Delayed diagnosis of colorectal cancer is not always an unavoidable tragedy. In many cases it is the direct result of a physician’s failure to screen appropriately, to recognize the warning signs, to follow up an abnormal test result, or to refer a patient for specialist evaluation. At Lupetin & Unatin, we investigate these cases, and we know how to determine whether your right to reasonable medical care was violated.
Pittsburgh trial attorney Gregory R. Unatin, a partner at Lupetin & Unatin, LLC, has once again been named to the Super Lawyers list of Top 50 Lawyers in Pittsburgh and the Top 100 Lawyers in Pennsylvania — honors he has now received consecutively since 2023. Separately, he has been recognized in Best Lawyers in America® 2026 for Personal Injury Litigation (Plaintiffs), one of the oldest and most credible peer-review distinctions in American law.
Brendan B. Lupetin, managing partner of Lupetin & Unatin, LLC in Pittsburgh, has been named the 2026 “Lawyer of the Year” for Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs in Pittsburgh by Best Lawyers in America®. This distinction is awarded to only one attorney per practice area, per metropolitan area, per year—making it the most selective peer-reviewed honor in the legal profession.
If your child was born prematurely — before 32 weeks of gestation — and has been diagnosed with cerebral palsy, one of the first questions an experienced birth injury attorney should ask is: Was magnesium sulfate administered before delivery? This is not a complicated question. It is not a matter of experimental medicine or cutting-edge science.
Cervical cancer is one of the most preventable cancers in medicine. The tools to detect it early – Pap smears and HPV testing – have existed for decades. The human papillomavirus (HPV) that causes more than 90% of all cervical cancers is identifiable in patients long before cancer develops, giving physicians a critical window to intervene.
Radiology is the branch of medicine most dependent on disciplined, systematic observation. A radiologist reviewing a chest CT does not just look for what the ordering physician suspects. The standard of care requires a thorough, methodical review of everything visible in the image — because the most important finding is often not the one anyone expected.
An echocardiogram is one of the most important diagnostic tools in cardiovascular medicine. Using ultrasound to create real-time images of the beating heart, it can detect heart valve disease, heart failure, blood clots, congenital abnormalities, and conditions that — if identified and treated promptly — are survivable. If missed, they can be fatal.
An incidental finding is an unexpected abnormality discovered during a medical imaging study that was ordered for a different reason. The term “incidentaloma” is commonly used when the finding is a mass or lesion — a nodule on the lung found during a chest X-ray for a broken rib, a lesion on the liver spotted during an abdominal CT for appendicitis, a thyroid nodule noticed on an ultrasound of the neck.
There is a persistent myth in medicine — one that doctors and hospitals sometimes invoke in their defense — that medicine is an art, not a science. The suggestion is that outcomes are unpredictable, that mistakes are inevitable, and that holding physicians accountable for errors is somehow unfair given the complexity of what they do.
If you have been harmed by a physician’s failure to diagnose, treat, or refer you appropriately, you may have heard — or may anticipate hearing — a familiar argument: the doctor was practicing “defensive medicine.” The suggestion is that any physician would have done the same thing, that the test or treatment you needed was unnecessary or risky, and that the doctor’s choices represented reasonable clinical judgment rather than negligence.
Sepsis is not an unpredictable disease—it is a medical emergency with a well-established, time-sensitive treatment protocol. The federal government requires every hospital receiving Medicare reimbursement to follow the CMS SEP-1 bundle: a standardized sequence of blood cultures, serum lactate measurements, and broad-spectrum antibiotics that must be initiated within three hours of sepsis identification.
For nearly two decades, our firm has advocated for patient safety and proactive health management. As medical technology evolves, so do the standards of care. In 2026, we have more tools than ever to make cervical cancer a “preventable” disease. If you or a loved one has suffered due to a misdiagnosis or a failure to follow these current protocols, understanding these nine steps is the first step toward justice and health.
