Increasingly, the media is reporting on the disturbing increase in the maternal mortality rate. Generally, this rate is higher in developing countries but drops the richer a country becomes. However, the U.S. has seen an increase in its maternal mortality rate over the past decade, which is difficult to explain….
To many people, a broken bone sounds like a “minor” injury that should heal on its own in a matter of months. However, broken ribs can be serious injuries with many complications that are potentially life-threatening. Even worse, ribs can fracture when motorists are wearing seatbelts, so someone who has…
There is a reason that doctors ask about your allergies when you first fill out paperwork. Allergic reactions have been known to cause serious injury and sometimes even death. Prescribing the right drugs requires that doctors and pharmacists be aware of how those drugs will interact with other drugs, along…
Consent is the foundation of the state’s medical system. Patients must fully understand the risks of any procedure they are about to undertake before they can consent, and doctors owe them certain duties to share accurate medical information. When information is misleading, wrong, or incomplete, then a patient has not…
When a person is injured by a medical professional, they can bring a lawsuit for compensation, just like they could if they were injured in a slip and fall accident inside a grocery store. But a medical malpractice lawsuit differs in one key way: plaintiffs must submit an affidavit from…
It sounds like something straight out of a horror film: you go into surgery to have your left knee replaced only to have the doctor replace your good knee on the right leg. This is a wrong-site surgical error, which unfortunately continues to happen, even in 2018. Although wrong-site surgical…
Robots sound like something from the future, but the truth is that they are being used today. Self-driving cars will become a popular form of transportation in the next decade and we also have surgical robots in the operating room. Surgical procedures can be very complicated. While the surgeon is…
According to the Mayo Clinic, cerebral palsy is “a disorder of movement, muscle tone or posture that is caused by damage that occurs to the immature, developing brain, most often before birth.” In many cases, the cause of cerebral palsy is unknown. However, doctors do know that some of the…
Technology in health care is supposed to improve care, not create more problems. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality estimates that about one out of every seven Medicare patients in a hospital experiences a medical error. You need to be an active participant in your treatment to avoid errors…
Heart disease kills over 600,000 Americans each year, while cancer kills almost 600,000. What may be shocking to many Americans is that disease is not the next in line when it comes to causing death. Medical errors have recently become the third leading cause of death in the United States,…
