Articles Posted in Medical Malpractice

Today Community General Hospital in Syracuse, New York, opened its new $7.6 million orthopedics unit. The new unit, located on the hospital’s sixth floor, will care for patients recuperating from knee, hip (including hip and knee replacements) and spine surgery. The Hospital’s old orthopedics unit on the fourth floor provided insufficient space, as the orthopedic surgery practice has grown. The new, modern facility will provide better care and may even reduce orthopedic medical malpractice lawsuits. Outgrown, overcrowded surgical recovery units are breeding grounds for medical malpractice lawsuits.

The new unit is timely. We are going to need more, better, and larger orthopedic units in the future. One big area of growth in the orthopedic surgery field is joint replacement, especially knee and hip replacements. To demonstrate this growth, let’s just look at knee replacements. In 2006, 59,077 people between the ages of 45 and 54 had knee replacements. But experts predict that, by the year 2030, that number will have increased to almost 1 million, nearly 17 times as many! Similar statistics are available for hip replacements.

Why this increase? Three facts are driving the trend: (1) Joint replacements are more successful than before, and thus attract more patients. New technology allows the artificial parts to withstand more stress and strain; (2) Seniors are more active, and need those hips and knees to work for them; and (3) There are more and more obese people, which triggers earlier and greater arthritis and other orthopedic problems.

New York medical malpractice attorneys,, like medical malpractice lawyers all over the U.S., are often blamed for high health care costs and other woes. But are they really to blame? No! This past November 2009, the American Association of Justice (AAJ) published a bulletin titled “Five Myths about Medical Malpractice“. It debunks, with hard statistics gathered by non-biased agencies, all the “medical malpractice myths” spouted out by the insurance industry and doctors’ PAC groups. Here is a summary of AAJ’s “Medical Malpractice Myths” bulletin:

MYTH #1: THERE ARE TOO MANY “FRIVOLOUS” MALPRACTICE LAWSUITS

Far from it. In fact there are hundreds of thousands of the medical malpractice victims each year, but very few medical malpractice lawsuits. 98,000 people die in hospitals each year from preventable medical mistakes, but only a small fraction of the families sue.. Many more suffer non-fatal injuries, yet still medical malpractice lawsuits are rare. Moreover, the number of medical malpractice suits is declining, not growing. Medical negligence filings dropped 8% between 1997 and 2006. According to the National Center for State Courts (NCSC), medical malpractice cases constitute only 3% of all tort (injury) lawsuits, and only a very tiny fraction of all civil lawsuits. Medical malpractice lawsuits are not only rare, but the few that are filed are general strong cases. The Harvard School of Public Health put researchers to the task of examining over 1,400 closed medical negligence cases and found that 97 percent were meritorious.

Prescription errors and medication mistakes are as common in Central New York, including Syracuse, Auburn and Geneva, New York, as anywhere else in the United States. Every year they cause about a million deaths and injuries in the U.S. Prescription-error lawyers in New York, and everywhere for that matter, know that there are generally two possible culprits: Either the doctor prescribes the wrong drug or dosage or it’s the pharmacist’s fault for filling the wrong dosage or dispensing the wrong medication. Either way, it constitutes medical malpractice and the victim has a right to seek compensation against the doctor or pharmacist for the injuries suffered, or, the family of a deceased victim has a right to seek compensation for the wrongful death of their loved one.

Here’s a recent example of a prescription malpractice lawsuit: The Detroit News reports that the family of a man who was “issued a lethal dose of a chemotherapy drug” by Rite Aid pharmacists sued the company. The patient, who suffered from melanoma, was instructed to take 14 capsules per day of Temodar, ten times the usual dose, and double a fatal dose. In an out-of-court settlement, the doctors who prescribed the dose admitted the error (as well they should!).

In fact, prescription errors are one of the most common types of medical malpractice. What causes a prescription mistake? The most common causes are:

The Institute of Medicine reported a decade ago that as many as 44,000 to 98,000 people die in hospitals in the U.S. every year from medical errors. At Michaels Bersani Kalabanka we handle many medical malpractice actions involving injured patients from the Syracuse, Auburn, and Geneva, New York areas, as well as other upstate New York communities. Although medical malpractice is never the patient’s fault, there are some steps you can take to minimize the risk that YOU will become one of the many victims of medical malpractice:

(1) ASK. You have a right, and a duty to yourself, to know all about your medical condition and treatment. Don’t be afraid to ask questions, especially if you have any doubts or concerns about a procedure your doctor is recommending, or a drug he is prescribing. Asking questions not only helps you understand how to get the most out of your medical treatment, it may also help the doctor focus on your particular needs. It doesn’t hurt to bring a friend or relative along with you to help you understand.

(2) Be careful about PRESCRIPTION DRUGS. Keep a list of the medicines you are taking, and share that list with your doctor. Don’t forget to tell him about any allergies or side effects you have had. If your doctor orders a prescription drug, make sure the medicine the pharmacist gives you is the same one, and the same doses, the doctor ordered.

I recently read an article entitled “Deadly Mistakes that Plague Hospitals” by William Campbell Douglass II, M.D. According to the article, there are 400,000 preventable drug-related injuries every year and there is a 1-in-30 chance that your prescription will be filled out wrong. A lot of these are blamed on poor handwriting scrawled out onto prescriptions. Another article I have read, “Dead by Mistake” reports that medical errors cause about 200,000 preventable deaths every year in the United States, which includes many Syracuse area medical malpractice deaths each year. That’s more than the deaths from diabetes, Alzheimer’s, the flu, and pneumonia all combined!.

I am convinced that one reason for these amazing statistics is medical arrogance. Humble people learn from their mistakes. Arrogant people never learn from their mistakes because they don’t believe they can make mistakes. I am not saying that all doctors are arrogant, but the American medical establishment, which seems to have a personality of its own, is arrogant.

The medical establishment does not sufficiently castigate and weed out bad doctors. Instead, it protects them. When a doctor makes a consequential mistake in a hospital, a small group of other doctors conducts a “peer review” of his or her actions. But if wrong-doing or negligence is found, the peer review group usually meets out a mere wrist-slapping rather than consequential penalties. To add insult to injury, the complaints and investigation records are, unlike police and other such records, kept sealed and confidential.