy . As a result of the...
February 14th, 2007 A survey asking doctors about how their personal moral views may influence their decisions to not offer or supply certain treatments found that many doctors do allow their personal moral objections to affect the way they treat or refer patients. Startli...
February 12th, 2007 A new study found that black Americans who are being treated for a stroke actually have worse outcomes when they are treated at hospitals that treat a large number of minority patients. The researchers found no racial disparity at hospitals that treated p...
February 8th, 2007 A woman who suffered a debilitating seizure after having a tumor surgically removed has won a $16 million verdict in a medical malpractice lawsuit against the medical school at which the surgery was performed, and the doctor who performed it. What Happe...
February 2nd, 2007 Research shows that heart disease is misdiagnosed much more often in women than men. Jean Horgan checked into a hospital complaining of an irregular heartbeat. “I was told, ‘Go home and take tranquilizers. You''ll be fine, you''re under stress,''” Horga...
February 1st, 2007 A man who had a surgical procedure performed on the wrong side of his vocal cords is suing the hospital where he received the procedure and the physicians involved. What Happened? The 66-year-old cancer survivor had gone into St. Joseph''s Hospital fo...
January 17th, 2007 A new study dispels convictions commonly held by business and medical lobbying interest groups that medical malpractice lawsuits are to blame for out-of-control health care costs and short doctor supply. The report, titled “The Great Medical Malpractice...
January 3rd, 2007 A Florida woman who suffered severe brain damage after a botched surgery was granted $16 million in compensation for her losses. In 2001, 48-year-old Lourdes Landis underwent surgery to remove a benign tumor in her brain. Shortly after her discharge fro...
December 18th, 2006 A Los Angeles hospital has closed its pediatrics and neonatal intensive care units to new patients after a possibly fatal bacterium infected seven children including one newborn who might have died from the injury, according to officials. Currently, all...
December 5th, 2006 A new study indicates that a second opinion from a cancer diagnosis specialist may result in a significant modification in the recommended course of treatment and even reduce the risk of breast cancer misdiagnosis. The study, published in the journal Ca...
November 28th, 2006 An Oregon women suffering from breast cancer after a radiologist incorrectly assessed her mammogram was awarded $5.7 million in a medical malpractice lawsuit. The jury found the clinic that misdiagnosed Julie Joel''s cancer made a negligent error—a mist...
November 16th, 2006 A new report analyzing the rate of hospital-acquired infections shines a spotlight on one of the countries deadly and hidden problems. This week, the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council revealed the number of hospital infections and deaths...
November 13th, 2006 A new study found that only one-third of hospitals provide emergency treatment to heart attack patients fast enough to meet the scientific standards for saving lives. Researchers also claim that even top doctors and hospitals meet the American College of ...
November 2nd, 2006 A Connecticut mother and her young son were awarded $2.7 million in a medical malpractice lawsuit filed after the boy suffered Erb''s palsy—a serious condition caused by nerve damage to the arm—allegedly caused by the doctor''s negligence during his birth...
October 31st, 2006 A Staten Island jury awarded $3.9 million to a man who suffered severe medical problems after two doctors performed a botched surgical procedure that made his condition worse. “No amount of money could make me feel the way I felt in court today, to hear...
October 23rd, 2006 The family of a one-year-old baby who was left severely brain damaged as a result of medical negligence in an army hospital was awarded $16.5 million for their losses and suffering. Izzy Peterson was born healthy in January 2005 before a doctor mistaken...
October 19th, 2006 A lot of older woman who have developed breast cancer are not being properly diagnosed or treated, particularly in community hospitals and clinics, states a new report published in the Archives of Surgery. A Growing Problem This problem is raising incr...
October 11th, 2006 Those who are admitted into intensive care unit (ICU) rooms that were once occupied by patients with antibiotic-resistant bacteria are at an increased risk of developing severe infections, according to the results of a new U.S. study. The two kinds of r...
October 4th, 2006 A Hillsborough County, Florida jury has awarded $217 million in damages to a man who suffered severe brain damage after doctors in a hospital emergency room misdiagnosed symptoms of his stroke. The original verdict of $116.7 million included economic an...
September 28th, 2006 A fifty-six year old women was led to believe she had breast cancer for more than a year and underwent harsh radiation treatments before she was told a medical lab mixed up her biopsy tests with another woman''s. Lynn Yurosko has filed a medical malprac...
September 27th, 2006 A five-year-old girl is still in a coma after undergoing routine dental surgery that required anesthesia. During the procedure to cap some teeth and fill two cavities, Diamond Brown allegedly stopped breathing and failed to regain consciousness after she ...
September 18th, 2006 Two premature infants were killed and four other newborn''s lives were put at risk after they were given the wrong dose of heparin, an anti-coagulant drug, in the neonatal intensive care unit at Methodist Hospital, officials announced yesterday. Two-day...
September 15th, 2006 A Wood County, Ohio jury awarded an eight-year-old girl $1.1 million after she suffered serious birth injuries, leaving her right arm paralyzed. The medical malpractice lawsuit brought by Robin and Jay Instone, the girl''s parents, was filed against the...
September 13th, 2006 California''s court-appointed prison healthcare supervisor recommended raising the salaries for medical professionals in prisons, a move that could cost an annual $24 million if the plan is approved. Medical care has been one of the biggest issues facin...
September 8th, 2006 A high rate of first-year medical residents reported violating hospital work limit rules designed to reduce medical mistakes linked to fatigue, researchers at Harvard Medical School found. The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Asso...
August 25th, 2006 A Florida Woman was awarded $8.25 million after a botched breast augmentation and lift procedure caused her to lose both breasts. Christy Allis was 28 when she decided to undergo plastic surgery in 2003 with Dr. Luciano Boemi. During the procedure, her ...
August 18th, 2006 A New York man who alleged a hospital negligently mishandled the body of his mother after she died, was awarded $1 million in compensation for his pain and suffering. Veronica Gibson died in the hospital during a routine operation. After her death, Gibs...
August 10th, 2006 Tuberculosis, one of the most common infectious illnesses in the world was responsible for almost two million deaths in 2004, according to the World Health Organization. Though common, TB goes unrecognized by many doctors in the U.S. who aren''t familiar ...
August 2nd, 2006 A Kentucky jury awarded the family of a woman who died as a result of medical negligence $9 million in damages yesterday. Jennifer Beglin, 40, underwent elective surgery at the University of Louisville Hospital in July 2003 and died three months...
July 21st, 2006 A report issued yesterday by the Institute of Medicine said that medication errors injure or kill at least 1.5 million Americans every year – a number that amounts to one mistake per hospital per day. The most common drug errors are caused by name confu...
July 14th, 2006 A woman left disabled by a botched hospital procedure was awarded $21 million in compensatory damages on Wednesday by a Kane County jury. Naria Bun, 41, was admitted to Proven St. Joseph Hospital in Elgin to be treated for a non-life-threatening infecti...
July 11th, 2006 The Oregon Court of Appeals ruled unanimously in favor of the family of a brain-damaged child last week, overruling a state law that limits jury awards against public agencies at $200,000. The decision revives a lawsuit filed by the parents of Jordaan M...
June 19th, 2006 A medical malpractice lawsuit involving a baby born with serious brain damage and cerebral palsy as a result of inadequate medical care has been settled for $2.4 million by a California hospital Morgan Lee, now nearly 2-years-old, was delivered by emerg...
June 15th, 2006 The family of a 5-year-old boy who suffered severe cognitive and developmental deficiencies as a result of improperly administered medication was recently awarded $30 million in damages by a Philadelphia jury. Daniel Keenan, a twin, suffered from regula...
May 16th, 2006 Three patients filed lawsuits late last week against Kaiser Permanente - the giant HMO accused of denying its members kidney transplants because of paperwork errors. One man died after Kaiser refused him a kidney transplant as a result of mishandled pap...
May 5th, 2006 Kaiser Permanente imperiled 25 transplant patients in Northern California when it denied them of the chance to receive perfectly matched kidneys last year because of paperwork errors and delays. Kaiser started its first kidney transplant program after t...
April 19th, 2006 A St. Louis County Jury found Northern Refractive Surgery Center negligent in its care and treatment of a man who underwent LASIK surgery at the center, and awarded him over $3 million in damages. Lowell Larson, 34, filed the medical malpractice la...
April 14th, 2006 A woman who claimed her gynecologist botched a surgery on her urethra was awarded $28 million by a jury Wednesday in a medical malpractice lawsuit filed against her doctor. Jeanette Davis claimed her gynecologist Robert Bowles performed a flawed opera...
April 7th, 2006 A woman filed a negligence lawsuit against a hospital after her premature baby’s body was found mixed in with the laundry. The baby, Isabella Rosa Pickney died minutes after she was born. “I did get to hold her, I got to feel her breath on my lips,” ...
March 31st, 2006 A woman filed a lawsuit against San Joaquin County in California, its public hospital, and doctors on charges of medical malpractice after her serious auto accident last March. Roberta Sanchez claims the injuries she suffered as a result of the crash w...
March 30th, 2006 A Hawaiian jury awarded $5.6 million damages in a medical malpractice and wrongful death lawsuit against a surgeon who implanted a screwdriver in the back of a patient during surgery. The surgeon Robert Ricketson was found to be 65 percent liable for t...
March 29th, 2006 The second largest nursing home chain in California, Pleasant Care Corp., will pay $1.35 million to the state in a lawsuit settlement, which alleged negligent care and abuse in many of its facilities. Pleasant Care pleaded no contest to the charges of eld...
March 28th, 2006 In a 21-count medical malpractice, wrongful death, and product liability lawsuit against Gateway Regional Medical Center in Illinois and drug manufacturer Pfizer, the son of a woman who suffered a heart attack claims the hospital and drug company’s neglig...
March 17th, 2006 A new study of almost 7,000 patients in 12 metropolitan areas found that all Americans, regardless of race, gender, or income, are at risk for getting substandard health care. While there is a slight difference of care received between groups, most of...
March 3rd, 2006 A couple sued Pomerado Hospital in Poway California for wrongful death and medical malpractice when the facility failed to treat their ailing four-week-old son. According to the claim the hospital staff neglected to quickly see or triage the infant, Shl...
March 3rd, 2006 The parents of a four-year-old boy who died in 1999, were awarded $2.1 million by a jury this month that found a Pennsylvania hospital was liable for their son’s death. The lawsuit was filed in 2000 by the boy’s parents, Christian A. Jessen and Elle...
February 6th, 2006 A medical malpractice precedent has been set by a woman in Wisconsin who has been awarded $8.4 million in damages. Jessica Greenfield of Waupun, WI, suffered severe nerve damage from a surgery performed in 2000 to remedy acid reflux problem, leaving the p...
January 16th, 2006 Arizona attorneys are uniting to defeat a pending Arizona Medical Association campaign to limit the amount of non-medical damages one can receive in a medical malpractice suit. Doctors are arguing that the increasing cost of excessive punitive damages are...
December 9th, 2005 A recent study showed that the loss of brain cells during a stroke takes place at an incredibly high rate. The study also showed that people should recognize symptoms of a stroke so that they can act quickly to help the victim. Stroke victims who receive ...
December 2nd, 2005 A medical malpractice case involving a newborn baby brain damaged during delivery has resulted in Connecticut''s biggest ever medical malpractice award. After five weeks of testimony at Waterbury Superior Court, the decision was unanimous, and the jury aw...
November 21st, 2005 Canadian researchers report that pregnant women with abnormal placentas appear to be at a twofold risk of developing early cardiovascular disease compared to women without these problems. After looking at more than 1 million women who delivered, resear...
November 10th, 2005 A major study being released in today''s New England Journal of Medicine reports a first-trimester screening test can reliably identify fetuses likely to be born with Down syndrome, allowing the information to be provided to the expectant women much earli...
November 4th, 2005 Two Florida dentists filed a motion for a temporary injunction to shut down a Web site that was critical of them and a Florida Department of Health''s review of their patient''s complaints, but a South Florida court ruled last week that they have to pay a...
October 21st, 2005 A new measure in Wisconsin state legislature would put limits on malpractice lawsuit awards, but it will most likely fail to pass due to unconstitutional elements. The law, put forth by Republicans in the state’s Supreme Court, is very similar to another...
September 27th, 2005 Sheri Milburn, of Neosho, Missouri, was awarded $326,000 in damages stemming from a faulty diagnosis and treatment. The facility, Freeman Health Systems of Missouri, was found to be at fault in diagnosing and treating the former schoolteacher’s appendici...
September 22nd, 2005 Four-year-old Torajee Bobbett was rushed to Wilkes-Barre Mercy Hospital with debilitating stomach pain and other symptoms. Shortly after his admission to the hospital, the boy died. A recent lawsuit alleges that the boy sat in the hospital without a cle...
September 20th, 2005 A family in San Mateo, CA, has filed a lawsuit against the medical center due to the death of a man who was prescribed 10 times more cancer medication than needed. The man, 41-year-old Armando Castellanos, died last year on August 16. Mr. Castellano...
August 10th, 2005 A Brunel University student, Claire Dunne, created a new invention called the “Brilliant” bracelet. The bracelet was created to match medicines against the wearer’s prescription to help avoid hospital errors. So far, the wristband has already been te...
May 20th, 2005 Half a million Americans have cerebral palsy, but doctors are often unclear why it happens. In one of the largest medical malpractice verdicts in Massachusetts’s history, a jury took less than four hours to find two general obstetricians negligent in the...
May 19th, 2005 In recent years, the focus on patient safety has been one of the top priorities in hospitals, but a new study indicates significant change is hard to come by. As many as 98,000 Americans die every year because of medical errors, according to the study in...
April 5th, 2005 The U.S. government has unveiled a consumer oriented Web site that is designed to give people information regarding the quality of care at hospitals across the country. The site allows people to assess seventeen different measures of quality now listed...
January 31st, 2005 Premature birth is a serious and growing problem in the United States, according to the March of Dimes. The rate of premature births in the U.S. has increased 29 percent from 1981, with more than 470,000 babies born prematurely each year. A new stud...
November 30th, 2004 State Senate President Mike Miller is scheduled to speak on medical malpractice to a luncheon group filled with doctors in Hagerstown, Maryland. Doctors have viewed Miller as blocking their attempts for medical malpractice reform that would limit jury awa...
November 30th, 2004 Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston has spent the last decade reforming its hospital to ensure patient safety comes first. While a hospital is supposed to put patient safety first, reports in recent years have shown how many problems exist in the nati...
November 30th, 2004 Sutter Health has said medication errors have been reduced by 28,000 actual incidents over the past year and a half because of bar-coding doses of medication. Some of the prevented medication errors could have contributed to injury or death. The bar-c...
November 21st, 2004 In 1999, a report titled “To Err is Human” called for drastic reduction in the number of medical mistakes after finding accidental overdoses, infections and other caregiver errors had become a leading cause of death. The report said up to 98,000 U.S. pat...
November 4th, 2004 After doctors and lawyers spent an unprecedented amount of money battling out limits on medical malpractice damage awards and attorney fees in malpractice cases, the verdict reflected the very divided public opinion mirroring the elections as a whole. The...
October 28th, 2004 A study of 24 doctors caring for seriously ill patients in a hospital found those restricted to working no more than 16 hours without a break made about one-third fewer serious errors that could harm patients. The first study directly to examine the e...
October 24th, 2004 According to a government study, an estimated 454,383 people suffered injuries from medical devices in a 12-month period from 1999 to 2000. The actual number of injuries is believed to be much higher in actuality, according to researchers from the FDA...
October 3rd, 2004 According to a Pennsylvania Supreme Court study, the number of Pennsylvania medical malpractice lawsuits filed in the state dropped significantly in 2003. Due in part to changes in court rules, the study found a 26 percent drop from 2000 to 2003 in the nu...
September 22nd, 2004 Botox is on trial for the first time since emerging as one of America''s fastest growing cosmetic treatments. A Hollywood socialite Irena Medavoy, and wife of film producer Mike Medavoy, has sued a celebrity dermatologist Arnold Klein and Botox manufactur...
September 22nd, 2004 A massive lawsuit was filed in 2000 by the U.S. government to reimburse expenses paid out to women injured by silicone gel breast implants. The breast implants were introduced to the U.S. market in 1963 and recalled by 1992, with the exception of clinical...
September 22nd, 2004 Some doctors have been using a controversial tactic, asking patients for voluntary contributions to offset rising medical malpractice insurance premiums. The Washington Post reported on this new practice that New York-based Center for Medical Consumers be...
September 20th, 2004 According to files from the Cook County courthouse, the number of medical malpractice lawsuits in the Chicago-land area has declined 24 percent in the first eight months of 2004. Considering the so-called medical malpractice “crisis” that the state ha...
September 6th, 2004 In 2003, the Florida Legislature passed a $500,000 noneconomic damages cap, which doctors say does not prevent premium hikes that are forcing them to leave the state, retire early or forgo high-risk procedures. Doctors have proposed a constitutional chang...
August 11th, 2004 The Public Citizen consumer group has issued corrections on statements President Bush has made during this year''s campaign trail. The corrections are in response to statements about the impact of medical malpractice lawsuits. The president of Public Citi...
July 13th, 2004 According to medical malpractice lawyers, doctors and insurance companies have been unrightfully blaming high malpractice premiums on lawyers and saying that large medical malpractice awards are given for frivolous claims. The medical malpractice lawyers ...
July 12th, 2004 In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the Texas law allowing patients to sue their health plans for damages in state court was no longer allowed, causing mixed opinions. The ruling over the Texas law was made in response to two lawsuits t...
June 7th, 2004 According to new research considered the most comprehensive study done on the impact of children and safety in hospitals, more than 4,000 children died in 2000 because of safety lapses. The children's deaths cost an additional $1 billion in hospital charg...
May 18th, 2004 The Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital was fined $20,000 by state health officials after an investigation into two recent deaths of cosmetic surgery patients. Both women, one of whom was the author Olivia Goldsmith, were reported by the hospital to ha...
April 30th, 2004 The Pennsylvania Medical Society made claims that a medical malpractice crisis was present in Pennsylvania. In order to counter what the medical society claimed was driving out as many as 1,700 doctors from the state, the group insisted changes needed to ...
April 23rd, 2004 Negligence and mismanagement claims are threatening the future of Los Angeles'' MLK Hospital. Federal investigations have looked into claims of negligence and mismanagement. In documents obtained by The Associated Press, in addition to interviews with doc...
April 16th, 2004 Public Citizen consumer group has ranked the performance of the 50 state medical boards, as well as the District of Columbia using information from the Federation of State Medical Boards. The consumer group based the ratings on the rate of serious discip...
April 15th, 2004 The US Senate has voted for the second time in the past three months to block a bill that would benefit HCA, Inc., the largest hospital chain in the nation, and other healthcare providers by limiting the amount that could be awarded to victims of medical ...
April 6th, 2004 The Public Citizen consumer group has issued a press release notifying consumers to "Stop the Latest Attack on Consumer''s Legal Rights!" The U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has tried in the past to push medical malpractice legislation through the ...
March 31st, 2004 The temporary spikes in Georgia medical malpractice insurance rates have been misdiagnosed in order to make legal changes that would take away patient rights. According to Public Citizen consumer group, government data and other reliable information show ...
March 17th, 2004 New Jersey lawmakers worked on Monday to rewrite insurance regulations in an attempt to cut costs for medical malpractice insurance. Voting 46 to 17, with 16 abstentions, the State Assembly approved a complete overhauls that would aim to reduce insurance ...
March 11th, 2004 The Virginia State Senate and the House of Delegates passed competing proposals in March to boost funding for a state program that pays medical expenses of children injured at birth. About 75 children currently participate in the Birth-Related Neuro...
March 5th, 2004 Claims that the Pennsylvania Medical Society and Pennsylvania physicians have been making that increases in patient lawsuits and skyrocketing jury awards have caused the "crisis" state in Pennsylvania medical malpractice insurance rates is false, accordin...
March 4th, 2004 Washington Gov. Gary Locke opposes $250,000 caps on noneconomic damage awards on Washington medical malpractice awards, finding them an attempt at arbitrarily deciding a lifetime pain and suffering award. States have been in debates over the medical malpr...
March 3rd, 2004 Families frustrated with a Wisconsin medical malpractice loophole have sent representatives of the group Family Justice Network to speak out in supports of a bill in the State Senate. As Wisconsin law currently stands, parents are unable to sue for medica...
March 3rd, 2004 Governor Rowland has indicated that he is willing to compromise on his proposals addressing the skyrocketing costs of medical malpractice insurance in the state of Connecticut. Rowland, who previously backed a $250 thousand cap on jury awards for me...
February 27th, 2004 The U.S. Senate medical malpractice bill brought to the floor on February 24, 2004 was defeated. The defeated medical malpractice bill was a victory for consumers, according to Public Citizen. Needing 60 votes, the bill, that would limit obstetrics and gy...
February 24th, 2004 Representatives of six families have been urging Senators to oppose a bill that has been introduced that would set a $250,000 limit on compensation for women and their babies that have suffered brain damage, disfigurement, mutilation, blindness, and other...
February 23rd, 2004 According to federal government data showing the number of payments and the monetary amount of payments made to obstetrical medical malpractice, the amount has declined over the past decade. Public Citizen believes this information further places doubt on...
February 21st, 2004 The House has just passed legislation to create a mutual insurance authority to sell medical malpractice coverage and to set up pretrial reviews of Kentucky medical malpractice claims in attempts at weeding out the "frivolous'' cases. If approved by voter...
February 21st, 2004 The Wyoming House and Senate passed mirror bills that propose a constitutional amendment that could limit noneconomic damages in Wyoming medical malpractice lawsuits. Other states have passed similar medical malpractice lawsuits caps on noneconomic damage...
February 20th, 2004 After a woman gave birth to a severely handicapped son in October 1998, she filed a medical malpractice lawsuit. The birth injuries were a result of the doctors failing to quickly perform a C-section after realizing the baby was in distress, according to ...
February 17th, 2004 Congress is currently trying to pass medical malpractice legislation that Public Citizen consumer group finds to be detrimental to consumers and victims of medical malpractice ultimately. The U.S. Senate is trying to pass a bill labeled as "Healthy Mother...
February 5th, 2004 Doctors and medical malpractice victims packed into the Kentucky Capitol on Thursday, urging lawmakers to adopt their respective plans, as the debate over medical malpractice legislation continues. State legislators are considering separate proposal...
February 5th, 2004 A new, four-year study presented at the February 5 Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine''s annual meeting has found women who have vaginal birth after having Caesarean deliveries are at increased risk for maternal morbidity and serious complications th...
February 4th, 2004 A Public Citizen Report has challenged the "crisis" state that the Kentucky medical Association is claiming. According to data from government sources, the total amount paid for medical malpractice insurance by the state''s health care providers has actua...
January 30th, 2004 A British led study considered the most detailed study to date has indicated that x-rays are the cause for about 700 cases a cancer a year. Everyone is told about the small risk of cancer, but due to the large number of people exposed to x-ray risks, the ...
January 26th, 2004 Last year, legislation that would have limited the pain and suffering of medical malpractice awards to $250,000, as well as limiting punitive damages to the same amount or twice the patient''s actual financial loss, but it died in Congress. Now, Bush is a...
January 19th, 2004 The medical malpractice debate has continued to be controversial. Doctors and insurers have been claiming the increase in malpractice insurance rates has been the result of high payout lawsuits. Consumer groups and patients believe this argument is an eas...
A recent European study has found that more than four in ten heart attacks are not diagnosed when they occur. This risk of undiagnosed heart attacks is even greater for women than men. In fact, one-half of all heart attacks are undiagnosed in females and ...
The Senate rejected legislation on Monday that would have limited damages for victims of medical malpractice. The first of two bills proposed by Republicans would have capped non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases to $750,000 with no single h...
A Lancaster County jury has awarded a woman nearly $8 million after she suffered serious injuries resulting from a pharmacy error that led her to take too much medication. A judge ordered Eckerd Corporation, owner of the pharmacy, to pay the victim, Tif...
The accuracy of diagnostic mammograms varies according to radiologist, with doctors missing on average 20 percent of breast cancer diagnoses and some as many as 70 percent, a new study shows. “Women think mammography is perfect, so if they get a ne...