Failure to Rescue from Cardiac or Respiratory Arrest
When our loved ones are admitted to hospitals, we expect the doctors and nurses will be prepared for the worst. When we review medical records
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The Duty to Monitor for Cardiac or Respiratory Arrest
A sudden cardiac or respiratory arrest is often unanticipated and devastating. For many who suffer these events while at home, work, or elsewhere, by the
Doctors and Nurses Must Look for Signs of Problems and Prevent Harm to Patients
A doctor may rule out the most immediately life threatening condition, stabilize a patient, and reach a diagnosis and plan for a patient on day
Delayed Diagnosis of Compartment Syndrome
Thousands of people every day suffer injury to part of their leg or forearm. Broken bones, burns, and penetrating trauma are daily occurrences and common complaints in America’s emergency departments. Few patients or their families consider a fractured bone or burn will lead to amputation of a leg or part of the arm.
Retained Surgical Items Often the Result of Medical Malpractice
Shockingly, the incidence of surgical items mistakenly left inside patients has remained steady over the years. UpToDate estimates that retained surgical items occur in 1 in every 5500 to 18,760 inpatient operations, but may be as high as 1 of every 1000 to 1500 abdominal cavity operations, and even more common during emergency surgery. When a surgical instrument or sponge is mistakenly left inside a patient after surgery, medical malpractice is inevitably the cause.
Permanent Nerve Damage Due To Botched Saphenous Vein Harvest
During a procedure to perform an endoscopic vein harvest of a patient’s saphenous vein, an inexperienced PA mistakenly removed a large portion of the patient’s saphenous nerve instead of the vein, causing permanent and avoidable nerve injury in his leg as a result of the physician’s assistant failing to follow the standard procedure for vein harvesting.
Central Line Infections – Still Rampant, but Preventable
Hospitals can easily prevent patients from contracting an infection that still affects 45,000 to 90,000 people per year. This infection is from a common device used to administer medicine and fluids called a central venous catheter (CVC), also known as a central line.This device is a tube that leads straight to the patient’s heart, which allows doctors to administer medicine to their patients quickly.
Maternal Deaths Due To Sepsis
All too often, we see the life-changing consequences caused to patients as a result of delays in diagnosis. While delays in diagnosis can occur in numerous areas of medicine, a particular concern are delays in diagnosis of infection in pregnant women. Maternal deaths from pregnancy related to sepsis (blood infection) while uncommon still occur at an unacceptably high rate.
Three UPMC Patients Died From Fungal Infections Following Transplant Surgery
Our attorneys are investigating the circumstances that led up to a man contracting a fungal infection following lung transplant surgery at UPMC.
Negligent Resuscitation of a Newborn
An infant’s entrance into the world is a challenging time. Going from intrauterine to extrauterine life results in many physiological changes; the lungs take over gas exchange and become filled with air rather than fluid, and blood flow to the lungs is substantially increased. If appropriate care is not provided to the newborn during delivery or while in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), many different complications, sometimes life threatening, can occur.
Pittsburgh Dentist Uses Paper Clips for Pittsburgh Patients Root Canals
Pittsburgh dentist Samuel Pollina, was recently featured in an unflattering investigative report by WTAE’s Paul Van Osdol titled, “Pittsburgh dentist admits using paper clips for root canals.”
Infections in the Newborn
During and after birth, infants are at risk of contracting serious infections. Many neonatal infections can lead to devastating consequences if not detected and treated soon after birth. If your infant developed an infection at birth that was not properly recognized and treated, this may have been medical malpractice and you may contact our office to request a free case evaluation.