Franklin Gray and White Blog

Pre-Surgery Protocol to Prevent Wrong Site Surgery

If you or a loved one has been victim of a wrong site surgery error you may wish to seek the help of a Louisville medical malpractice lawyer. The attorneys at Franklin, Gray & White can assist you in investigating your claim and filing a Kentucky medical malpractice claim. Contact us today for a free consultation – 1-800-634-8767

Study Reveals Doctor Behavior Leads To Medical Errors

From the New York Times:

"It was the middle of the night, and Laura Silverthorn, a nurse at a hospital in Washington, knew her patient was in danger.

The boy had a shunt in his brain to drain fluid, but he was vomiting and had an extreme headache, two signs that the shunt was blocked and fluid was building up. When she paged the on-call resident, who was asleep in the hospital, he told her not to worry.

After a second page, Ms. Silverthorn said, “he became arrogant and said, ‘You don’t know what to look for — you’re not a doctor.’ ”

He ignored her third page, and after another harrowing hour she called the attending physician at home. The child was rushed into surgery.

“He could have died or had serious brain injury,” Ms. Silverthorn said, “but I was treated like a pest for calling in the middle of the night.”

Her experience is borne out by surveys of hospital staff members, who blame badly behaved doctors for low morale, stress and high turnover. (Ms. Silverthorn said she had been brought to tears so many times that she was trying to start her own business and leave nursing.)

Recent studies suggest that such behavior contributes to medical mistakes, preventable complications and even death.

“It is the health care equivalent of road rage,” said Dr. Peter B. Angood, chief patient safety officer at the Joint Commission, the nation’s leading independent hospital accreditation agency.

A survey of health care workers at 102 nonprofit hospitals from 2004 to 2007 found that 67 percent of respondents said they thought there was a link between disruptive behavior and medical mistakes, and 18 percent said they knew of a mistake that occurred because of an obnoxious doctor. (The author was Dr. Alan Rosenstein, medical director for the West Coast region of VHA Inc., an alliance of nonprofit hospitals.)

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Medical negligence and errors are a too common occurrance and can lead to serious health consequences and even death.  The law firm of Franklin Gray & White represents victims of medical malpractice.  If you or a loved one has been injured as the result of medical negligence or error, please contact the experienced legal team at Franklin Gray & White for a free consultation.

Hospitals Take Measures To Eliminate Birth-Related Injuries and Deaths

In the preceding article, a coalition of some of the country's leading hospitals announce the formation of a collaborative effort designed to reduce the number of preventable birth-related injuries and deaths that occur, according to a source in the article, in close to 3 of every 1,000 births.   This is welcome news.  As the article states, there are way too many preventable birth-related injuries and deaths each year.  Common issues listed as being responsible for these perinatal injuries and death include, inappropriate use of labor-inducing drugs, inappropriate use of vacuum extractors or forceps, failure to recognize an infant in distress, failure to timely intiate cesarian births, and failure to properly resusciate a depressed baby.

The Premier Perinatal Safety Initiative (which includes local Baptist Hospital East) seeks to make these improvements in perinatal care through information sharing, "care bundles", studies and analyses, and the creation of an advisory counsel.

As stated, the occurrence of preventable birth-related injuries and deaths is a significant problem.  The law firm of Franklin Gray and White represents clients whose children have experienced such injuries or death.  If you believe your child was the victim of such a birth-related injury, please contact our firm for a free consulation.

Hospital Falls

Falls in hospitals occur all to often and have devastating results. Many times, the falls are preventable. Too often falls are the result of hospital staff failing to properly monitor patients or attend to them as necessary. Patients being medicated with benzodiazepines are especially vulnerable to falls as are patients within compromised ambulatory ability. Family members with loved ones in the hospital should be vigilant in ensuring that hospital staff do their job in ensuring that their patient receive proper safety measures to prevent a fall.

$1.2 million Lexington Kentucky Malpractice Verdict

A Fayette County Kentucky jury awarded $1.2 million to the plaintiff in a medical malpractice trial. Larry Franklin represented the plaintiff in the week-long trial in Lexington Kentucky.

Lawsuit Filed Over Death In NYC ER

From MSNBC.com, a lawsuit has been filed over the death of a woman who collasped in a New York City emergency room and was ignored by staff for about one hour.  This story has been garnering attention from the national media as security footage from the ER appears to show several members of the hospital's staff noticing the patient lying on the floor without making any attempt to check on her condition.

This is a tragic story that draws much needed attention to the mistreatment too often suffered by the poor and mentally disabled at medical institutions across the country.  To that end, the law firm of Franklin Gray & White works on behalf of clients and their families who have been the victim of medical malpractice as well as nursing home abuse or neglect.  If you or a loved one have suffered such injuries, please contact the attorneys at Franklin Gray & White for a free consultation.

Erb’s Palsy Treatments and Recovery

If your child was injured during the birthing process and now suffers from Erb’s palsy, know that you may be able to help him or her by filing a lawsuit against those responsible for the medical malpractice. Contact a Louisville birth injury attorney at Franklin, Gray and White at (502) 637-6000 or (800) 637-6033 for advice regarding your case.

Treatment Options for Cerebral Palsy

Does your child suffer from cerebral palsy or some other birth injury caused by negligence or medical malpractice? If so, contact a Louisville birth injury attorney at Franklin, Gray and White at (502) 637-6000 or (800) 637-6033 for advice regarding your case.

Judge Upholds $16 Million Jury Verdict Against Hospital in Baby Delivery Death

From the San Diego Union-Tribune:

"A judge has upheld a jury's decision to award more than $16 million to a couple whose baby died during delivery at Sharp Mary Birch Hospital in November 2004.

Superior Court Judge Steven R. Denton signed the judgment Wednesday. Jurors returned a verdict Dec. 5 at the end of a nine-week trial that began in October. They had deliberated for less than a day.

The jury found that Sharp Mary Birch Hospital for Women and two of its doctors were negligent in their treatment of the mother, Teresa Bailey, 35, and caused harm to her and her husband, Robert, 40.

Jurors also determined that Dr. Arturo Mendoza, the director of pathology, committed fraud by making a false representation of fact to the baby's mother. The couple accused the doctor of concealing the baby's true cause of death on an autopsy report.

Attorneys Cassandra Thorson and Julie Parker said in an interview yesterday that the Escondido couple were told their baby died of lung disease when, in fact, the infant died of asphyxia. The boy became stuck in the birth canal, and his umbilical cord wrapped around his neck.

Teresa Bailey had been sent to the hospital on Nov. 29, 2004, for an induced birth after doctors noticed a problem with her amniotic fluid. However, after she was admitted, she rarely saw one of two doctors assigned to her care. She never saw the other doctor at all, the attorneys said.

“The exact cause of death that she was sent to the hospital to avoid occurred,” Thorson said.

The two doctors had been named in the lawsuit but have since settled."

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The law firm of Franklin Gray & White repesents victims of medical malpractice, including birth-related injuries.  If your family has been the victim of a birth-related injury, please contact, or email, the experienced attorneys of Franklin Gray & White for your free consultation.

 

Franklin Gray & White

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Louisville, Kentucky 40203

Tel: (502) 637-6000

Toll-Free: (800) 637-6033

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email: mwhite@franklingrayandwhite.com

Experts Concerned With Rise in C-Sections

From the Louisvile Courier-Journal:

"Kelly Parsons was in her eighth month of pregnancy when her water broke and doctors, concerned about her severe high blood pressure, prepared to deliver her baby by Caesarean section.

Lying in her hospital bed, she kept thinking her baby wasn't ready to be born.

"I knew it wasn't good," said the 30-year-old Louisville woman.

ndeed, while he's doing well at 5 years old, Parsons' son Jackson was born underweight, suffered breathing problems and jaundice and spent two weeks in a neonatal intensive care unit.

Such serious and costly medical problems are not unusual for the growing number of babies born relatively late in pregnancy, but before the 37 to 42 weeks considered full-term.

And a growing number of doctors and health advocates -- including the March of Dimes at a recent "prematurity summit" in Louisville -- are linking this to a new factor: a jump in C-sections.

The rate of C-sections reached a record in 2005 -- the most recent year for which data are available -- 30.3 percent of all births in the United States, up 46 percent from 1996. Kentucky's rate, 33.9 percent, was sixth-highest in the nation.

Pre-term births, meanwhile, have risen more than 30 percent in two decades nationally, and today comprise about one in seven births in Kentucky and Indiana. Most of those are "late pre-term," defined as 34 to 36 weeks in the womb.

Some medical experts and women's health advocates say late pre-term births could be reduced by bringing down the number of C-sections done before 39 weeks for reasons such as mothers' requests or doctors' schedules.

The March of Dimes is asking hospitals to voluntarily review all such C-sections.

"There are many of us doing elective Caesareans," said Dr. Iffath Abbasi Hoskins, of New York, vice president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. "Often, it is for the health of the mother or baby. … (But) some of it is the patients saying: 'I'm done. Get me delivered.' "

Others argue, however, that the vast majority of C-sections are done for sound medical reasons, as in the case of Parsons, who was believed to be 33 weeks along. But doctors do admit medical decisions are sometimes tempered by concerns about malpractice lawsuits."

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Prenatal and perinatal care are complicated areas of medical practice.  Unfortunately, too often negligent care in these areas can led to devastating effects to the child and the mother.  The law firm of Franklin Gray & White represents victims of medical malpractice including cases involving birth injuries and cerebral palsy.  If you are concerned that you or a loved one has been the victim of medical malpractice, please contact the attorneys at Franklin Gray & White for a free consultation.

Many Factors Have Been Identifed As Causing Cerebral Palsy

Many mistakes by doctors and hospitals during delivery can lead to cerebral palsy. The following is a list of mistakes made during delivery that have caused chlidren to be born with cerebral palsy:

-Failure to recognize and treat seizures following delivery
-Failure to detect a prolapsed cord (when the umbilical cord wraps around the child's neck and cuts off oxygen to the brain)
-Improper or excessive  use of vacuum extractors
-Improper or excessive use of forceps
-Failure to properly respond to fetal heart rate changes
-Leaving the child in the birth canal too long causing a lack of oxygen to th brain
-Failure to respond to the mother's changing conditions such as high blood  
 pressure, toxemia or abnormal pain
-Failure to timely diagnose and treat jaundice
-Failure to timely diagnose and treat meningitis

Franklin Gray & White has successfully represented many children injured during birth against hospitals and doctors in medical malpractice lawsuits. The firm currently has the largest jury verdict in Kentucky for these types of lawsuits.

When Doctors Misdiagnose a Heart Attack

An undiagnosed heart attack can lead to serious health complications and even death.  If you or someone you love has had a heart attack that was not properly diagnosed by the doctor, you need to know your legal rights.

Every year, half a million people in the United States die of heart attacks.  A percentage of these deaths could have been due to undiagnosed heart attacks.  Even though it is hard to determine the amount of deaths caused by misdiagnosed heart attacks, doctors believe that the number is high.

Despite advances in diagnostics and medical protocols, many heart attacks are still missed.  A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine stated that one in 50 heart attack victims are sent home by emergency room doctors by mistake.  Some studies have shown this rate to be even higher.

Usually measures can be taken by doctors and hospitals to help save the life of someone experiencing a heart attack.  Unfortunately, if the heart attack is misdiagnosed, these measures are not taken and sometimes the patient’s life is lost. 

Misdiagnosed heart attacks make up the largest percentage of malpractice settlements.  A doctor or hospital can be held liable when negligence was involved.  Missed heart attacks are often the result of errors in diagnosis.  One doctor was quoted in an article as saying that even the best physicians can easily miss cases. 

If you or a family member had a misdiagnosed heart attack, you may be entitled to compensation.  You should consult with a Kentucky medical malpractice attorney who can review your case to determine if malpractice existed.  The medical malpractice lawyers at Franklin, Gray and White have extensive experience in this area of law and can help you recover the compensation you deserve.  Call us today at (502) 637-6000 or (800) 637-6033 for advice regarding your case.

The article, Misdiagnosed Heart Attacks Cause Deaths in the United States, has more information on this subject.

Officials Concerned With Drugs Produced Abroad

From the New York Times:

"In 2004, when Bristol-Myers Squibb said it would close its factory in East Syracuse, N.Y. — the last plant in the United States to manufacture the key ingredients for crucial antibiotics like penicillin — few people worried about the consequences for national security.

“The focus at the time was primarily on job losses in Syracuse,” said Rebecca Goldsmith, a company spokeswoman.

But now experts and lawmakers are growing more and more concerned that the nation is far too reliant on medicine from abroad, and they are calling for a law that would require that certain drugs be made or stockpiled in the United States.

“The lack of regulation around outsourcing is a blind spot that leaves room for supply disruptions, counterfeit medicines, even bioterrorism,” said Senator Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, who has held hearings on the issue.

Decades ago, most pills consumed in the United States were made here. But like other manufacturing operations, drug plants have been moving to Asia because labor, construction, regulatory and environmental costs are lower there.

The critical ingredients for most antibiotics are now made almost exclusively in China and India. The same is true for dozens of other crucial medicines, including the popular allergy medicine prednisone; metformin, for diabetes; and amlodipine, for high blood pressure.

Of the 1,154 pharmaceutical plants mentioned in generic drug applications to the Food and Drug Administration in 2007, only 13 percent were in the United States. Forty-three percent were in China, and 39 percent were in India.

Some of these medicines are lifesaving, and health care in the United States depends on them. Half of all Americans take a prescription medicine every day.

Penicillin, a crucial building block for two classes of antibiotics, tells the story of the shifting pharmaceutical marketplace. Industrial-scale production of penicillin was developed by an American military research group in World War II, and nearly every major drug manufacturer once made it in plants scattered throughout the country.

But beginning in the 1980s, the Chinese government invested huge sums in penicillin fermenters, “disrupting prices around the globe and forcing most Western producers from the market,” said Enrico Polastro, a Belgian drug industry consultant who is an expert in antibiotics.

Part of the reason these plants went overseas is that the F.D.A. inspects domestic plants far more often than foreign ones, making production more expensive in the United States.

“U.S. companies are more regulated and are under more scrutiny than foreign producers, particularly those from emerging countries. And that’s just totally backwards,” said Joe Acker, president of the Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturers Association. “We need a level playing field.”

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The law firm of Franklin Gray & White represents victims of pharmaceutical or medication errors.  If you or a loved one believe that you have suffered an injury due to a pharmaceutical or medication error, please contact the experienced Medical Malpractice attorneys of Franklin Gray & White.   Call or email today for a FREE consultation.

Actor's Family Settles Medical Malpractice Lawsuit With Hospital

From the Los Angeles Times:

"Dennis Quaid and his wife Kimberly reached a settlement with Cedars-Sinai Medical Center for $750,000 over a medication error last year that nearly killed the couple's twin infants, according to papers filed Monday in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

Nurses at the hospital mistakenly gave twins Thomas Boone and Zoe Grace 1,000 times the recommended dose of the blood thinner heparin, leaving them vulnerable to uncontrolled bleeding and leaving them, for a time, in critical condition."

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Medication errors  occur frequently and can lead to serious health consequences and even death.  The law firm of Franklin Gray & White represents victims of medical malpractice.  If you or a loved one has been injured as the result of  a medication error or other medical negligence, please contact the experienced legal team at Franklin Gray & White for a free consultation.  For more information, see our online library.

Increase in Use of Pain Pumps Due to Heavy Marketing and Insurance Companies Approving Reimbursements

The dramatic increase in use of shoulder pain pumps after shoulder surgery is due in large part to the marketing efforts of the pain pump manufacturers and the increase in insurance companies approving coverage for such devices. Many insurance companies believed they could save money by having patients use pain pumps rather than traditional oral pain medications. Although the pain pumps may be cheaper they come with the risk of postarthroscopic glenohumeral chondrolysis or PAGCL. Franklin Gray & White is currently litigating several lawsuits in Kentucky filed against shoulder pain pump manufacturers and investigation dozens more.

Symptoms of Postarthroscopic Glenohumeral Chondorolysis (PAGCL) Can Develop 3-12 Months After Surgery

Many cases of PAGCL develop 3-12 months after surgery. One of the most common procedures that patients experiencing PAGCL have is known as a Bankart procedure. This procedure is used to repair chronic dislocation of the shoulder joint and shoulder instability. Arthroscopic surgery is often used over open surgery to perform a Bankart procedure (also known as a Broca-Perthes-Bankart procedure). Anyone that has had this procedure and used a pain pump should consult with their physician and be watchful of the signs and symptoms of PAGCL