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Articles Posted in Medical Malpractice

When a heart attack is diagnosed early, it can be treated quickly to stop further damage and possibly save your life. However, the chances are good that you could be misdiagnosed by a New York doctor and not get the treatment you need. This is especially true if you are a woman. At Defrancisco & Falgiatano, we want to be sure that you are aware of this issue so you can prevent it from happening to you.

According to Business Insider, anxiety may be to blame for the failure to diagnose a heart attack in women. Because women often suffer from anxiety more than men and some symptoms of a heart attack can mimic the symptoms of anxiety, women are often misdiagnosed as just suffering from anxiety. This leads to delays in treatment and diagnostics. In the end, this means a woman is likely to die of a heart attack more often than a man. Studies have shown that younger women are at the highest risk of this happening.

Diagnosing a heart attack quickly is essential to administering treatment that can save your life. Men who go to the hospital with symptoms of a heart attack will get treatment in almost half the time as women. Your delayed treatment can lead to additional heart damage and further complications. This is why it is essential to speak up, especially in emergency room triage, and demand that you are given the appropriate tests, so your diagnosis is not delayed. To learn more about medical malpractice, visit our website

Doctors are meant to relieve us of pain and illness not to cause further damage because of negligence. So, it follows that if they do so then they should be held accountable. However, if decent hard working doctors who have done no harm are accused of medical malpractice then they should not suffer. To protect the doctors and medical professionals there are several defenses available that can be used in court.

  • Standard negligence defenses. General defenses used against negligence claims can also be used for medical malpractice claims because medical malpractice also comes under the category of negligence.
  • Contributory negligence. In most cases, the blame lies with multiple parties in the case of an injury, not just the doctor or medical professional. If the accused can provide evidence for the contributory negligence of others then they very well may have a concrete defense against a malpractice claim.
  • Respectable Minority Principle. In certain cases where general or mainstream forms of treatment are ineffective or not an option, the doctor or medical professional may opt for a radical form of treatment that may be new, risky and rarely used. If a respectable minority of medical professionals back this form of healing, it could be used as a defense.
  • Good Samaritan laws. Many states have what are called “Good Samaritan” laws, which protect citizens and even medical professionals who help someone in an emergency situation.

Medical malpractice claims can be extremely complex and trying, so it may be a good idea to contact an experienced attorney near you.

 

Related Posts: Failure to diagnose a heart attack, Common forms of defense against medical malpractice claims, Dealing with hospital and medical malpractice, Bring a claim against your doctor for misdiagnosis

Anyone responsible for your health care can be slapped with a medical malpractice and negligence suit. But it is important to understand that proving fault in these cases is the most crucial aspect. Although doctors generally face malpractice cases, hospitals and pharmaceutical firms might also face this challenge. Going through medical treatment is difficult in itself, without the added worry of medical malpractice. If you feel that you did not receive the medical attention required, you have the right to sue the facility.

 

If you feel the hospital neglected your medical needs, it can be held liable for any injuries caused. Although the medical staff is part of the hospital and can be sued individually, suing the hospital means that there was some sort of corporate negligence involved. For example, if an incompetent health care professional causes further harm to the patient, the hospital can be held responsible for hiring the incompetent professional.

Large pharmaceutical companies may also be the target of your malpractice lawsuit if their drug caused injuries or death. But it is essential to know that you may only sue the company if they did not warn users about possible side effects. The pharmaceutical company is liable to the doctor, who is a learned intermediary between them and the patient. But if the drug is prescribed under correct circumstances and leads to injuries, you may sue the pharmaceutical company.

Doctors find themselves in a unique position in our society. Any person with any sort of medial issue consults a doctor to find the solution to the problem. The level of trust and responsibility placed on the shoulders of a doctor requires him to conform to a certain standard of care and diligence. However, doctors, like the rest of us, are at the end of the day merely humans and are bound to make erroneous judgments.

If a patient has been wrongly diagnosed or has not been diagnosed in a timely manner, the patient may suffer harm or injury due to the delay or misdiagnosis. This, in turn, may lead to the doctor being held negligent. Generally, doctors provide a list of probable causes of the illness, and this is known as a “differential diagnosis.” The standard of care is a key factor in assessing malpractice. If the doctor did not conform to the standards expected of a reasonable, prudent doctor while giving out the diagnosis, then a doctor may be held liable for malpractice. However, proving malpractice for misdiagnosis is not easy. If a doctor does not diagnose a patient with a particular illness, and that illness later develops in the patient, it will be hard to hold the doctor liable in such a circumstance.

A doctor may also be held liable where he treats a patient for an illness the patient is not actually suffering from, resulting in harm. Furthermore, doctors may also be held liable for malpractice where they completely dismiss the probability of a patient suffering from an illness, which he, in fact, suffers from.

Most drug interactions are easy to anticipate, especially when your doctor has an up-to-date list of your current medications. Patients are required to fill out certain medical forms, answer health questions and list current medications they’re taking whenever they see a doctor. Depending on how often you visit the doctor or how many doctors you see, it’s possible you have a lot of experience with these practices.

These forms are an important part of your visit so be very thorough when filling them out. Before your appointment, make a list of any and all pills you take (prescribed and over-the-counter).

Should dietary supplements be included in that list?

The experts say you shouldn’t drive a car without a full eight hours of sleep. Would you perform a medical procedure?

The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), an organization that oversees residency requirements for doctors in training has suggested changing the maximum shift from 16 hours to 28 — working over two days straight. The proposal recently closed to public comments and is set for review in February 2017.

Sleep impairment and reduced reaction

Many studies of driver behavior show that sleep deprivation causes serious impairment to the senses. According to an Australian research group, being awake for 18 hours (10 hours fewer than the new proposal for doctors) is comparable to a .05 blood alcohol concentration. After 24 hours, that jumps to .10, which is above the legal driving limit. Even a slightly reduced sleep scheduled hurts reaction and awareness. Car accidents for those sleeping 6-7 hours per night are almost double those who sleep 8 hours or more.

How hospitals act when it comes to medical devices matters greatly. This includes what a hospital does after injuries or deaths occur in relation to such a device at the hospital.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration puts reporting requirements on hospitals when it comes to such incidents. Among these rules are ones requiring hospitals to report such incidents within a certain amount of time of them occurring. Prompt reporting of such occurrences can shine a light on whether there are any ongoing safety issues/problems with a given medical device. This, in turn, can give the government and manufacturers the opportunity to promptly address such problems/issues.

So, one would hope hospitals would closely follow such rules. Unfortunately, FDA investigations have revealed that hospitals sometimes fall short when it comes to meeting these requirements. Among the things the investigations found was that 12 hospitals failed to engage in prompt reporting after medical-device-related injuries or deaths occurred. These hospitals were from all across the country, including here in New York.

The death of Lavern’s Law saved hospitals and insurers a lot of money. Should that money go to a senator who helped kill it?

This post is not a political endorsement. It is meant to call attention to the forces that affect victims of medical malpractice.

Earlier this year, New York legislators considered a bill that could have made it easier for countless victims of medical negligence to pursue compensation under the law. Despite widespread support, it was blocked – in large part by GOP senator and Health Committee Chairman Kemp Hannon.

Why would the chair of the Senate Health Committee oppose a bill that’s good for patients? According to the New York Daily News, It might have something to do with the powerful Greater New York Hospital Association, which loudly lobbied against the bill. The Association has formed a Super PAC that has spent nearly $200,000 on Senator Hannon’s behalf.

Medication errors can come about in many different ways. Sometimes, they happen as a result of mistakes made at pharmacies. Customers trust that pharmacies will get everything right when filling their prescription. Unfortunately, sometimes, this doesn’t happen. Incidents occasionally occur in which a pharmacist makes a mistake, such as a labeling error, a dosage error or an error involving giving out the wrong medication.

Several different things could increase a pharmacist’s likelihood of making these kinds of errors, including:

  • A pharmacist not focusing on the task at hand.
  • Lack of adequate staffing at a pharmacy.
  • Shortcomings when it comes to consultations.
  • Time pressures.
  • A particular heavy workload.
  • A high-stress work environment.
  • Overly confusing work systems at a pharmacy.

As one can see, when it comes to medication error prevention at pharmacies, there are a range of different things it can be important to address. So, for the sake of their customers, it is critical for pharmacists and pharmacies to keep the prevention of medication errors in the forefront in their various different actions and decisions.

A misdiagnosis can have many negative effects on a patient. One is a patient getting treatment for a condition they don’t actually have. Such unnecessary treatments can be problematic, particularly if they carry risks of severe side effects.

One medical condition that has treatments that can have major side effects is multiple sclerosis. So, avoiding MS misdiagnoses is very important. Unfortunately, this disease has certain aspects that can make it particularly prone to being diagnosed when it isn’t actually there.

For one, its symptoms can be similar to those of other conditions. Also, there currently aren’t objective biomarkers that can be tested for when it comes to this condition. So it could be easy, when proper care isn’t taken, for a doctor to mistake another condition for MS.

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