March 21, 2014
Chicago State University had fired its former legal counsel, James Crowley, for allegedly misusing school funds, including to pay for a trip to Hawaii to attend a conference. But Crowley charged that he was let go for reporting improprieties by the university to the attorney general, among them its…
March 15, 2014
In an unusual worker injury case, two teenagers literally suffocated to death in corn and a third employee was injured while working at a Haasbach LLC grain elevator in Carroll County, Illinois. The three were in a grain bin to help the flow of corn while machinery was operating. Suddenly, 14-year…
March 08, 2014
Bacterial endocarditis is infection and inflammation of the inner surface of the heart. It usually affects the heart valves but can also be present on pacemakers or defibrillators. Endocarditis occurs when bacteria enter the bloodstream and attach to an already damaged portion of the heart or…
March 01, 2014
Even though birth is a natural process, unexpected complications, such as a prolapsed umbilical cord, shoulder dystocia, the baby getting wedged in the birth canal, cord around the neck, placental abruption, meconium aspiration or preeclampsia can arise during labor or shortly after delivery. A…
February 26, 2014
The list of the Top 10 medical technology safety hazards was published in the November 2013 issue of Health Devices. Alarm problems and infusion pump medications errors are on the top of the list of hospital problems that need to be addressed. According to the article, the most prevalent medical…
February 25, 2014
Tom Kline announced he will file a civil rights lawsuit on behalf of a five-year-old girl who was abducted from her kindergarten classroom at a Philadelphia school and raped last year. Kline, who previously announced plans to sue the city school district, told the news media that the conduct of the…
February 18, 2014
When you are the patient in a hospital emergency room, or ER, you expect that you will receive appropriate and proper care by nurses and doctors. Unfortunately, emergency room staff negligence or mistakes can cause patients any number of injuries, including brain damage, respiratory failure, organ…
February 14, 2014
A delay in diagnosing Ewing sarcoma bone cancer can affect prognosis
Ewing sarcoma is a form of malignant bone cancer that is found mostly in children, teenagers and young adults. If the cancer is not diagnosed and promptly treated it could quickly spread to other organs.
Common signs or symptoms…
February 02, 2014
Osteomyelitis is infection and inflammation of bone or bone marrow. Bone infections can be a result of medical malpractice by a doctor, orthopedic surgeon or physician assistant if an underlying infection was not properly diagnosed or treated.
Bacteria can reach a bone by traveling through the…
January 25, 2014
A homeless woman living in a Los Angeles shelter won a $7.5 M settlement for a hospital’s medical negligence that caused her youngest child to suffer severe brain damage during childbirth.
Dyrene Loftis was 39 weeks pregnant and living with her two other children in 2012 at the Union Rescue…
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…