January 19, 2014
Tubing connection mistakes most commonly occur when a hospital employee connects a catheter or tube to a wrong port or device. Misconnection of tubing used to link patients to medical equipment has the potential to result in serious injury.
Medical devices used in hospitals are designed so they…
January 18, 2014
A Montgomery County jury has awarded $5.1 million for a woman who suffered severe injuries after a medication error caused her to be injected with a concentrated decongestant instead of a local anesthetic before routine sinus surgery. Even after discovering the medication error during the June 2010…
January 17, 2014
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has granted a petition today to consider an appeal challenging the constitutionality of the state law which limits legal recoveries against government entities to $500,000. The appeal arose from the highly publicized case of Ashley Zauflik, a student who lost her left…
January 14, 2014
Among the latest product recalls announced by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) are the following:
IKEA recalled SMILA-Series children’s wall-mounted lamps due to strangulation hazard; one child death reported ( 23 million units )
Angelcare recalled Repair Movement and Sound Baby…
January 11, 2014
Brain injuries and death can result when nurses or other hospital staff fail to respond in a timely manner to alarms sounding in patient rooms. According to the Joint Commission Sentinel Event Alert database, 98 alarm-related events were reported between January 2008 and June 2012, with dire…
January 07, 2014
The number of robot-assisted surgeries in U.S. hospitals has jumped 60 percent in just two years. In 2012, approximately 350,000 robotic surgeries were performed for procedures including hysterectomies, prostate surgery, gallbladder removal and heart valve repairs.
Injuries attributed to the…
January 03, 2014
Infusion pumps are medical devices used in hospitals to deliver IV nutrients, medications, antibiotics, chemotherapy drugs, pain medicine, insulin, patient-controlled analgesia, or PCA. The pumps are designed to administer a certain amount of fluid or medicine over a period of time. Even though…
December 30, 2013
A recent case in Oregon shows just how absurd caps on personal injury verdicts can be. The case in which a jury returned a unanimous $12 million verdict involved a nine-month-old boy who underwent liver surgery at Oregon Health and Science University in 2009. During the procedure the surgeon cut…
December 24, 2013
A St. Louis jury awarded a family more than $10.8M in damages in a recent medical negligence case that resulted in the death of a young mother of three, according to a news report by St. Louis Today. Shannon Dodson, 34, died after a routine catheterization procedure at The Mercy Heart and Vascular…
December 21, 2013
Winter months bring ice and snow to area roads and highways. Private contractors, PennDOT, and municipal snowplows, salt and sanding trucks will be operating to plow or clear roads.
During a blizzard, heavy snowfall or ice storm, a plow operator is under pressure to quickly remove as much snow or…
December 19, 2013
The recent Early Sepsis Prophylaxis Study determined that using four clinical goals in emergency rooms reduced the death rate in sepsis patients. The study, by medical staff at North Shore University Hospital and Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New York, listed the sepsis bundle emergency…
December 15, 2013
An Allentown, Pennsylvania obstetrician continued with a natural childbirth despite complications which caused a newborn to be deprived of oxygen for more than three minutes. Chloe McCarthy, now four years old, suffered cerebral palsy and other neurological disorders stemming from the birth injury…
December 12, 2013
A rare but fatal medication error can occur when the cancer drug vincristine is administered improperly. Vincristine is often ordered to treat various types of cancer, including childhood leukemia. It is often administered along with methotrexate. Methotrexate can be given in the spinal column but…
December 10, 2013
American Honda recently issued a recall of 21,000 of its 2012 and 2013 Honda FourTrax TRX500 Foreman ATV’s. The all-terrain vehicles have steering shafts that can potentially break and cause riders to lose control.
The ATV’s were manufactured in the United States and sold at Honda ATV dealerships…
December 08, 2013
A man who was paralyzed below the waist due to medical negligence was awarded $2.85 million by a South Carolina jury, while his wife and sole caregiver won an additional $500,000. On April 17, 2004, Randy Green was rushed to Grand Stand Medical Regional Center after being involved in a traffic…