New York Malpractice & Injury Lawyer Blog

People are prescribed narcotic medications for a variety of reasons. Some are recovering from dramatic injuries and others have just come through surgery. No matter the reason, being prescribed a pain relieving medication is not without its risks. Most popular pain medications on today’s market are made from Opium, the prevalent ingredient in heroine, and are highly addictive. Percocet, Vicodin and even OxyContin are prescribed on a daily basis and abused just as frequently.

Patients can easily become addicted to these medications, prompting the question: Is addiction grounds for a medical malpractice case? The answer is not as clear cut as people would like. To prove a successful medical malpractice case, an attorney must show evidence that a medical professional was negligent. How can a doctor be considered negligent for trying to help a patient make it through a period of pain?

If a doctor fails to take an adequate medical history, continues to prescribe the medication beyond its typically warranted period, or even fails to seek assistance for a patient who is known to be addicted, that doctor may be found legally liable for the addiction. As with any other medical malpractice case, an attorney must prove several things:

Medical malpractice isn’t a new topic. People know what it is whether or not they have had to suffer with its effects. There are many myths and misconceptions surrounding medical malpractice. Knowing the facts is beneficial for everyone.

1. Preventable medical errors are the named cause of death for between 44,000 and 99,000 people each year in America. People just like you go to the doctor or the hospital and expect to be treated properly. Instead, they are injured or worse, killed.

2. Medical malpractice is something that can be prevented. The majority of issues that arise in doctor’s offices or hospitals are due to human error. This means that it is medical professionals who are making mistakes and, as everyone knows, mistakes can be avoided.

Medical malpractice is a complex area of law. Certain factors must be present, and even one missing could mean your case is invalid. That’s why it’s important to have an experienced injury attorney by your side if you are planning on filing a medical malpractice suit. Here are 8 things you need to know about filing a suit in New York:

1. The two main factors in medical malpractice are negligence and injury.

When you visit a doctor or go to a hospital, there is a standard of care medical professionals are expected to uphold. This includes giving proper treatment for your condition in a timely manner. If they do not do so, you may have a case.

It took a jury in Northampton County, Pennsylvania just an hour and a half to decide that a hospital was not guilty in the death of a 15-year-old basketball player.

After a civil trial lasting tow weeks, members of the jury found that Dr. Chirang Gupta, a hospital physician, was not negligent in the care he gave to Lewis Ogioba.

According to reports, Wilson went to the hospital complaining of shortness of breath and weakness. He was treated for asthma and released. He died just hours later at home. The boy’s family sued the hospital and the doctor, saying that, had their son been diagnosed and treated properly, his death could have been prevented.

You have heard of medical malpractice facts and statistics from the patient’s point-of-view, but how do things look from the other side of the fence? Whether you are a doctor or not, knowing how things stand from a medical perspective is important. Here are ten statistics that everyone should be aware of.

1. Among doctors aged 55 and older, more than 61 percent have been sued at least once for medical malpractice.

2. Doctors involved with medical malpractice lawsuits are most likely to be sued for a failure to diagnose.

A family in DeKalb County, Georgia was awarded $3 million in a medical malpractice lawsuit. The family claims that their 64-year-old relative died during what was to be a routine surgical procedure.

Brenda Davis, the patient, died in September of 2012 just two days after her surgical procedure at DeKalb Medical Center. According to reports, the woman went into the hospital to have a cyst removed from her ovary. During surgery, her bowel was pierced and Davis subsequently died.

The lawsuit claimed that Davis’s surgeon failed to adequately inspect her bowel before closing her incision. That failure ultimately led to Davis’s death. The verdict was returned against Perimeter OB/GYN Care and Dr. Stuart Pancer.

A lot of people focus on the heart for Valentine’s Day. Whom do we love? Who loves us? Sadly, many forget to make the heart their focus during the rest of the year. February has been designated American Heart Month with the intent to remind people about the dangers of heart disease. If you think that Valentine’s Day is the only day to focus on the heart, read on.

According to the AHA, or American Heart Association, heart disease is the leading cause of natural death in both American men and women. Failure to diagnose heart disease has become the primary focus of many in the medical profession. Doctors fail to diagnose heart disease, particularly in women, at an alarming rate.

The result of a failure to diagnose such a serious disease, whether due to negligence or error, can have fatal consequences. When mistakes in medical care can be proven, a victim stands a good chance of recovering compensation that could cover medical bills, lost wages and more.

Every year in the United States, 1.7 million patients acquire some type of infection during a hospital stay. Of those people, 99,000 will die, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Infection is the third leading cause of patient deaths in the country.

One of the most important infections to be aware of is MRSA, or methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus. This type of infection is so worrisome because it is resistant to many antibiotics. It is a type of staph infection that can take weeks or months to heal. It can also lead to death. In many cases, doctors realize that MRSA is the issue only when it is too late to treat.

Other types of staph infections are also cause for concern. Though these types of infections are minor, they are still not something one should have to deal with simply because they were treated in a hospital. Some people who contract a staph infection may deal with flu-like symptoms. Others may deal with serious complications such as pneumonia or other severe illnesses. People with weakened immune systems are the most susceptible to complications from staph infections.