Medical Malpractice and LASIK Surgery
Even though LASIK surgery is considered one of the safest procedures available, it is still accompanied by the risk of complications. If your eye surgeon makes a surgical error during your LASIK procedure, the consequences can be disastrous, potentially leading to permanent vision problems or even blindness.
Recently, a New Jersey ophthalmologist agreed to pay $2.1 million in a medical malpractice settlement after he performed LASIK on a patient who was not a good candidate for the surgery. The patient had steep corneas, which severely increased his risk of complications. The procedure left him with a bulging cornea, resulting in long term vision complications. The doctor who performed this surgery has been sued for LASIK malpractice 16 times in his career.
A Chicago eye surgeon has faced more than 50 medical malpractice lawsuits since 2001. One of these patients required corneal transplant surgery as a result of his botched LASIK procedure. The Chicago ophthalmologist failed to diagnose a prior eye condition which made the patient an unsuitable candidate for LASIK.
It is surprising that these ophthalmologists are still licensed to practice. It seems that the medical community needs to more strictly monitor doctors who have faced such a large number of malpractice complaints.
It is crucial to evaluate the credentials of any doctor before you have him perform major surgery. The consequences for choosing the wrong doctor can be life altering.
If you have a medical malpractice claim in the New York City area, please contact the New York medical malpractice lawyers at Silberstein, Awad & Miklos, P.C. today to schedule your initial consultation.
Labels: medical malpractice, surgical malpractice
2 NY Brain Surgeons Suspended for Abandoning Patient in OR
Two of New York's highest paid brain surgeons have recently been suspended for two weeks after abandoning a patient in the operating room. The patient had already been anesthetized and prepped for her brain surgery.
The two surgeons involved in the incident were Thomas Milhorat, chief of neurosurgery at North Shore University Hospital, and Paolo Bolognese, a colleague of Milhorat's.
The suspensions were given out following an incident on April 10. Bolognese had a patient in the operating room. Her head had been shaved and she had already received anesthesia, but Bolognese was nowhere to be found. Hospital staff called on Milhorat to perform the surgery, but he refused because she was not his patient.
Since there were no other surgeons available at the time, the surgery was never performed. The incident is currently under investigation.
Milhorat and Bolognese run North Shore University Hospital's Chiari Institute, a facility that treats patients suffering from a rare congenital brain injury causing headaches, dizziness, and other symptoms.
This is not the first time the two surgeons have had complaints filed against them. Both doctors are currently facing three medical malpractice lawsuits for improper conduct. One lawsuit alleges that they used patients with the brain defect, including a 4-year-old, as guinea pigs for research and financial profit.
Another lawsuit alleges that the doctors told the parents of a 12-year-old girl that her surgery would be a "walk in the park." However, since her surgery, her condition has continued to steadily decline.
Doctors have a responsibility to do everything in their power to provide their patients with the best care possible. The actions of these two doctors failed to live up to this responsibility and constitute a major surgical error. If you have been the victim of a surgical error, it is important to consult an experienced medical malpractice lawyer. You may be entitled to receive compensation for your damages.
If you have a medical malpractice claim in the New York City area, please contact the Law Offices of Silberstein, Awad & Miklos, P.C. today to schedule a consultation.
Labels: medical malpractice, surgical malpractice
For those who suffer medical malpractice, sometimes not even a lawyer will help
I have written before about not all complications as a result of surgery being malpractice. However, one sad feature of our current medical system is that it often doesn't matter whether a person's suffering is caused by medical malpractice or not, it is sometimes impossible to recover damages. Consider the case of an Atlanta woman who had a hysterectomy, a laparoscopic procedure that normally takes about a week to recover from. However, as a result of complications from the procedure, she is still recovering four months later, having spent thousands of dollars out-of-pocket and lost thousands more in wages. The complications are as a result of an expected complication of the surgery, a routine surgical error, the nicking of the ureter, the tube that carries urine from the kidney to the bladder, during the surgery. In many countries, the national health care system takes care of people even when complications arise during surgery. In New Zealand, Sweden, or Canada, the woman's expenses would be covered, both those incurred as a result of the surgery and as a result of the unforeseen complications. However, in the United States, where every medical expense comes out of pocket even when you are insured, the woman's only viable option is filing a lawsuit for compensation. In malpractice and defective drug cases, the legal tort portion of the system is often the only one that seems to work consistently. But not always. When this woman consulted with personal injury lawyers, she found that she had fallen into an unfortunate gap in the only thing we have resembling a safety net. Lawyers refused to take her case because her damages were too low. To personal injury lawyers, $50,000 is a pittance, not worth pursuing. Unfortunately, for most people $50,000 is an unbearable expense. It can wipe out savings, forcing a person to get an additional mortgage, if they don't already have one in this bad mortgage market. If we are seriously considering tort reform, one portion of the reform must work to close this gap, the gap between what most people can afford to pay in the event of medical complications, and what personal injury lawyers are willing to pursue. In the absence of a true safety net, let's at least make the holes in this one a little smaller. Labels: medical malpractice, personal injury, surgical malpractice
Clinics Fighting Back when Their Physicians Get Sued
Following up on my entry on the strain in doctor-patient relations, it seems that medical institutions have decided to play hard-ball with their patients over medical malpractice suits. In one case in Wichita, a clinic has severed relationships with patients who file medical malpractice suits, even though there was no accusation of hospital malpractice. Thus, if a patient files a suit against one of the doctors, then the other 100+ physicians refuse to treat them as well. The practice is not common, but if it is adopted, it can serve as one of the worst forms of intimidation, especially in small communities where care providers might be limited. Most recently, the Wichita Clinic barred its 12 locations from serving the family of a Wichita police officer who filed a lawsuit after she suffered a life-threatening punctured artery during surgery. Because of the special relationship the Wichita Clinic shared with the city of Wichita, the officer's insurance limited her to treatment at the Clinic. Therefore, as a result of the action, she and her family were without medical care for six weeks before accommodation could be made. Although physicians are allowed to choose who they wish to treat, and to refuse continuing to treat patients for any reason, this action is by the clinic and not by any individual physician. Furthermore, it seems an attempt by the medical community to increase its already considerable bargaining power by giving plaintiffs a reason not to litigate in the first place, even if they have a legitimate case, as did the police officer, who was awarded $140,000 by a Sedgwick County jury. Such actions serve no one but the medical community, and not as a medical community, but as a business community, seeking to protect its own financial well-being rather than its patients health. But if you have been hurt by the negligence of a doctor, do not fear to file your surgical malpractice suit. An experienced medical malpractice lawyer can look after your interests and make sure you do not suffer any more at the hands of the hospital or clinic. If you or someone you love is seeking recourse for medical malpractice in the Phoenix, Arizona area, contact the experienced medical malpractice lawyers at Snyder & Wenner, P.C. today. Labels: hosptical misconduct, medical malpractice, surgical malpractice
Wrong-Site Surgery
Unfortunately, one common form of medical malpractice is what is known as wrong-site surgery. When this occurs, a surgeon operates on the wrong location of the body, and can be as tragic as a fatal removal of a functioning kidney while leaving a non-functioning one in, or the amputation of the wrong limb. According to the journal Archives of Surgery, this occurs in as many as 2700 cases every year in the United States. There are some simple suggestions for minimizing the risk that you will be a victim of wrong-site surgery: - Talk to your surgeon just prior to the surgery, before you are prepped or given anesthesia. Make sure he or she knows the specifics of the operation.
- Don't let nurses or other staff mark the surgical site. Your surgeon should do this so that you know he or she knows where the cutting will be.
- Talk to everyone involved—radiologists, anesthesiologists, nurses--to make sure they know the specifics. The more people know, the more likely it is that someone will speak up if the wrong procedure is about to be performed.
- Make sure the hospital has procedures in place to prevent wrong-site surgery.
If you do these things, hopefully you will be able to avoid becoming a victim of wrong-site surgery. If you or a loved one has been unfortunate enough to suffer from such a gross medical negligence as wrong-site surgery in the Chicago area, contact the experienced personal injury lawyers at The Law Offices of Barry G. Doyle, P.C. today to get compensation. Labels: medical malpractice, surgical malpractice
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