October 31, 2012
Cases of colon cancer among younger people is on the rise even as the rate for those older than 50 decreases, a phenomenon that is leading to more missed diagnoses. Such was the case for a 44-year-old Maryland woman who seven years ago went to doctors with all the symptoms of colorectal cancer,…
October 17, 2012
A new report out of Johns Hopkins estimates that diagnostic errors may cause as many as 40,500 patient deaths in hospital intensive care units. The university’s patient safety experts say the number of deaths of critically ill hospital patients die with unknown medical conditions may exceed the…
October 11, 2012
 A dozen people have died and more than 100 have been sickened by an outbreak of meningitis caused by a steroid spinal injection contaminated with a fungus. The unsafe drug, used to treat back pain, was made by a Massachusetts compounding pharmacy and was sold to 75 clinics throughout 23 states.…
September 12, 2012
Rebecca Fielding remembered screaming aloud because it was taking so long for her to get a C-section to deliver her baby at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Maryland. She went to the hospital after her baby got stuck following an attempt to give birth at home using a midwife. She was told while…
July 25, 2012
Birth injury case brings large verdictBirth injuries due to doctor or hospital negligence are all too common. In yet another large award made to the family of an injured baby, a jury in Virginia recently handed down a $9 million verdict for a newborn who suffered cerebral palsy and damaged kidneys…
July 15, 2012
 Charlene Whalen’s doctor prescribed methadone to help her deal with chronic back pain. But the dosage, according to testimony in a trial three years later, was too high. In the middle of the night, the 49-year-old Maine woman stopped breathing in her sleep and suffered brain damage resulting from…
July 07, 2012
 Maria Garcia underwent surgery to remove her thyroid and parathyroid glands in her neck but she never recovered from surgery. It turned out that during the procedure the anesthesiologist failed to realize the patient’s breathing tube had moved, preventing the 66-year-old woman  from breathing on…
June 24, 2012
It began with a migraine. It ended in a nightmare. In late 2006, Robyn Frankel entered the Stanford Hospital & Clinics in California where doctors ordered an angiogram to investigate an abnormal vein in Frankel’s brain to try to determine the cause of her headaches. When dye for the angiogram…
June 12, 2012
“Alarming” is how one state lawmaker sized up the situation at a struggling hospital in Brooklyn, NY. Medical errors at Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center have soared, with the New York Daily News tallying the number of lawsuits pending against the facility at more than 100, including…
May 18, 2012
A Brooklyn mother of three went to her local hospital complaining of pain. She was treated in the emergency room, where she was diagnosed as having kidney stones, was given a painkiller and sent home. The next day, still in pain, she called 911 but the New York Fire Department did not send an…