Detroit Medical Malpractice Blog

After roughly eight years, an Indiana woman's medical malpractice claim has finally been resolved via a favorable jury verdict. The $1.5 million jury award is bittersweet; however, because the woman's suffering will continue throughout her lifetime.

In 2003, a 21-year-old woman visited the hospital with severe abdominal pain. She consulted a surgeon, who advised her to have part of her intestines removed the following day. The patient agreed and returned for her surgery, but the doctor changed his mind and said they could delay the procedure. The woman's condition worsened over several days and she ended up having emergency surgery performed by another surgeon.

A number of Zoloft birth defect lawsuits have been filed recently across the country. The lawsuits have raised claims that Zoloft taken by pregnant mothers have caused severe birth defects, some fatal. The defects include persistent pulmonary hypertension (PPH), heart defects, lung defects, abdominal defects, cranial defects and other malformations. The lawsuits have alleged the manufacturer of Zoloft, Pfizer, intentionally covered up data for years that demonstrates Zoloft was dangerous to pregnant women and their unborn children. It is also alleged Pfizer knew of the risks from studies, did not properly study Zoloft, and did not properly publish the data which would have reflected the risk. Even today Pfizer continues to deny the dangers and has not revised its drug labeling.

As Abby Simons reports for the Star Tribune, a Minnesota girl, only five years old, is said to have only a five percent chance that she will survive her battle with a rare type of cancer that attacks children. Were it not for the doctor's delayed cancer diagnosis, her parents argue, their daughter would not be in the precarious position she finds herself in today.

A bump had been growing on the girl's body since she was born. It took a pediatric oncologist's diagnosis - one year later - to identify what exactly the bump was: alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS), a muscular cancer that was already in stage IV because the cancer had spread.

If your doctor or nurse scored below fifty percent on a test in school they would flunk. A recent study published in the December 2011 edition of the journal Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology suggests that fewer than fifty percent of doctors and nurses wash their hands between patients. The widespread use of gloves (thought to reduce the risk of infection) may actually make doctors and nurses less likely to wash their hands.