Articles Posted in Medical Malpractice

Typically, active duty military personnel cannot bring a legal action against the military for injuries caused by military decisions, or other military-related activities. But the House Judiciary Committee is considering a bill that would allow military families hold the government accountable for non-combat related personal injuries.

Col. Adele Connell tried to bring a claim against Walter Reed Army Medical Center when her physician mistakenly operated on the wrong breast during a cancer surgery, and removed healthy tissue and lymph nodes. The negligent surgery caused her become disfigured. Her medical malpractice case was dismissed under the Feres Doctrine, which prohibits such claims. The congressional bill would change that.

“These last eight months have been unbelievably difficult,” said Connell, who has served for more than 30 years. “The reason I am going public is that I want to try to improve the military for soldiers serving all over the world.”

Ten Southern California hospitals have received penalties of $25,000 each after the California Department of Public Health determined that medical mistakes in care to patients caused, or was likely to cause, serious injuries or death. Los Angeles County had five hospitals on the list, Orange County three and San Diego County two.

The following hospitals were penalized:

1. Brotman Medical Center in Culver City, for failing to ensure the safe and effective administration of medications.

Every few years we hear about doctors fleeing states to get away from high malpractice insurance premiums. The medical malpractice insurers then claim they have to raise rates because of excessive malpractice lawsuits. Then the legislatures get nervous and enact laws that limit when and how victims of malpractice can sue, and how much they can collect in the form of caps. And guess what? It’s all a sham.

A study by the American Medical Association shows that doctors do not flee states without so-called tort reform measures, but that the numbers of doctors continues to climb in every state. Moreover, the number of doctors per capita is 13 percent higher in states without caps on recovery. That’s right, the states where there is no arbitrarily imposed ceiling on what a malpractice victim can collect actually has more doctors per capita than those with laws designed to retain doctors.

Next time you hear insurance company and state legislators that we need to impose limits on civil justice to prevent doctors from leaving California, be very wary. They did this in the early seventies and the effect has been devastating to those severely injured by medical malpractice.

Scripps Mercy Chula Vista was one of 10 hospitals across California to receive a fine from Department of Public Health for conduct that injured or killed a patient. The Chula Vista hospital was fined $25,000 for the death of a female patient on February 29, 2008.

According to reports, the woman arrived in the Emergency Department on February 29th with high blood pressure and difficulty breathing. The E.R. doctor ordered saline solution for the patient more than 2 1/2 hours after lab results showed her sodium level was critically low. For reasons unknown, the hospital failed to quickly process the order, and the patient was transferred to the I.C.U approximately three hours after arrival never having received the saline solution.

An I.C.U. nursing realized that the saline had not been received, so another request was faxed to the pharmacy. The solution arrived about an hour later, but the nurse took a short break without administering it. The patient suffered heart failure about 10 minutes later, and died within a half hour.